Origin of "Armistice Day" (presently Veterans Day - annually on Nov. 11 at 11th hour)

from Writer's Almanac (American Public Media, Garrison Keillor): November 11 is Veterans Day, honoring Americans who have served their country in the armed forces. November 11 was originally called Armistice Day because it was on this date in 1918 the Allies and Germany signed an armistice agreement to end hostilities on the Western Front of the First World War. By late summer 1918, the war had become unpopular among the German people, and it was also becoming increasingly clear that the military would not be able to hold out much longer against Allied offensives. In early October, at the urging of his cabinet, Chancellor Max von Baden sent a telegraph to American President Woodrow Wilson. The chancellor requested a cease-fire agreement between Germany and the Allies, based on Wilson's Fourteen Points address from the previous January. But Wilson refused to negotiate with a Germany that was not democratic, and didn't put much stock in von Baden's assurances that he was moving the country in that direction, especially after a German U-boat sank the Leinster, a British mail ship, killing some 520 civilians. Wilson angrily said he would let the European commanders end the war on their own terms, but that they would not negotiate while Kaiser Wilhelm remained in power. Wilhelm abdicated and fled the country on November 10, and the new civilian government quickly said they would sign an armistice agreement on whatever terms the Allies put forward. Under the terms of the armistice, Germany was forced to evacuate all of its occupied territories on the Western Front and elsewhere within two weeks, and Allied forces occupied the left bank of the Rhine. The German military was essentially gutted of its supplies, equipment, and ammunition. In addition, Germany had to agree to accept all the blame — and pay all the reparations — for the war. German leaders felt humiliated by what they viewed as overly punitive conditions, but the country was in no position to do anything but agree to the terms. France's representatives, however, made it clear they thought that the terms of the armistice and the subsequent Treaty of Versailles were too lenient. The armistice was signed outside Paris at 6 a.m. in the railway carriage of Allied commander Ferdinand Foch, and the cease-fire took effect five hours later: at "the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month."