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The Victoria Cross for Australia is the highest award in the Australian Honours System, superseding the Victoria Cross for issue to Australians. It was created by letters patent signed by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on 15 January 1991. The first medal was awarded on 16 January 2009 to Trooper Mark Donaldson, for the rescue of a coalition forces interpreter from heavy fire in Oruzgan Province in Afghanistan. Donaldson's award came almost 40 years after Warrant Officer Keith Payne became the last Australian to be awarded the (original) Victoria Cross for gallantry on 24 May 1969 during the Vietnam War. The Victoria Cross for Australia is the "decoration for according recognition to persons who in the presence of the enemy, perform acts of the most conspicuous gallantry, or daring or pre-eminent acts of valour or self-sacrifice or display extreme devotion to duty." As the highest Australian award, it is listed first on the Australian Order of Wear with precedence in Australia over all orders, decorations and medals. The decoration may be awarded to members of the Australian Defence Force and to other persons determined by the Australian Minister for Defence. When the medal is awarded, the ceremony is presided over by the Governor-General of Australia on behalf of the Queen of Australia, who presents the medal during an investiture. (more...)

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• A gunman opens fire at Fort Hood, a United States Army base in Texas, killing 13 people and injuring 30 others.
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November 7: October Revolution Day in Belarus and other various regions of the former Soviet Union

• 1665 – The London Gazette, the oldest surviving English language newspaper, was first published as the Oxford Gazette.
• 1811 – American forces led by Indiana Territory Governor William Henry Harrison defeated the forces of Shawnee leader Tecumseh's growing American Indian confederation at the Battle of Tippecanoe near present-day Battle Ground, Indiana.
• 1885 – Construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway, the first transcontinental railroad across Canada, concluded with financier and politician Sir Donald Smith driving in the "last spike" (pictured) in Craigellachie, British Columbia.
• 1917 – Vladimir Lenin led a Bolshevik insurrection against the Provisional Government of Alexander Kerensky, starting the Bolshevik Revolution, the second phase of the overall Russian Revolution.
• 1991 – Professional basketball player Magic Johnson announced his retirement from the game because of his infection with the HIV virus.

More anniversaries: November 6 – November 7 – November 8