November 11, 1918 - Armistice Day

November 11, 1918 will forever be remembered as the date the First World War reached a ceasefire on the Western Front, eventually leading to the conclusion of the Great War. At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, an official order was passed through the ranks declaring all nations on the western front to cease firing. While June 28, 1919 is the certified date the war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, President Woodrow Wilson made an effort for the date of armistice of World War I to be recognized and celebrated.

An Armistice Day celebration in Raleigh, N.C. in 1920

November 11 of that year included many parades and celebrations, including a “brief suspension of business activities.”[1] A congressional act passed in 1938 officially made November 11th a national holiday.[2] The Great War caused horrendous injuries and deaths to all those involved. Speaking on the Allied Powers specifically, they mobilized an estimated 42,000,000 soldiers, and of those, an estimated 22,000,000 were wounded or killed in action. [3]

America was involved in WWII on a far larger scale than in the First World War. During World War I, the U.S. mobilized a little under 4,400,000 troops. While involved in World War II, the U.S. set over 12,000,000 to battle. [4] By 1954, due to the massive number of new veterans and pressure from major veteran’s support groups, President Dwight Eisenhower moved to change the name of Armistice Day to Veterans’ Day.[5] In 1971, Congress decided to alter Veterans’ day even more by shifting it to always fall on the fourth Monday of October.[6] However, not every state decided to follow suit with the federal government. With confusion setting in due to Veterans’ Day being celebrated on the fourth Monday in October in Alabama, and on November 11 in, initially only Mississippi and South Dakota, changing the date of Veterans’ Day yet again was imminent. Slowly from 1971-1975, as many as half

Veterans' Day celebrated in Columbus, OH in 2012

of the states in the union switched Veterans’ Day back to the original date of World War I’s armistice, November 11th. In 1975, President Gerald Ford finally caved to popular support and passed legislation to shift Veterans’ Day to the date we observe today, however, the process to become official still took another three years until 1978. [7]

- Zach P. and Hunter O.

[1] “History of Veterans’ Day,” U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, accessed November 3, 2013, http://www.va.gov/opa/vetsday/vetdayhistory.asp

[2] “History of Veterans’ Day,” U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, accessed November 3, 2013, http://www.va.gov/opa/vetsday/vetdayhistory.asp

[3] “WWI Casualties and Death Tables” PBS website, accessed November 5, 2013, http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/resources/casdeath_pop.html

[4]”By the Numbers: U.S. Military” The National WWII Museum website, accessed November 5, 2013, http://www.nationalww2museum.org/learn/education/for-students/ww2-history/ww2-by-the-numbers/us-military.html

[5] “The History of Veterans’ Day,” The U.S. Army Center of Military History, accessed November 3, 2013, http://www.history.army.mil/html/reference/holidays/vetsday/vetshist.html

[6] “Veterans’ Day” The History Channel Website, accessed November 3, 2013, http://www.history.com/topics/history-of-veterans-day

[7] “Veterans’ Day November 11,” America’s Library, and the Library of Congress, accessed November 3, 2013, http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/modern/jb_modern_veteran_3.html