Today in History—November 11: The Armistice That Ended World War I

At 11 am on this day in 1918, more than four years of fighting in World War I came to an end.

But the official end had come six hours earlier, when an armistice was signed at 5 am local time in a railway carriage in the forest of Compiègne near Paris.

With instant messaging yet to be invented, 11 am—the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month—was chosen to be the time when hostilities would officially cease in order to allow news of the armistice to reach the front lines.

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The war had been raging for more than four years by then, with heavy tolls on all sides. By October 1918, faced with a series of losses on the Western Front, Germany had begun attempts to end the war. An armistice was determined to be the best way forward, while the terms for the surrender could be ironed out in more detail.

On November 9 Germany became a republic, and Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicated. By then a German delegation, led by politician Matthias Erzberger, had already made its way to France and met the commander of the Allied forces, French Marshal Ferdinand Foch. On November 11 the deal was inked.

Did all fighting cease immediately? Not quite: More than 2,700 soldiers would die on the last day of the war. And fighting continued in East Africa, where the news would not arrive for another two weeks. But the truce between Germany and the Allies was the first step to ending a war that had cost millions of lives and embroiled almost every country and region on Earth.

The terms of the armistice (and the eventual Treaty of Versailles) were harsh to Germany: the loss of Alsace-Lorraine to France, the pullout of troops from all occupied territories, war reparations, and demilitarization.

The bitterness this caused would help lead to the rise of radical elements in Germany—Erzberger was murdered in 1921, and Hitler would come to power over the next decade—eventually bringing about the Second World War.