Armistice Day is commemorated every year on 11 November to mark the armistice signed between the Allies of World War I and Germany at Compiègne, France, for the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front of World War I, which took effect in 1918 at eleven o’clock in the morning—the “eleventh hour of the eleventh day.”
The U.S. holiday was renamed Veterans Day in 1954. As a Federal holiday, it will be observed this year on Monday instead.
At the outset of World War I, Harry S. Truman served in the U.S. Army as an artillery battery commander in France. He served later as President.
Starting in May, 1917 when the U.S. entered the war, over 4.7 million men and women served in the regular U.S. forces, national guard units, and draft units with about 2.8 million serving overseas. There were 53,402 killed in action, 63,114 deaths from disease and other causes, and about 205,000 wounded, according to sources.