“There had never been a known leak from the Western Union telegraph office on Court Street before that day, but this news was simply too good to keep quiet. As you might guess, they were overjoyed, so that word very quickly leaked into the community and the party was on.”
Richard Rose — Chair of the November 10 commemoration committee with the North Sydney Historical Society
November 10 2021 — On November 10 1918, the Western Union Cable Office in North Sydney, Nova Scotia received a Morse coded message from Europe stating that all fighting — on land, sea and in the air — would cease the next day. Follow us on Twitter: @INTEL_TODAY
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After four harrowing years, the message trickled in via Morse code on the morning of November 10, 1918 at a telegraph office in North Sydney, N.S.
“And before anyone else in North America knew, people in the small Cape Breton town had already begun to celebrate the joyous news direct from the War Office in London: an armistice would be signed the next day.
More than 300 U.S. personnel who were in North Sydney joined off-duty military personnel in a spontaneous parade around the town as part of a celebration that lasted all day.
In the evening, bonfires were lit and the festivities continued. Bars that would normally be closed on Sunday were opened, but they had to close early when they ran out of liquor.
So effectively, by the time the rest of North America found out about the war being over, North Sydney was nursing a giant hangover.”
WWI — “The war to end all wars” — was one of the deadliest conflicts in history with an estimated 8.5 million combatant deaths and 13 million civilian deaths as a direct result of the conflict. And the worst was yet to come…
“A generation of innocent young men, their heads full of high abstractions like Honour, Glory and England, went off to war to make the world safe for democracy. They were slaughtered in stupid battles planned by stupid generals. Those who survived were shocked, disillusioned and embittered by their war experiences, and saw that their real enemies were not the Germans, but the old men at home who had lied to them.”
Historian Samuel Hynes
REFERENCES
Why a Cape Breton town knew about the end of WW I before the rest of North America — CBC
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On This Day — Western Union Cable Announces Armistice to North Americans (November 10 1918)
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