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History of Veterans Day: Lest We Forget
A professor once commented,
“We write things down so we can forget them.”
Now, of course, this is true in the sense of writing down appointments, so we don’t have to worry about missing meetings. But that’s just it; we do forget things. As individuals, we forget things that are important to us. Companies seem to possess little in the way of corporate memory to do things better the next time. Countries forget the things that have occurred in their past, things that make them unique.
In many parts of the world — Europe in particular and several of the former British Commonwealth countries specifically — there are memorials in the town square commemorating their war heroes, usually with the words “Lest we forget.”
History of Veterans Day
Veterans Day used to be called Armistice Day, commemorating the ending of hostilities on the western front of World War I on November 11, 1918
the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.
At 5:45 am on that day, Germany signed the Armistice (truce) in the Forest of Compiegne, and the order was given for a cease-fire for later that morning, after four years of war.
In the United States in 1919, President Woodrow Wilson issued an “Armistice Day” proclamation. However, it was not until Congress first passed a resolution in 1926 and then passed a bill 12 years later that it became a federal holiday.
But WWI, “the War to end all wars,” was not the final war, and of the 16 million who served in WWII, more than 400,000 died. Birmingham, Alabama, organized a “Veterans Day” parade on November 11, 1947, to honor all of America’s veterans for all wars.
In 1953 townspeople in Emporia, Kansas, called the holiday Veterans Day in gratitude to the veterans in their town. Soon after, Congress passed a bill introduced by a Kansas congressman renaming the federal holiday to “Veterans Day.” In 1954 President Dwight Eisenhower proclaimed November 11 as Veterans Day, asking Americans to rededicate themselves to the cause of peace.
