“All the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month. It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the Voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind.”

~Kurt Vonnegut

Today is Armistice Day, celebrated as Veterans Day in the United States, and Remembrance Day in the Commonwealth of Nations. At the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918, a truce was declared between the Allied forces and Germany, effectively ending World War I. In June of 1919, the sides reached a peace agreement and signed the Treaty of Versailles.

In the United States, November 11 honors veterans who once served in the United States military.