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INTERNET SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veterans_day
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Joseph Ambrose, an 86-year-old World War I
veteran, attends the dedication day parade for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in
1982, holding the flag that covered the casket of his son, who was killed in
the Korean War.
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Veterans Day
is an official United States holiday which honors people who have served in
armed service also known as veterans. It is a federal holiday that is observed
on November 11. It coincides with other holidays such as Armistice Day and
Remembrance Day, which are celebrated in other parts of the world and also mark
the anniversary of the end of World War I. (Major hostilities of World War I
were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918,
when the Armistice with Germany went into effect.)
Veterans
Day is not to be confused with Memorial Day; Veterans Day celebrates the
service of all U.S. military veterans, while Memorial Day is a day of
remembering the men and women who died while serving.
Most
sources spell Veterans as a simple plural without a possessive
apostrophe (Veteran's or Veterans').
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Veterans Day 2012 poster
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History
U.S.
President Woodrow Wilson first proclaimed Armistice Day for November 11, 1919.
In proclaiming the holiday, he said
"To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country's service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations."
The
United States Congress passed a concurrent resolution seven years later on June
4, 1926, requesting that President Calvin Coolidge issue another proclamation
to observe November 11 with appropriate ceremonies. A Congressional Act (52
Stat. 351; 5 U.S. Code, Sec. 87a) approved May 13, 1938, made the 11th of
November in each year a legal holiday: "a day to be dedicated to the cause
of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as 'Armistice Day'."
In
1945, World War II veteran Raymond Weeks from Birmingham, Alabama, had the idea
to expand Armistice Day to celebrate all veterans, not just those who died in
World War I. Weeks led a delegation to Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, who supported
the idea of National Veterans Day. Weeks led the first national celebration in
1947 in Alabama and annually until his death in 1985. President Reagan honored
Weeks at the White House with the Presidential Citizenship Medal in 1982 as the
driving force for the national holiday. Elizabeth Dole, who prepared the
briefing for President Reagan, determined Weeks as the "Father of Veterans
Day."
U.S.
Representative Ed Rees from Emporia, Kansas, presented a bill establishing the
holiday through Congress. President Dwight Eisenhower, also from Kansas, signed
the bill into law on May 26, 1954.
Congress
amended this act on June 1, 1954, replacing "Armistice" with
"Veterans," and it has been known as Veterans Day since.
The
National Veterans Award, created in 1954, also started in Birmingham.
Congressman Rees of Kansas was honored in Alabama as the first recipient of the
award for his support offering legislation to make Veterans Day a federal
holiday, which marked nine years of effort by Raymond Weeks. Weeks conceived
the idea in 1945, petitioned Gen. Eisenhower in 1946, and led the first
Veterans Day celebration in 1947 (keeping the official name Armistice Day until
Veterans Day was legal in 1954).
Although
originally scheduled for celebration on November 11 of every year, starting in
1971 in accordance with the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, Veterans Day was moved
to the fourth Monday of October. In 1978, it was moved back to its original
celebration on November 11. While the legal holiday remains on November 11, if
that date happens to be on a Saturday or Sunday, then organizations that
formally observe the holiday will normally be closed on the adjacent Friday or
Monday, respectively.
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