11th day of 11th month: War dead honoured on Armistice Day
LONDON — Millions of people in Britain and France paused to remember the victims of war Saturday on Armistice Day, which marks the anniversary of the end of World War I.
Across Britain, people stopped in streets, squares and railway stations for two minutes of silence starting at 11 a.m. The moment — the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month — marked 99 years since the guns fell silent at the end of the Great War on Nov. 11, 1918.
In London, the bell of Parliament’s Big Ben clock tower sounded the hour for the first time since it was halted for repairs in August.
Many Britons wore red paper poppies, symbolizing the flowers that bloomed amid the carnage of WWI’s Western Front. Armistice Day originally commemorated the millions who died in the Great War, but now also remembers those killed in World War II and subsequent conflicts.