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Almanac

Today is Friday, Nov. 11, the 316th day of 2016. There are 50 days left in the year. This is Veterans Day in the U.S., Remembrance Day in Canada.

Today’s Highlight

in History:

On Nov. 11, 1918, fighting in World War I ended as the Allies and Germany signed an armistice in the Forest of Compiegne (kohm-PYEHN’-yeh).

On this date:

In 1778, British redcoats, Tory rangers and Seneca Indians in central New York killed more than 40 people in the Cherry Valley Massacre.

In 1831, former slave Nat Turner, who’d led a violent insurrection, was executed in Jerusalem, Virginia.

In 1889, Washington became the 42nd state.

In 1921, the remains of an unidentified American service member were interred in a Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery in a ceremony presided over by President Warren G. Harding.

In 1938, Irish-born cook Mary Mallon, who’d gained notoriety as the disease-carrying “Typhoid Mary” blamed for the deaths of three people, died on North Brother Island in New York’s East River at age 69 after 23 years of mandatory quarantine.

In 1966, Gemini 12 blasted off on a four-day mission with astronauts James A. Lovell and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin Jr. aboard; it was the tenth and final flight of NASA’s Gemini program.

In 1972, the U.S. Army turned over its base at Long Binh to the South Vietnamese, symbolizing the end of direct U.S. military involvement in the Vietnam War.

In 1983, President Ronald Reagan became the first U.S. chief executive to address the Diet, Japan’s national legislature.

Ten years ago: President George W. Bush marked Veterans Day at Arlington National Cemetery by praising U.S. troops who had fought oppression around the world, yet spoke only briefly about Iraq, where U.S. commanders were re-evaluating strategy.

Five years ago: Heralding the end of one war and the drawdown of another, President Barack Obama observed Veterans Day at Arlington National Cemetery by urging Americans to hire the thousands of servicemen and women coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan.

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