Today in History for Nov. 11: In 1215, the Fourth Lateran Council was convened by Pope Innocent III. The council first defined transubstantiation, the Roman Catholic belief that the bread and wine of the Eucharist change invisibly into the body and blood of Jesus Christ.
In 1620, 41 Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower, anchored off Massachusetts, signed a compact calling for a "body politick." In 1813, British and Canadian troops stopped American invaders at the battle of Chrysler's Farm, near Cornwall, Ont. In 1831, former slave Nat Turner, who'd led a violent insurrection, was executed in Jerusalem, Va.
In 1871, the last British troops left Quebec, ending the British military presence in Canada except for a small garrison at Halifax. In 1889, Washington became the 42nd U.S.
state. In 1916, Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden fired Sir Sam Hughes, Canada's militia minister, for administrative incompetence. Hughes had been a supporter of the military's use of the Ross rifle -- which turned out to be useless in the war because it was heavy and jammed in muddy trenches.
In 1918, the First World War officially ended on Armistice Day and hostilities ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. More than 595,000 Canadians enlisted, of whom 422,000 served overseas. Following the Second World War, Armistice Day was changed to Remembrance Day, which commemorates all the Canadian men and women who died in the Boer War, two world wars, the Korean War and in other actions for the Un.
