The 11th Hour of the 11th Day of the 11th Month, 1918

by ncurrie, posted in Foreign Affairs Research Guides, World War I

Today’s post is written by David Langbart, an Archivist in the Textual Records Division at the National Archives at College Park.

The Armistice effectively ending World War I went into effect at 11AM on November 11, 1918.  After several earlier false rumors of the suspension of hostilities, official word of the signing of the armistice arrived in Washington in the following telegram.

763.72119[9129
Special Representative Edward House to Department of State, Telegram 86, November 11, 1918, file 763.72119/9129, 1910-29 Central Decimal File, RG 59: General Records of the Department of State. NAID 27446761 – image 686; Also printed in Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1918, Supplement 1, The World War, Volume 1
After this came the struggle for the peace treaties at the Paris Peace Conference.

See these earlier posts for a description of the Department of State’s so-called “World War I file”, the records of The Inquiry, and the records of the American Commission to Negotiate Peace.