This Veterans Day, November 11, 2018, honoring those who served in the United States Armed Forces has unique significance. It is the 100th anniversary of the Armistice ending World War I.
It is a particularly fitting time for us to focus on newspapers of the era. These newspapers provided the day-to-day news of the war. Not only was there no television, commercial radio had yet to be established. Newsreels, posters, magazines, and censored letters couldn’t provide daily information.
On November 11, 1918, banner headlines proclaimed “Armistice Now Signed,” “War Over,” “Peace!” Coverage on the 11th and over the next few days highlighted President Woodrow Wilson’s statement, news that draft calls had ceased, text of the Armistice agreement, and reports of Kaiser Wilhelm’s abdication and of revolution and chaos in Germany.
Photographs of crowds celebrating in the streets of New York and other cities were featured in newspaper pictorial sections that appeared in the days following. These included jubilant celebrations that had taken place prematurely on November 7th when the United Press news agency erroneously reported that the war was over and several newspapers ran the story.
Coverage continued to include those in the U.S. Armed Forces who had died–perhaps even more poignant so near the war’s end.
