November 11th, 2008
Rememberance Day
Today is Veteran’s Day, the 11th day of the 11th month. It is the 90th anniversary of the end of World War I. In France at Verdun, the site of one of the deadliest battles of that war, French President Nicolas Sarkozy laid flowers on a war memorial. Prince Charles attended the ceremony to represent Great Britain. Also attending were Australia’s Governor-General Quentin Bryce and Peter Mueller, president of the German Bundesrat.
In Britain, at the Cenotaph, a memorial dedicated to the World War I dead, two minutes of silence were held to remember the millions who died fighting in that terrible war. Three of the four surviving British veterans of the war were able to attend the ceremony. These men are Henry Allingham, 112, Harry Patch, 110, and Bill Stone, 108. There are no French or German surviving veterans from the war. There is one surviving American World War I veteran.
In Australia, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd called for peace in a speech at the War Memorial in Canberra. “We have all endured a most bloody century. Let us resolve afresh at the dawn of this new century… that this might be a truly pacific peaceful century.”
A Veteran’s Day ceremony will also be held at Arlington Cemetery at 11 AM.
