Images: WWI: 100 years and 100 pictures
NIEUWKERKE, Belgium - A century after the start of World War I, Belgium and France are still scarred by over 1,000 graveyards, countless bomb craters, rusting gas shells, bunkers and trenches that tore apart the Western Front for four years.
The 1914-18 conflict was so unprecedented in its scope and savagery that it became known simply as "The Great War." The front line of death and destruction burned through the Alps, Central Europe, the Balkans and Russia, spilling into present-day Turkey and reaching beyond to the Middle East and as far as China.
World War I claimed some 14 million lives - 5 million civilians and 9 million soldiers, sailors and airmen from 28 countries, from India to South Africa to the United States. At least 7 million troops were left permanently disabled.
The Associated Press has pulled key moments from its vast archive of World War I photographs and assembled them into a 100-photo timeline, beginning with the steps Archduke Ferdinand took with his wife shortly before he was assassinated to major troop deployments and the early battles in Belgium and France in 1914.
The selection shows the scope of the battles and destruction, from the Eastern Front to the Western Front to Gallipoli, from the Battle of Jutland to the horrors of Verdun, the Somme and the muddy, bloody fields of Passchendaele. It reflects technological changes such as tanks, artillery, airpower and the poisonous chemical gas that came to define WW1.
It ends with the deployment of American troops in 1917 and, after four years of fighting and exhaustion, the Armistice in 1918.
TWO OF 100: In this June 28, 1914 file photo, a suspect, second right, is captured by police in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. Princip fired the shots that assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian-Hungarian throne, and his wife, Sophie.
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THREE OF 100: In this Aug. 8, 1914 file photo, Russian reservists walk with their belongings in St. Petersburg, Russia. Russia entered World War I with an army which was massive but badly armed.
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FOUR OF 100:In this undated file photo, Prussian soldiers leaving Berlin for the front are given flowers by a woman during World War I.
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FIVE OF 100: In this undated file photo World War I Belgian troops set out from Brussels in the direction of Louvain.
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SIX OF 100: In this 1914 file photo, damage to one of the forts at Liege, Belgium. On Aug. 5, 1914, the Battle of Liege began, the siege lasted longer than planned and may have delayed the German advance into France.
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SEVEN OF 100: In this undated file photo, Serbian soldiers take position on the battle line. Some of the first battles of World War I were fought between Serbia and Austria-Hungary around the Cer Mountain region.
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EIGHT OF 100: In this 1914 file photo, German army troops receive rations from a field transport while advancing toward Brussels. In mid-August 1914 the German army launched its assault on Brussels.
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NINE OF 100: In this August 1914 file photo, German troops stand in formation during the occupation of Brussels.
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10 OF 100: In this 1914 file photo, a bridge across the Meuse River in Belgium, which was destroyed by retreating Belgian troops, is being rebuilt by invading German troops.
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11 OF 100: In this August 1914 file photo, a Belgian machine gun detachment sets up near Haelen, Belgium. The Belgians often used dogs to draw the ammunitions cart. The Battle of Haelen was also known as the Battle of the Silver Helmets.
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12 OF 100: In this 1914 file photo, a man stands next to a building damaged by shrapnel from bombs dropped from a Zeppelin in Antwerp, Belgium. Antwerp was damaged heavily during World War I.
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13 OF 100: In this September 1914 file photo, the Cathedral of Reims, France smokes after bombardment during World War I. The advancing German army heavily damaged the city.
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14 OF 100: In this undated file photo, Indian troops arrive in France during World War I.
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15 OF 100: In this undated file photo, German soldiers speak with each other on the Western Front during World War I.
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16 OF 100: In this undated file photo, France's battle torn Marne district is reduced to rubble and mud during World War I.
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17 OF 100: In this 1914 file photo, German troops march through the streets of Antwerp, Belgium, during World War I.
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18 OF 100: In this October 1914 file photo, people crowd the Antwerp quaysides as they prepare for an exodus out of the city during World War I.
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19 OF 100: In this October 14, 1914, file photo, Belgian civilians and a cavalry detail move out of the pathway of the German advance during World War I in Antwerp, Belgium.
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20 OF 100: In this 1914 file photo, small boats, pushed together, create a pontoon bridge over the Scheldt River in Antwerp, Belgium. The bridge was constructed during World War I for residents and troops to escape the German army.
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21 OF 100: In this 1914 file photo, Allied troops huddle in a trench around a tiny fire near Ypres, Belgium.
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22 OF 100: In this December 1914 file photo, damage from German bombardment to the lighthouse in Scarborough, northern England, during World War I.
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23 OF 100: In this December 1914 file photo, damage to the Royal Hotel in Scarborough, northern England, after a bombing raid.
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24 OF 100: In this undated file photo, bodies on a battlefield after the battle of Champagne in France during World War I.
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25 OF 100: Serbian troops on the promenade of the public gardens in Belgrade in an undated photo.
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26 OF 100: In this 1914 file photo, German soldiers gather at Christmas at an unknown location during World War I.
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27 OF 100: A lone wounded Austrian soldier lies on the field of battle during World War I in an undated photo.
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28 OF 100: In this undated file photo, Allied soldiers eat and drink in a shell hole in France during World War I.
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29 OF 100: In this undated file photo, soldiers of the French Red Cross transport a wounded soldier to a first aid station immediately after the battle of Flanders in Belgium.
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30 OF 100: In this 1915 file photo, Australian troops arrive in Alexandria, Egypt, en route to the battlefield on the Gallipoli Peninsula during World War I.
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31 OF 100: In this 1915 file photo, a Turkish soldier takes aim at British troops, while another watches carefully, from a trench in Gallipoli, Turkey.
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32 OF 100: In this undated file photo, a Turkish cannon moves to the front lines on the Gallipoli Peninsula, Turkey, during World War I.
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33 OF 100: In this 1915 file photo, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, military commander of the Turkish troops in Gallipoli, Turkey, looks over the battlefield during World War I.
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34 OF 100: In this undated file photo, French troops man a lookout in France during a battle in the Argonne Forest during World War I.
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35 OF 100: In this undated file photo, German troops cut a barbed wire fence in an unknown location.
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36 OF 100: In this 1915 file photo, a bridge, an abandoned tank and shell craters full of water on the battlefield in St. Julien, Belgium.
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37 OF 100: In this undated file photo, an unidentified soldier, wearing a gas mask around his neck, bangs on a frying pan as a gas warning on the field near Reims, France.
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38 OF 100: In this 1915 file photo, Turkish soldiers form a queue to get water from a fountain, behind their lines in Gallipoli, Turkey.
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39 OF 100: In this 1915 file photo, Turkish soldiers take a rest during fighting, with their guns in their hands, in a trench in Gallipoli, Turkey.
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40 OF 100: In this May 1, 1915, file photo, the British cargo and passenger ship Lusitania as it sets out for England on its last voyage from New York City. The British ocean liner was sunk off Ireland on May 7, 1915, by a German U-Boat, killing 1,150 people, 114 of them Americans.
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41 OF 100: In this undated file photo, the U-Boat 139 which sank the Lusitania in an unknown location. The British liner was sank on May 7, 1915, by a German submarine off the southern coast of Ireland. About 1,150 men, women and children, perished, 114 of which were Americans. Among those Americans who perished were Charles Frohman, Alfred G. Vanderbilt and Elbert Hubbard.
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42 OF 100: In this undated file photo, troops are mobilized on the bank of the Danube River across from Belgrade during World War I. Austrian forces captured the Serbian capitol on Oct. 9, 1915.
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43 OF 100: In this 1915 photo, Turkish soldiers raise their flag at Kanli Sirt, Gallipoli, Turkey during World War I.
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44 OF 100: In this undated file photo, a British recruiting poster displays Field Marshal Herbert Kitchener in 1914. The poster reads "Your Country Needs You." Kitchener's Army was a group of all-volunteer soldiers formed in the United Kingdom.
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45 OF 100: In this April 8, 1916, file photo, French soldiers move troops and cargo at Nixeville, France, during the World War I Battle of Verdun.
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46 OF 100: In this undated file photo, one of the batteries of the famous French 75's at Douaumont, France, during the World War I Battle of Verdun.
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47 OF 100: In this 1917 file photo, the battlefield, pockmarked with craters filled with water, after the major World War I Battle of Verdun, France.
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48 OF 100: In this August 1916 file photo, Gen. Sir Sam Hughes and an unidentified group look at ruins in Arras, France during World War I.
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49 OF 100: In this October 1917 file photo, French troops in a shell hole during the offensive, which resulted in its winning back of the Chemin des Dames in France at the end of October 1917.
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50 OF 100: In this 1916 file photo, French troops attend to the funeral of an unknown aviator at an unknown location.
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51 OF 100: In this August 1917 file photo, French troops walk on regained ground near the River Meuse, near Beaumont, France, during World War I.
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52 OF 100: In this undated photo, Turkish soldiers at a military review at Damascus, Syria.
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53 OF 100: In this May 31, 1916 file photo, the German fleet with battle cruisers on the way in the North Sea to meet the British Grand Fleet in the Battle of Jutland during World War I.
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54 OF 100: In this May 31, 1916, file photo, the British Grand Fleet under Adm. John Jellicoe on their way to meet the Imperial German navy's fleet for the Battle of Jutland in the North Sea.
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55 OF 100: In this 1916 file photo, German troops man a machine gun post from a trench at the Vistula River in Russia during World War I.
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56 OF 100: In this 1916 file photo, Australian artillery soldiers operate a large caliber gun at the Somme front in France during World War I.
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57 OF 100: In this undated file photo, French soldiers carry the wounded during the World War I Battle of the Somme, France.
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58 OF 100: In this Sept. 24, 1916 file photo, French Capt. Georges Guynemer in front of his shot-down plane in Piennes, France, during World War I.
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59 OF 100: In this undated photo, soldiers attend a burial just in back of the battle lines in Pervyse, Belgium.
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60 OF 100: In this April 2, 1917 file photo, President Woodrow Wilson delivers a speech to the joint session of Congress in Washington during World War I.
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61 OF 100: In this 1917 file photo, German soldiers bring in Canadian wounded during the Battle of Vimy, France, during World War I.
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62 OF 100: In this undated photo, German mine-throwing troops, at an attack at the Keil and Poehl mounts, Germany.
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63 OF 100: In this 1917 file photo, World War Ie Canadian soldiers carry a stretcher through the mud near Boesinghe, Belgium.
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64 OF 100: In this undated file photo, a Canadian soldier helps an injured German soldier to a dressing station.
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65 OF 100: In this 1917 file photo, an unidentified World War I soldier walks along wooden planks placed over the mud of Flanders' Fields near the Yperlee Canal near Ypres, Belgium.
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66 OF 100: In this 1917 file photo, British World War I soldiers return in formation to Ypres, Belgium.
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67 OF 100: In this undated file photo, the cathedral in the town square of Ypres, Belgium, is in ruins after bombing in World War I.
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68 OF 100: In this 1917 file photo, wounded Canadian and German World War I soldiers help one another through the mud during the Battle of Passchendaele in Passchendaele, Belgium.
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69 OF 100: In this undated file photo, World War I wounded are being placed in ambulance during the advance on Lens, France.
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70 OF 100: In this undated file photo, dancer "Mata Hari," who was born Margaretha Geertruida Zelle poses in an unknown location. Zelle was executed Oct. 15, 1917, during World War I for spying for Germany.
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71 OF 100: In this 1917 file photo, an old type tank from World War I. Tanks came into use during World War I and increased the mobility of soldiers who were mainly fighting a trench war. Their design was taken from farm vehicles.
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72 OF 100: In this undated file photo, British troops run under heavy fire outside Cambrai, France, during World War I.
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73 OF 100: In this 1917 file photo, a trench winds through the village of Brabant-en-Meuse near Verdun, France in World War I.
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74 OF 100: In this December 1917 file photo, smoke billows out of buildings in Cambrai, France, after being bombarded by German forces during the World War I Battle of Cambrai.
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75 OF 100: In this Dec. 9, 1917, file photo, British Gen. Sir Edmund Allenby enters the captured city of Jerusalem, during World War I.
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76 OF 100: In this undated file photo, wounded World War I soldiers play a game at a London hospital.
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77 OF 100: In this 1917 file photo, members of the first contingent of New Yorkers drafted into the U.S. Army line up in front of their barracks at Camp Upton, Yaphank, Long Island, N.Y.
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78 OF 100: In this June 1917 file photo, the first troops of the American Expeditionary Force land at the French port of St. Nazaire, France.
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79 OF 100: In this 1917 photo provided by the U.S. Signal Corps, the first 5,000 American soldiers to reach England march across historic Westminster Bridge in London.
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80 OF 100: In this June 13, 1917, file photo, U.S. Army Gen. John J. Pershing, center, inspects French troops at Boulogne, France.
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81 OF 100: In this March 15, 1918, file photo, an American soldier from the First Division throws a hand grenade in battle during World War I along the Western Front in France.
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82 OF 100: In this March 1918 file photo, American soldiers of Company K, 165th Infantry of the Fighting 69th, Old Rainbow Division, march to the trenches at St. Clement, France during World War I.
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83 OF 100: In this April 25, 1918, file photo, a field of barbed wire in a no-man's land near Ancerviller, France, during World War I. The area was a sector of the 2nd Battalion, 165th Infantry.
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84 OF 100: In this 1916 file photo, German flying ace Manfred von Richthofen, also known as the "Red Baron," is shown returning from a mission at his squadron's aerodrome. Von Richthofen was shot down and killed over France in April 1918.
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85 OF 100: In this undated file photo, two soldiers are passed by tanks on their way to support French troops in Juvigny, France, during World War I.
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86 OF 100: In this May 28, 1918, file photo, the 28th Infantry Regiment of the First Division, A.E.F. goes over the top of a trench during an American offensive of World War I in the Battle of Cantigny, France.
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87 OF 100: In this undated file photo, soldiers attend the burial of fellow soldiers and two Canadian nurses, killed in German air raid, during World War I.
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88 OF 100: In this undated file photo, U.S. Army troops stand in the trenches in France during World War I.
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89 OF 100: In this 1918 file photo, American troops carrying guns with fixed bayonets climb over a sandbag revetment in France during World War I.
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90 OF 100: In this 1918 file photo, Italian army soldiers look out of their dugouts at the Battle of the Piave River, Italy, during World War I. The Battle of the Piave River was fought between June 15-23, 1918.
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91 OF 100: In this 1918 file photo, members of the Red Cross sort the backpacks of dead and wounded soldiers in France during World War I.
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92 OF 100: In this July 1918 file photo, American troops from the 18th Infantry, First Division, pause in a ruined French town near St. Mihiel, France, during World War I.
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93 OF 100: In this Sept. 13, 1918 file photo, U.S. troops of the 107th Regiment Infantry, 27th Division, advance on a path through a barbed wire entanglement near Beauqueanes, Somme, France, during World War I.
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94 OF 100: In this undated file photo, German reserves being rushed to front by trucks in Germany.
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95 OF 100: In this 1918 file photo, U.S. Marines respond to a gas attack near Verdun, France, during World War I.
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96 OF 100: In this Sept. 26, 1918, file photo, a U.S .Army 37-mm gun crew man their position during the World War I Meuse-Argonne Allied offensive in France.
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97 OF 100: In this November 1918 file photo, American soldiers from New York, who served on the frontline in Cambria, France, rig up a Liberty Bell to celebrate the signing of the Armistice to end World War I.
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98 OF 100: In this Nov. 11, 1918, file photo, a group of people gather in front of Buckingham Palace in London, England, to celebrate the signing of the Armistice that ended the fighting of World War I.
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99 OF 100:In this Nov. 11, 1918, file photo, people in the streets of Paris, France, celebrate the signing of the Armistice that ended the fighting of World War I.
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100 OF 100: In this 1918 file photo, American troops, near St. Mihiel, France, cheer after hearing the news that the Armistice has been signed, ending World War I.
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