11 November 2013

That day again

Rico says that everyone thinks that 11.11 is Veteran's Day, but that's not how it got started.
Originally, it was Remembrance Day, as it was the day the First World War ended (at 11am, moreover):
Hostilities formally ended "at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month", in accordance with the Armistice signed by representatives of Germany and the Entente between 5:12 and 5:20 that morning. ("At the 11th hour" refers to the passing of the 11th hour, or 11:00 am.) World War One officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on 28 June 1919.
The red remembrance poppy (photo) has become a familiar emblem of Remembrance Day, due to the poem written by Canadian physician Lieutenant Colonel John McCraeIn Flanders Fields. The poppies bloomed across some of the worst battlefields of Flanders in World War One, their brilliant red color an appropriate symbol for the blood spilled in the war. 

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