On this day, November 11th, in 1918, an armistice agreement between the Allies and Germany was signed in a railroad car in the forest of Compiegne, France. The fighting officially ended on the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month. The Treaty of Versailles was later signed on June 28th, 1919, and the war to end all wars was officially over.
Each year on the day before Veterans' Day, I would read with my eighth grade students "In Flanders Field" by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD. I felt it was important that when they saw veterans selling poppies, they would understand the significance. If it has been a long time since you have read this poem, take a moment today and go to http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/flanders.htm to read the poem and a short paragraph on its background.
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