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On 15 November 1902 an attempted murder of King Leopold II of Belgium took place in Brussels, the capital of Belgium. Italian anarchist Gennaro Rubino attempted to assassinate King Leopold II of Belgium, who was riding in a royal cortege from a ceremony at the St. Gudula and St. Michael Cathedral in memory of his deceased wife Queen Marie Henriette. After Leopold's carriage passed, Rubino fired 3 shots at the procession. The shots missed King Leopold but they killed almost a Grand Marshall: Count Charles John d'Oultremont. Rubino was immediately arrested and sent to prison. With his act he wanted to avenge the protesters who were shot in the spring of that year when they took  to the streets for universal suffrage (not for Congo). He died in prison in 1918. After this, the security of the King was questioned. Elsewhere in Europe this assassination attempt was received with alarm. Heads of States (who were scared themselves) sent telegrams to the King

At 11am on 11 November 1918 "the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" an armistice with Germany was signed and a ceasefire came into defect. This ended World War I in Belgium and Europe. Menin Gate Ypres Belgium Position of Ypres during World War I During the First World War, Ypres in Belgium had a very strategic position because it stood in the path of Germany's planned sweep across the rest of Belgium as had been called for in the Schlieffen Plan. By October 1914, the much battered Belgian Army broke the dykes on the Yser River to the north of the City to keep the Western tip of Belgium out of German hands. Ypres was the centre of a road network anchored one end of his defensice feature and it was also essential for the Germans if they wanted to take the Channel Ports through which British support was flooding into France. For the Allies, Ypres was also important because it was the last major Belgian town that was not under Ge