Americans set November 11 aside for their veterans. The truce that stopped the fighting in 1918 was written to run 36 days, and had to be renewed three times.
“The 1954 act's whole instruction: striking out the word "Armistice" and inserting in lieu thereof the word "Veterans".
Congress made November 11 a federal legal holiday called Armistice Day by an act approved May 13, 1938. On June 1, 1954 the 83rd Congress passed Public Law 380, a single sentence amending that act.
For seven years the United States kept Veterans Day on two dates at once. Federal law had moved the holiday to the fourth Monday in October. Most of the states switched, and then changed their laws back.
The Senate Judiciary Committee's report on S. 331, in March 1975, counted forty-two states that had put the November date back into their own law. Two more had never changed at all. That made a total of 44 states, which the committee itself called 88 percent of the United States.
So the country ran two observances in the same year. The Office of Management and Budget, reporting to President Ford on the bill, named one of the places holding both: the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery.
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The date was a state holiday before it was a federal one. Congress took up November 11 in a concurrent resolution on June 4, 1926, whose preamble said twenty-seven state legislatures had already declared the day a legal holiday. It asked for a proclamation, not a holiday: fly the flag, and invite the country to mark the day.
Washington caught up twelve years later. An act approved May 13, 1938 made November 11 a legal public holiday, dedicated to the cause of world peace and known as Armistice Day.
The law that produced the name runs to one sentence. Public Law 380, approved June 1, 1954, amended the earlier act by striking out Armistice and inserting Veterans. Its title kept the older idea, to honor veterans on a day dedicated to world peace.
Eisenhower gave the new name its first proclamation that autumn. Proclamation 3071, signed October 8, called on citizens to observe Thursday, November 11, 1954, as Veterans Day. It also created a Veterans Day National Committee under the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs.
In 1968 Congress decided the week mattered more than the date. The Uniform Monday Holiday Act moved Veterans Day to the fourth Monday in October, effective January 1, 1971. Nixon's Executive Order 11582 pushed the October date through the whole executive branch.
The first October observance, on October 25, 1971, was in the VA's own words observed with much confusion. The Standing Subcommittee on Federal Charters, Holidays and Celebrations took the question up at hearings on June 3 and July 11, 1974, where twenty-six witnesses appeared. The committee's verdict was flat: the Monday holiday law's anticipated good results "have not been realized, particularly with respect to Veterans Day."
The Civil Service Commission liked Monday holidays. It told the White House it had opposed restoring Memorial Day, for lack of action by a majority of the states, and supported restoring Veterans Day. Public Law 94-97, approved September 18, 1975, put the holiday back on November 11.
In 1982 the renaming got a ceremony of its own. At 10:01 on the morning of November 11, in the State Dining Room, Reagan opened with "This morning we're honoring an American patriot, Raymond Weeks, of Birmingham, Alabama," and gave him the Presidential Citizens Medal. Reagan called Weeks, a World War II veteran, "the driving force behind the congressional action which in 1954 established this special holiday," and closed by thanking "the man who has made Armistice Day into this Veterans Day."
WHY THIS DAY MATTERS
One observance for service from World War II to post-9/11.
Of the American veterans recorded by the Census Bureau in 2024, 31.3% served in the Vietnam era, the largest share of any period of service. Another 29.9% served after 9/11, and 0.4% served in World War II.
The Veterans Day National Ceremony is held each year at Arlington National Cemetery and commences precisely at 11:00 a.m. with a wreath laying at the Tomb of the Unknowns, the place the 1975 White House file called the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. That is the hour hostilities were suspended in 1918, and the ceremony continues inside the Memorial Amphitheater.
The Veterans Day National Committee oversees national planning and coordination of the observance, and the VA says it is made of almost 50 veteran serving organizations. Since March 1989, when VA became a cabinet level department, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs has served as its chairman.
BY THE NUMBERS
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GOOD TO KNOW
The armistice's own text, printed in the State Department's Foreign Relations series, says it was signed at 5 o'clock a.m. French time. Clause I set the cessation of hostilities six hours after the signing, and five plus six is eleven.
Clause XXXIV set the duration of the armistice at 36 days, with option to extend. The same volume carries three prolongation conventions, dated December 13, 1918, January 16, 1919 and February 16, 1919.
OMB, summarizing the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote that the wait would promote convenience for those who arrange Veterans Day events, as well as the calendar industry.
The Civil Service Commission wrote on September 12, 1975 that benefits also accrue in conserving energy when Federal activities can be cut back or shut down over three-day weekends. The letter was signed by its chairman, Robert E. Hampton.
Woodrow Wilson gave a radio address on November 10, 1923, the eve of the anniversary, and the Library of Congress added it to the National Recording Registry in 2004. The Library's Teaching with the Library blog calls it the earliest surviving sound recording of a regular radio broadcast.
The desires of veterans and many other Americans for a special date of commemoration is more important than ... commercial interests....
Americans have appreciated and wish to retain the historic significance of November 11 as the day set aside each year by a grateful nation to remember and honor those, living and dead, who fought to win and preserve our freedom.
GOOD TO KNOW
observes Remembrance Day on November 11
observes Remembrance Day on November 11, which the VA describes as very much like America's Memorial Day, a day to honor that nation's war dead
observes Remembrance Day on the Sunday nearest November 11, with a two-minute silence at 11 a.m. at the Cenotaph in Whitehall
commemorated November 11 as Armistice Day between the world wars, alongside the United States and Great Britain
MYTH VS FACT
Veterans Day and Memorial Day are two names for the same observance.
The VA keeps them apart. Memorial Day is for remembering and honoring military personnel who died in the service of their country, while Veterans Day is the day set aside to thank and honor all those who served honorably, and is largely intended to thank living veterans.
Wearing a poppy is a Veterans Day tradition.
The VA says the wearing of poppies in honor of America's war dead is traditionally done on Memorial Day, not Veterans Day. The practice takes its origin from the poem In Flanders Fields, written in 1915 by John McCrae.
The name is spelled Veteran's Day.
The VA states that the name takes no apostrophe but keeps the s at the end of veterans, because it is not a day that belongs to veterans, it is a day for honoring all veterans.
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Test your knowledge
Yes. It is one of the legal public holidays listed by name in 5 U.S.C. 6103(a), and the VA says it is always observed officially on November 11, regardless of the day of the week on which it falls.
COLOPHON
Honor and remember those who have served and sacrificed for our country on Remembrance Day. Let us never forget their bravery and dedication.
The United States keeps the last Monday in May for the military personnel who died in its service. Soldiers set a small flag at every headstone in Arlington beforehand, and every flag is taken away once the day has passed.
Honor the brave soldiers who fought for peace on French Armistice Day. Let's remember their sacrifice and strive for a better tomorrow.
