Bells to Toll Nov. 11 to Commemorate WWII Armistice
Two local museums — St. Clement’s Island Museum and Piney Point Lighthouse Museum — will join Bells of Peace at 11 am Nov. 11, 2019, to honor the 116,516 Americans, including the 27 St. Mary’s County natives, who died in World War I.
The program, Bells of Peace: A World War I Remembrance, began in 2018 to commemorate the centennial of World War I, is a collaborative program announced by the World War One Centennial Commission in coordination with the Pritzker Military Museum & Library, the Society of the Honor Guard of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the American Legion, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars, whereby American citizens and organizations across the entire country are invited to toll bells in their communities 21 times at 11 am Nov. 11.
Conceived and designed in collaboration with the nation’s veterans of service with the Honor Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the bell tolling provides a solemn reminder of the sacrifice and service of veterans of World War I, and all veterans. Bells will be tolled in communities across the nation, in places of worship, schools, town halls, public carillons, and cemeteries, to mark the anniversary of the armistice that brought an end to hostilities, in what Americans fervently hoped had been “The War to End All Wars.”
The nationwide program is designed to honor those American men and women who served over 100 years ago during World War I. The war ended by an armistice agreement between the warring countries at 11 am Nov. 11, 1918. World War I took place between July 1914 and November 1918 and was one of the deadliest conflicts in world history.
Over 9 million combatants and 7 million civilians died as a result of the war. The US officially entered the war April 6, 1917. Some 4.7 million Americans stepped forward to serve in uniform during the war, 2 million of them were deployed overseas to fight, and 116,516 of them never made it home.
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St. Mary’s County Community Development Corporation
46940 South Shangri-La Drive, Suite 7
Lexington Park, MD 20653
301-863-7700
