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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Armistice
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Term used in particular of the agreement which ended *World War I. It was signed at 5 a.m. on 11 November 1918 in the railway carriage of the French field marshal Foch, at Rethondes in the forest of Compiègne. Hostilities were to cease at 11 o'clock that same morning (a moment of some resonance, being the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month). On the first anniversary there began the custom of a two-minute silence at exactly that time, in remembrance of the dead. For many years people stopped at 11 a.m. on Armistice Day (known also as *Poppy Day) and stood quietly, wherever they might be; traffic and factories came to a halt, for an expression of national grief in which everybody had someone to mourn.
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After *World War II Armistice Day was adapted to become a commemoration of the dead of both wars. The name became Remembrance Day, or Remembrance Sunday, and the date was moved to the second Sunday in November. There are ceremonies at 11 a.m. on that day at war memorials all over the country, and in particular at London's *Cenotaph.
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