https://www.history.com/news/false-armistice-report-world-war-i-early-celebration
November 7th, 1918
The False WWI Armistice Report That Fooled America
Four days before the actual end of World War I, a false report misled the country and set off wild celebrations.
Excerpts:
Yes, November 7. Four days before the actual signing of the armistice ending World War I, a premature peace report set off wild celebrations across the United States.
“We thought then that all of our cares and worries were gone forever,” recalled Robert Flueger of the celebration in Akron, Ohio.Those cares and worries all returned as the country slowly deflated after Secretary of State Robert Lansing issued an official denial: “Report that the armistice with Germany has been signed is untrue.” Some refused to listen to the truth. Crowds in Times Square tore apart newspapers that printed Lansing’s armistice denial.
America awoke to a terrible hangover on November 8 as doughboys continued to die in French trenches.“Such false newspaper reports are terrible things and people responsible for them are just one grade below the worst criminal,” wrote a disgusted Captain Harry Truman.
The rival Associated Press, however, called for Howard’s court-martial for his role in the“most flagrant and culpable act of public deception in the whole history of news gathering and dissemination.”
News of an armistice reached the United States again on the morning of November 11—but this time the reports were true. Crowds again filled American streets, but the celebration this time was more subdued.“There were few jubilations that Monday, in comparison with wild, fake-armistice day” reported Shirley White. “People had spent their wild hilarity; all realized now what the struggle had meant and cost. We were glad—glad—but it was a gladness that lay deep in our hearts. People were prayerful and tearful; and yet joyous—too grateful for mirth.”
Q Post 856:
11-11-18
A parade that will never be forgotten.
Ask yourself, why?
God bless our brave men & women in uniform.
We will never forget.
Q
The 11-11-18 is not 2018, but the first Armistice Day in1918. They celebrated four days after the false armistice becausedespite the media’s false claim of victory four days prior, they celebrated again on the 11th of November — the actual victory day — in sullen remembrance of their fallen brethren and the cost of war.
So, to summarize,the 7th was when the media falsely claimed the end, but it was on the 11th that the public learned of the truth.