Solemn ceremonies held worldwide to mark WWI armistice centenary
Large crowds have gathered for observances all over the world to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. From Wellington to London, as silence fell, people honored the estimated 40 million dead and wounded.
New Zealand leads the remembrance
A 10-cannon salute was held at the Wellington waterfront on Sunday morning to mark the armistice centenary. A kilometer away at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park, hundreds of people gathered for a service attended by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Some 100,000 New Zealand soldiers and nurses served overseas in World War I, and more than 16,000 never came back.
Poppies adorn Sydney Opera House
The sails of Sydney's iconic opera house were illuminated with red poppies for Remembrance Day to signify the bright red flowers that grew on the Western Front battlefields following the war. Around a sixth of Australia's then less than 5 million population enlisted to fight. More than half of them were either killed, wounded, gassed or taken prisoner.
Asian countries pay respects to war dead
Observances were held in Myanmar and Hong Kong (pictured), where school children laid wreaths in remembrance at the Cenotaph war memorial, while veterans saluted. In India, a ceremony at New Delhi's War Cemetary was attended by relatives of many soldiers. The Indian Army sent a million troops to Africa, the Middle East and Europe to fight in World War I.
World leaders gather in Paris
A moving armistice ceremony was held in Paris, watched by around 70 world leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President Donald Trump. The leaders missed the exact moment of the armistice anniversary as they were running late. The memorial included classical music and the reading aloud of letters by WWI soldiers.
Millions of fallen soldiers remembered
France's Republican guards took part in the parade close to Paris' Arc de Triomphe. At the exact moment 100 years ago that Allied and German weapons fell silent, French Fighter jets passed over the commemorations. Hundreds of miles away, bells rang across Europe's Western Front, the main theater of conflict during World War I.
Britain's royals lay wreaths
Britain's commemorations at the Cenotaph war memorial in London were led by the Queen, who watched from a nearby balcony, and Prime Minister Theresa May. Princes William and Harry also laid wreaths for the 900,000 British soldiers killed in the 'Great War.'
Steinmeier's 'historic act of reconciliation'
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier became the first German head of state to attend the annual Remembrance commemorations in London. The British government said before the ceremony that he would lay the wreath at the Cenotaph "on behalf of the German people in a historic act of reconciliation." Germany lost 1.8 million soldiers out of 13 million mobilized for World War I.
Respect for lives lost on the Eastern Front
While Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the armistice centenary observance in Paris, Russia's military paid its own respects at a cemetery for WW1 heroes near St. Petersburg. Members of military history clubs donned 'Great War'-era military uniforms to mark the occasion. More than 2.4 million Russians lost their lives in one of the world's most devasting conflicts.