A Brief History of Veterans Day—A Uniquely American Holiday.

While much of the world celebrates Remembrance Day, the people of the United States celebrate Veterans Day. The federal holiday, which began as Armistice Day—much like Remembrance Day holidays—originally commemorated the end of World War I on November 11, 1918. In the first commemoration of Armistice Day in 1919, then-President Woodrow Wilson declared, “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 nations.”

However, with the United States’ history being separated from much of the strife of Europe, the holiday evolved over the years into a day to honor living veterans of the country’s military. Meanwhile, Memorial Day—observed on the last Monday of May—is held as a day of honor and mourning for those who have died fighting for the United States. The evolution of the two federal holidays is a reflection of the uniqueness of the American experience and our history of conflict.

Memorial Day’s roots are in the U.S. Civil War, first instituted in 1868 as “Decoration Day” to remember fallen Union soldiers. As Memorial Day became established in the American tradition, it entered a sort of calendar conflict with the Anglosphere’s Remembrance Day nearly five decades later. For about a 50-year period, the United States marked both memorials.

The initial push to change Armistice Day began after World War II, when veterans pushed to have a national day of recognition. President Dwight D. Eisenhower embraced the idea, and urged Congress to take action.

In 1954—following the Korean War—the United States Congress moved to change Armistice Day to Veterans Day, a holiday that celebrates and honors those who have served the country in any armed conflict. Instead of just the American doughboys who crossed the Atlantic as part of the expeditionary force that provided much-needed relief to Western Europe in the waning years of World War I, Veterans Day became a day to encompass those who fought against the tyranny of Nazism in World War II, and against international communism in the Korean and Vietnam Wars.

Veterans Day now encompasses all who have served and—though no longer in arms and combat—still serve the nation.