1619: René Descartes has a dream that inspires his “Meditations on First Philosophy”

1674: Dutch Republic formally cedes New Netherland to England, who rename it New York

1885: German engineer Gottlieb Daimler unveils his “Reitwagen”, the world’s first gasoline-powered motorcycle

1917: Third Battle of Ypres: Canadian troops recapture the high ground in the village of Passchendaele from the Germans in West Flanders, Belgium, during World War I; over 200,000 casualties occur on each side, and 24,000 German prisoners are taken [1]

1918: Western Union Cable Office in North Sydney, Nova Scotia, receives a top-secret coded message from Europe stating that on November 11, 1918, all fighting will cease on land, sea, and in the air

1960: Uncensored version of D. H. Lawrence’s “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” finally goes on sale in the UK after a jury finds publisher Penguin Books not guilty in an obscenity trial

1989: German crowds begin demolishing the Berlin Wall, quickly followed by officials with bulldozers

Source: Onthisday.com