By Dominic Sandbrook

Published: Thursday, 11 November 2021 at 12:00 am


11 November 1619

Sir John Bourchier was knighted by King James VI and I. Thirty years later he signed the death warrant of James’s son, Charles I. At the Restoration, Bourchier was too ill to stand trial and he died unrepentant.


11 November 1760

George II became the last monarch to be buried in Westminster Abbey when he was laid to rest there alongside his wife, Caroline of Ansbach. George was also the last British monarch to lead his troops in battle. Exactly 160 years after his burial, on the second anniversary of the Armistice that ended fighting in the Great War, the Unknown Soldier was buried at the west end of the nave.


11 November 1808

During Napoleon‘s campaign in Spain, French forces under Marshal Claude Victor win a major victory over General Joachim Blake’s Spaniards at Espinosa de los Monteros in northern Spain.


11 November 1831

Following the suppression of the slave uprising he had led, Nat Turner was hanged in Jerusalem, Virginia. His body was then flayed and dismembered.


11 November 1887 

Work begins on the Manchester Ship Canal

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