Europe remembers Armistice Day with ceremonies; international memorial opens in France

Crowds watch a remembrance day ceremony at the near completed ceramic poppy art installation by artist Paul Cummins entitled 'Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red' in the dry moat of the Tower of London in London, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2014. The finished installation will be made up of 888,246 ceramic poppies, with the final poppy being placed on Armistice Day today. Each poppy represents a British and Commonwealth military fatality from World War I. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth) (The Associated Press)

French president Francois Hollande attends a ceremony for the winners of the 'Young Artists of Memory' contest, an initiative to educate children about the First World War through the medium of art, at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, Tuesday Nov. 11, 2014. Tuesday marks Armistice Day and is commemorated every year on Nov. 11 to mark the armistice signed between the allies of World War I and Germany to end the war. (AP Photo/Ian Langsdon/Pool) (The Associated Press)

The near completed ceramic poppy art installation by artist Paul Cummins entitled "Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red" is lit up before sunrise in the dry moat of the Tower of London in London, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2014. The finished installation will be made up of 888,246 ceramic poppies, with the final poppy being placed on Armistice Day today. Each poppy represents a British and Commonwealth military fatality from World War I. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham) (The Associated Press)

Europe is marking Armistice Day with ceremonies and moments of silence as France opens an international memorial on a former battlefield.

This year's events have special significance because 2014 is the 100th anniversary of World War I's start. Tuesday is the 96th anniversary of the armistice that ended the war on Nov. 11, 1918.

President Francois Hollande is hosting German and British officials for events in France. Hollande laid a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier under Paris' Arc de Triomphe.

Later, Hollande is heading to northern France to inaugurate an international war memorial on the former battlefields of Notre-Dame-de-Lorette. The Ring of Memory carries the names of 600,000 soldiers who died in the region during the war. Names are listed alphabetically without their nationalities.