While President Obama said today there is no tribute or praise that can match the sacrifice made by men and women of the U.S. armed forces, leaders around the world also paid tribute to their fallen heroes.
The observances today are to mark the passing of the World War I generation and marks the 91st anniversary of the cease-fire agreement that ended the battles of World War I. That agreement officially was reached on "the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month."
President Obama was at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington where he laid the traditional wreath. Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II laid a wreath of poppies on the Grave of the Unknown Warrior in London’s Westminster Abbey.
However it was the ceremony in Paris, France that made history today.
This was the first time since the armistice that ended World War I with Germany’s defeat in 1918, that a German leader joined French officials to mark the moment the guns fell silent on the Western Front after a war that killed millions.
French and German leaders marked Armistice today when German chancellor, Angela Merkel and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France laid a floral wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier under the arches of the Arc de Triomphe in central Paris.
Since Germany’s defeat in World War I and its shame over Nazism, they have not celebrated Veterans Day or marked the suffering of its own soldiers.
Mr. Sarkozy said today that remembrance of the past is also to consolidate the present and prepare the future.
He also paid tribute to the German chancellor for her attendance at todays ceremony. “Your presence among us on this Nov. 11 is a gesture of exceptional friendship. Every French person knows how significant it is," Sarkozy said.
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