At the end of the First World War, 1.4 million soldiers died, including 300,000 missing. The idea of paying tribute to them was born in 1916, during the Battle of Verdun. In 1920, the Chamber of Deputies passed a law which decided to represent all the dead of the war by an unknown French soldier. A deserving young soldier was then asked to choose, among eight coffins containing the remains of unidentified soldiers, the one to be buried under the Arc de Triomphe. The chosen coffin was officially buried on 28 January 1921 in the presence of the entire French government and Marshals Foch, Petain and Joffre.