Veterans Day (elsewhere Remembrance Day) began as Armistice Day, commemorating the end of what was thought to be “the war to end all wars.” The devastation of this war astounded the world. According to the History Learning Site, “When World War I was declared there were street celebrations in most of Europe’s capital cities. No-one envisaged trench warfare, let alone the appalling casualties that occurred over four years of fighting. No one could have predicted the horrifying consequences of modern weaponry being used together with out-of-date tactics.”
Here are a few statistics of soldiers killed in the war.
Allies:
Russia 1.7 million
France 1.3 million
Great Britain 908,000
Italy 650,000
Romania 335,000
USA 126,000
Central Powers:
Germany 1.7 million
Austria 1.2 million
Turkey 325,000
TOTAL 8.5 million men killed, 21 million wounded
Major hostilities formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 when the Armistice with Germany went into effect. The date was then commemorated in many of the nations involved in the war, initially called Armistice Day. Just prior to or after World War II, many countries changed the focus to include all veterans of their armed services, or sometimes to remember all those who died in war, both uniformed and civilian. In the United Kingdom, the main service takes place on Remembrance Sunday. Most member states of the Commonwealth of Nations and European countries adopted the name Remembrance Day.
In the U.S., President Wilson proclaimed November 11th as Armistice Day; this was formalized in 1926, but the date became a federal holiday only in 1938. Then in 1954 it was changed to Veterans Day. (adapted from Wikipedia and other sites)
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