OPINION — At “the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” of 1918, guns officially fell silent across Europe and World War I came to a military end (the political finish came in 1919 with the Treaty of Versailles).
The following Nov. 11, the winning nations commemorated the final ceasefire with the first “Armistice Day” events.
Not celebrations as such, mind you: The observances were — and in some countries at least partially remain — somber remembrances (the UK now calls Nov. 11 “Remembrance Day”) of 20 million dead in “the war to end all wars,” driven by sentiment against ever returning to that kind of carnage.
