contemplative
It was President Woodrow Wilson who first proclaimed what was then known as Armistice Day in the United States. The first Armistice Day took place on November 11, 1919. The original concept for the celebration was for businesses to suspend activity for a two minute period beginning at 11 A.M. The day was also marked by parades and public meetings. In proclaiming the holiday, President Wilson 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."
Congress passed a 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 signed on May 13, 1938 made the 11th of November in each year a legal holiday, or, as the Act put it, "a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as 'Armistice Day'."
In 1945, Raymond Weeks from Birmingham, Alabama, who was a veteran of the second world war, 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 Ronald Reagan honored Weeks at the White House with the Presidential Citizenship Medal in 1982 as the driving force for the national holiday. 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 the word "Armistice" with "Veterans," and it has been known as Veterans Day since.
For a time, starting in 1971, Veterans Day was moved to the fourth Monday of October in accordance with the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. But in 1978, it was moved back to its original celebration on November 11.
I hope you all have a meaningful Veterans Day (or whatever the day is called wherever you are.)