Todd Hinz, a period re-enactor wearing a WWI unif1orm, reads Laurence Binyon's poem "For the Fallen" during a "Bells of Peace" remembrance ceremony held at the University of Minnesota’s Northrup Auditorium in Minneapolis on November 11. The names of the 1,024 Minnesotans killed in combat were read aloud. This followed the ringing of a bell 21 times, and the playing of taps.
Bells of Peace Rang Out Across Nation November 11
By Betsy Anderson
Program Coordinator, Bells of Peace, United States World War One Centennial Commission
The nation tolled its bells on November 11 in honor of the service and sacrifice of its World War I veterans, and all who have served in its Armed Forces.
PEARL HARBOR (Nov. 11, 2018) Operations Specialist 2nd Class Dominique Cannon, from Dallas, Texas, tolls 21 bells during a World War I commemoration ceremony celebrating Armistice and Veterans Day at the Pacific Fleet Boathouse. Armistice Day is commemorated every year in honor of the temporary cease fire between the Allied nations and Germany which went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month on November 11, 1918 seven months prior to the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Kenneth Rodriguez Santiago/Released)The Washington National Cathedral led the national bell tolling with 21 somber, muffled tolls. Also in Washington, D.C., the Netherlands Carillon near Arlington Cemetery, the Old Post Office bell on Pennsylvania Avenue, and the Robert Taft Carillon on the U.S. Capitol participated in the toll.
The U.S. Navy tolled bells across the fleet: In Honolulu, the Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona tolled ship’s bells.
In New York, the bells tolled on the USS Olympia, now a museum ship that brought the remains of the Unknown Soldier across the Atlantic in 1921 for interment in Arlington National Cemetery.
In La Porte, Texas, the USS. Texas tolled its bells: the ship served in World War I and also in World War II at the Battle of Normandy.
Military installations everywhere paused to toll bells at the direction of the Secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force and the Commandant of the Coast Guard.
In the nation’s houses of worship, veterans’ cemeteries, and streets, thousands of people gathered to toll bells. St. John’s Cathedral in Paterson, NJ tolled bells and rededicated a plaque to its 21 fallen soldiers. Tukwila, Washington, opened its Veterans Day commemoration ceremony with a bell tolling. In Astoria, New York, a musical saw player rang for the bell toll.
The National World War I Museum and Liberty Memorial in Kansas City conducted a Bells of Peace ceremony. A bell tolled at Museum of the Grand Prairie in Mahomet, Illinois and many other museums across the country tolled bells.
American Legion and VFW posts, DAR chapters, Scout troops, and dozens of other patriotic and civic organizations tolled their bells.
On the Centennial of the Armistice, the U.S. World War I Centennial Commission thanks all those who participated in the bell tolling in honor of those who fell in World War I. As the poet Laurence Binyon wrote: “At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them.”
See more Bells of Peace coverage next week.