911 – Conrad I was elected German king at Forchheim, after the death of Louis the Child, the last of the East Frankish Carolingians.
1444 – Turkish forces defeated the Hungarians in the Battle of Varna, securing Turkey’s control over Constantinople (Istanbul) and assuring the Ottoman conquest in the Balkans.
1619 – René Descartes has the dream that inspires his “Meditations on First Philosophy”.
1674 – Dutch formally cede New Netherlands (New York) to the English.
1885 – German engineer Gottlieb Daimler unveils the world’s first motorcycle.
1871 – On this day in 1871, according to his journal, explorer Henry Stanley greeted David Livingstone, the fellow explorer in search of the source of the Nile River, with the famous words “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”
1918 – Western Union Cable Office in North Sydney, Nova Scotia receives a top-secret coded message from Europe stating on November 11, 1918 all fighting would cease on land, sea and in the air.
1975 – The American freighter Edmund Fitzgerald sank during a storm on Lake Superior, killing all 29 aboard; its mysterious demise inspired a Gordon Lightfoot song that helped make it the most famous shipwreck in the Great Lakes.
1989 – Germans begin demolishing the Berlin Wall.
Sport: 1991 – South Africa’s 1st cricket international since 1970 – one-day v India.
Music: 2010 – Alan Menken, famous Disney composer, receives the 2,442nd star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
TV & Film: 1969 – “Sesame Street” premieres on PBS TV.
2010 – Alan Menken, famous Disney composer, receives the 2,442nd star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
