From the archives, Nov. 11, 1918: Omaha Daily Bee on the armistice

Omaha Commons revisits reporting from The Omaha Daily Bee, bringing the paper's armistice bulletin to today's readers.

OMAHA — The Omaha Daily Bee of Monday, Nov. 11, 1918, told readers the world war was over. Across the top of page 1, its banner said an armistice had been signed at midnight, fighting would stop at 6 that morning, and Germany had surrendered. A Washington dispatch said Germany had signed the terms.

The paper printed the State Department's announcement as a single sentence: "The armistice has been signed." It said German representatives signed at midnight, and that the war would end that morning at 6 o'clock Washington time, 11 o'clock Paris time.

The same dispatch listed two times for the announcement in Washington. It said the State Department announced the signing at 2:45 o'clock that morning, then said the announcement was made at 2:50 o'clock. The Bee carried both figures.

Beside that bulletin, an Associated Press report said William Hohenzollern and his eldest son had arrived in Maastricht, Holland, and were heading toward Desteeg, near Utrecht, according to a message from The Hague to the American army general staff.

Source: The Omaha Daily Bee, Nov. 11, 1918, page 1, via Nebraska Newspapers at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (Public Domain Mark 1.0).

How we checked this: Reported from The Omaha Daily Bee of Nov. 11, 1918, page 1, on Nebraska Newspapers (University of Nebraska–Lincoln), opened Nov. 11, 2026, at 1:03 p.m. CT, and checked against the record by our copy desk before publishing.