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U.S. President Woodrow Wilson first proclaimed Armistice Day for November 11,
1919.

The United States Congress passed a concurrent 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, approved May 13, 1938, made the
11th of November in each year a legal holiday: "a day to be dedicated
to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known
as ‘Armistice Day’.”

In 1945, World War II veteran Raymond Weeks from Birmingham, Alabama,
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.

U.S. Representative Ed Rees from Emporia, Kansas, presented a bill
establishing the holiday through Congress. Then President Dwight D.
Eisenhower
, also from Kansas, signed the bill into law on May 26, 1954.

Congress amended this act on June 1, 1954, replacing "Armistice" with
"Veterans," and it has been known as Veterans Day since.

President Ronald Reagan honored Weeks at the White House with the
Presidential Citizenship Medal in 1982 as the driving force for the national
holiday. Elizabeth Dole, who prepared the briefing for President Reagan,
determined Raymond Weeks as the "Father of Veterans Day."

 

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President Eisenhower signs the Veterans Day bill

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President Ronald Reagan (left) awarding
Raymond Weeks with the Presidential
Citizenship Medal.

posted by Bob Karm in ANNIVERSARY,Awards,CURRENT EVENTS,DEBUT,HISTORY,HOLIDAY,Memorial,MILITARY and have No Comments

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