The Eleventh Hour of the Eleventh Day of the Eleventh Month

Veteran’s Day ~ Always celebrated in the United States on November 11^th: at the 11^th hour of the 11th day of the 11^th month.

This revered holiday had its origin as Armistice Day based on the agreement signed by the Allied Nations of World War I and Germany.

The Armistice, defined as an agreement by opposing sides in war to stop fighting, went into effect at the Western Front of World War I on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918.

Historian Patrick J. Kiger wrote: “On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, the incessant boom of artillery abruptly went silent along the Western Front in France. 

An American medical officer, Stanhope Bayne-Jones, suddenly could hear water dripping off a bush next to him. “It seemed mysterious, queer, unbelievable,” he later recalled, according to an account on the U.S. National Library of Medicine website. “All of the men knew what the silence meant, but nobody shouted or threw his hat in the air.” It took hours for the reality to sink in. World War I—the bloodiest conflict so far in human history, with more than 8.5 million military casualties—had finally ended.”

Armistice Day was enacted in the United States in 1919, was renamed at Veterans Day in 1954.

Veteran’s Day continues to be an opportunity to recognize the service of all military veterans in the United States.