Sunday, Nov. 11, is the 100th anniversary of the date soldiers laid down their weapons and ceased hostilities to end World War I.

The time was 11 a.m., the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. Allied and German forces fighting in Europe agreed on the time to end the “Great War.”

It would be seven months later on June 28, 1919 when the Treaty of Versailles was signed to officially end the war, but it was the significance of the 11/11/18 date that remained indelible in the minds of the public as the end of the war. In November 1919 President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Nov. 11 as the date to commemorate Armistice Day. That date was observed with parades, public gatherings and a pause in business and school activity at 11 a.m.

It was 1926 when Congress passed a resolution calling for the “recurring anniversary of [November 11, 1918] should be commemorated with thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations,” and it called on the President of the United States to issue an annual proclamation for the observance of Armistice Day.

By November 1926 the legislatures in 27 U.S. states had made a legal holiday on November 11. It was in May 1938 when the date became a legal Federal holiday, “dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be hereafter celebrated and known as Armistice Day.”

In actuality it is the states that have authority to declare holidays, the Federal Government can only declare a holiday for its operations and employees and the District of Columbia. While states usually follow the U.S. Government in naming holidays, in this case it was the feds who followed the majority of states.

By 1954 following World War II and Korea there was a rise in the prominence of veterans’ organizations. As a result of the veterans lobbying efforts, Congress that year voted to change the designation from “Armistice” to “Veterans” Day. The law was signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on June 1, 1954, designating November 11 each year to honor American Veterans of all wars.

While Memorial Day is set aside to remember those who sacrificed their lives at war to insure the freedoms enjoyed by their countrymen, Veterans Day is to celebrate all those who have served the country, both deceased and surviving.

Briefly Veterans Day was included among those holidays established on a Monday to provide citizens with three-day weekends. Veterans Day was designated as the fourth Monday in October, the first such holiday was Oct. 25, 1971. However, the states mostly chose not to go along with that change with regard to Veterans Day and continued to celebrate on November 11.

In 1975 President Gerald R. Ford, recognizing the historical significance of the actual date signed a new law that returned the Veterans Day observance to November 11.

The allies from World War I, Great Britain, France, Australia and Canada all remember the veterans of the Great War with their own observances on or around the 11th of November.

On Nov. 11, 1921 an unidentified American soldier killed during the war was buried at Arlington National Cemetery just across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. On Nov. 11, 1920 unidentified soldiers were laid to rest at Westminster Abbey in London and at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

It has become Veterans Day tradition for the President of the United State to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington. The tomb has also been the place of interment for unidentified soldiers from other wars since 1920. In some instances technology has allowed those remains to be identified and reinterred under their name.

The aspiration for Veterans Day has become the day in which all Americans pause to pay tribute and give thanks to all veterans – living or dead – but especially those living who have served the country honorably during war and peace.

(Source: History.com)