Veteran's Day

November 11th.
That was the day.

The anniversary of THE Armistice.
World War I, 1918.

I did a little bit of research tonight. It's nowhere near complete, nor remotely thorough enough. So, should anyone have anything to add to the topic - much appreciated.

Quite quickly though, I started thinking about how many deaths it took to bring about the origins of Veteran's Day.

During the 1567 days or so that passed until the Armistice was finally signed; somewhere between 8-9 million soldiers were killed, and somewhere around 7 million civilians were killed.
Then I looked up the populations of various countries to try to put those numbers into some sort of perspective in my brain.

There are 233 countries [and dependent territories].

When you break it down, the number of countries that contain less than 17 million people, CURRENTLY, are - MANY. The majority. Matter of fact, to be more specific, there are only approximately 68 countries that house more than 17 million people.

Out of 233.

ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-FIVE COUNTRIES [and dependent territories], today, house LESS people than were killed within the four+ years of fighting in WWI.

165!

We rank third in the world - and we are NOWHERE even remotely close to the first two reigning countries in regards to population.

That just blows my mind.

MORE PEOPLE WERE KILLED THAN 165 COUNTRIES EVEN HAVE AS A POPULATION *today* - what do you suppose was the ranking count that many years ago? 180? 200? 230?

I understand that's basically just me repeating myself and not helping to put anything into perspective for anyone else. Let me try it this way...

MORE human beings died than *all* the people that live in each of the following countries, singularly, AS YOU'RE READING THIS:

Belgium, Sweden, Cuba, the Czech Republic, Austria, Israel, Switzerland, the whole of the Netherlands.

Finland, Denmark, Singapore.
The Congo.
Ireland, Lebanon, Hong Kong, Serbia, Cambodia.
 I just named 17 of them.

OUT OF 165.

Quite frankly, you can group a crazy amount of countries together and the combined population could still be LESS.

Okay, and this is the way to put it to those of us in America! Out of our 50 states and D.C., and territories - which states have more people living in them than died in WW1?

Four.
FOUR!

California, Texas, Florida, and New York.

Bye all of: PA, IL, GA, OH, NC, MI. Forget about it, Jersey - with your little 9 million count! Wyoming, you people are literally dead last. You were probably how many were killed the very first day. You all, with your cute little half a million or so people.

Seriously, you guys only have around a half million people? I bet NO ONE complains about parking or traffic there! Are you all on a first-name basis?

That's it.
Also, that's TODAY'S stats.
Not 1918 stats.

We have somewhere around 238 million people in America right now. Know how many we had in 1918?

How many people did you have then, Wyoming - twelve?

That's incredible.
Incredibly sad.
Incredibly overwhelming.
Incredibly demonstrative.

It's a day worthy of taking a minute to give a little thanks and learn a few things.

* Side note:
Argh...

Since I couldn't even leave my own question alone after I brought it up while typing it, I had to go look it up. We had 103 million citizens in America back then.

I freely admit that I gave Wyoming, instantly, zero credit for having ANY people back then. In my head, all people were just passing through. I also want credit for not making any kind of Catholic/birth control comment about population back then -- with our measly, 103 million people versus us now, WITH BIRTH CONTROL.

I'm uncertain how to make up for my personal side comments other than to try to distract you by saying, "HEY, I found a 100-year-old poem about this!"
/true story, actually

The Armistice:

SILENCE FALLS
The echoes die, the smoke-clouds thin and pass,
The cannons are, like statues, dumb and cold:
Silent the crosses wait, and in the grass
The spent shells gleam like gold.

All spent he lay and dreamed till the moment came:
Now, waking with a cry, he looks, all wonder
To see the empty sky hurl down no flame:
To hear no crack of thunder.
- Henry Weston Pryce, 11 November 1918.

Who I believe was from South Wales, don't crucify me if I have that wrong - I have about 487 windows open on my computer.**No Wyomingites were injured in the making of this post.