The 11th of November marks the anniversary of the end of hostilities on the Western Front in World War I, which took effect on "the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month" of 1918. An armistice signed in a railway carriage in the Compiègne Forest of France between the Allies and Germany initiated a cessation of hostilities that had claimed over 60 million lives.
Declared a national holiday in most Allied nations, "Armistice Day" has since become Veterans Day in the United States and Remembrance Day in countries of the British Commonwealth. It remains Armistice Day in France and Belgium, and is known as the Day of Peace in the Flanders Fields.
British author H. G. Wells referred to the conflict as "The War That Will End War" in London newspapers as early as 1914 and the catchphrase referring to World War I as "the war to end war" continued for almost a generation.
Veterans Day originated as “Armistice Day” on Nov. 11, 1919, the first anniversary of the end of World War I. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed legislation in 1954 to change the name to Veterans Day.