11 November 1979

After 30 years in power, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom was succeeded by Mohamed Nasheed as president of the Maldives.

The House of Lords Act was given royal assent, removing most hereditary peers from the British House of Lords.

During a constitutional crisis, Governor-General Sir John Kerr (pictured) dismissed Prime Minister Gough Whitlam's government and dissolved the Parliament of Australia for a double-dissolution election.

Rhodesia, led by Prime Minister Ian Smith (pictured), unilaterally declared independence from the United Kingdom.

A coup attempt by the Army of the Republic of Vietnam against President Ngô Đình Diệm was crushed after he falsely promised reform, allowing loyalists to rescue him.

Second World War: The Royal Navy launched the first all-aircraft ship-to-ship naval attack in history against the Italians in the Battle of Taranto.

The Shrine of Remembrance (pictured), a memorial to all Australians who have served in war, opened in Melbourne.

The plan for the United States Numbered Highway System was approved by the American Association of State Highway Officials.

In London, the Cenotaph was unveiled and the Unknown Warrior was buried in Westminster Abbey in remembrance of the First World War.

The armistice between the German Empire and the Allies was signed in a railway carriage in the Forest of Compiègne of France (signatories pictured).

Józef Piłsudski, appointed the commander-in-chief of Polish forces by the Regency Council, was entrusted with the creation of a national government for the newly independent Poland.

Australian bushranger and outlaw Ned Kelly was hanged in Melbourne, in spite of sympathizers holding rallies for his reprieve.

War of 1812: British–Canadian forces repelled an American attack at the Battle of Crysler's Farm, forcing the United States to give up their attempt to capture Montreal.

War of the Third Coalition: French, Austrian and Russian units suffered heavy losses at the Battle of Dürenstein.

American Revolutionary War: British forces and their Iroquois allies attacked a fort and the village of Cherry Valley, New York, killing 14 soldiers and 30 civilians.

A vehicle-ramming attack in Zhuhai, China, kills 38 people and injures 48.

Russo-Ukrainian War: Ukrainian armed forces enter the city of Kherson following a successful two-month southern counteroffensive.

Typhoon Vamco makes landfall in Luzon and several offshore islands, killing 67 people. The storm causes the worst floods in the region since Typhoon Ketsana in 2009.

A strong earthquake with the magnitude 6.8 hits northern Burma, killing at least 26 people.

Queen Elizabeth II unveils the New Zealand War Memorial in London, United Kingdom, commemorating the loss of soldiers from the New Zealand Army and the British Army.

New Zealand Tomb of the Unknown Warrior is dedicated at the National War Memorial, Wellington.

The Palestine Liberation Organization confirms the death of Yasser Arafat from unidentified causes. Mahmoud Abbas is elected chairman of the PLO minutes later.

A Fokker F27 Friendship operating as Laoag International Airlines Flight 585 crashes into Manila Bay shortly after takeoff from Ninoy Aquino International Airport, killing 19 people.

Russian mathematician Grigori Perelman posts the first of three preprint texts with his proof of the Poincaré conjecture. It remains the only of the Millennium Prize Problems in mathematics to be solved. He later refused both the prize money from Clay Mathematics Institute as well as the Fields Medal for his work.