In Remembrance of World War I Armistice centennial

Leonardtown, MD – The bells at St. Clement’s Island Museum and Piney Point Lighthouse Museum, historic sites overseen by the St. Mary’s County Museum Division, will toll on November 11, at 11 a.m. in honor of 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 ONE REMEMBRANCE, 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. American citizens and organizations across the entire country are invited to toll bells in their communities twenty-one times on Sunday, November 11, at 11:00 a.m.

Conceived in collaboration with the nation’s veterans of service and 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 centennial of the Armistice which 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 American men and women who served one hundred years ago, during World War One. The war ended by an armistice agreement between the warring countries at 11 a.m. on November 11, 1918. World War One took place between July 1914 and November 1918 and was one of the deadliest conflicts in world history. Over nine million combatants and seven million civilians died as a result of the war. The United States officially entered the war on 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.

The U.S. World War One Centennial Commission was established by Congress in 2013 to provide education programs, public outreach and commemorative events regarding the American involvement in the war. The Centennial Commission was also authorized by Congress to create a new national-level memorial in the nation’s capital, to honor the men and women who served.

Information on the new National World War One Memorial can be found at www.ww1cc.org/memorial