World War I’s 1918 armistice inspired the original Armistice Day holiday in the United States.
The armistice between the Allies and Germany took effect on November 11, 1918, ending the fighting on the Western Front. The agreement did not constitute a peace treaty, but it stopped the major hostilities that had defined World War I.
The United States first observed Armistice Day in 1919, after President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed November 11 as a day of remembrance. Congress later made Armistice Day a federal holiday in 1938. In 1954, after World War II and the Korean War, the holiday was renamed Veterans Day to honor American veterans of all wars.
A common mix-up is treating the armistice as the formal end of World War I. The Treaty of Versailles, signed in 1919, was the principal peace settlement with Germany, while fighting had already stopped under the armistice.