Interesting Facts About Veterans Day

1. Veterans Day is observed on November 11^th each year to honor “the eleventh hour of the day of the eleventh month” of 1918, when there was a ceasefire. This showed the war was coming to an end.
2. Veterans Day was originally known as Armistice Day, it was changed to Veterans Day in 1954 by President Dwight Eisenhower.
3. Armistice Day became an official holiday in 1938.
4. Each Veterans Day & Memorial Day, Arlington National Cemetery has an annual memorial service. This cemetery contains over 400,000 graves, most of them served in the military.
5. In Europe, Great Britain and the Commonwealth countries it is common to observe two minutes of silence at 11 AM, every Veterans Day.
6. World War I actually ended with a signed treaty in June of 1919.
7. From 1971-1977, Veterans Day was changed from November 11^th to being celebrated on a Monday so Federal employees could have a three-day weekend. This was due to the “Uniform Holiday Bill”.
8. Although Veterans Day’s date was changed some Americans kept observing Veterans Day on the original date. Due to this President Gerald Ford changed Veterans Day back to November 11^th.
9. Canada and Australia honor November 11^th as “Remembrance Day”. Similarly, Great Britain observes the Sunday closest to November 11^th as “Remembrance Day”.
10. As of 2017, the states with the highest percentage of veterans were: Alaska, Maine, and Montana.

History.com Editors. (2009, October 14). Veterans Day facts. History.com. Retrieved November 9, 2021, from https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/veterans-day-facts.

Pelzer, K. (2021, September 24). Saying 'thank you' with even greater appreciation-here are 25 Veterans Day Facts! Parade. Retrieved November 9, 2021, from https://parade.com/1093253/kelseypelzer/veterans-day-facts/.