Exactly three years after the end of World War I, the Tomb
of the Unknown Soldier is dedicated at Arlington Cemetery
in Virginia during an Armistice Day ceremony presided over
by President Warren G. Harding.
Two days before, an unknown American soldier, who had
fallen somewhere on a World War I battlefield, arrived at
the nation’s capital from a military cemetery in France.
On Armistice Day, in the presence of President Harding
and other government, military, and international dignitaries,
the unknown soldier was buried with highest honors beside
the Memorial Amphitheater.
As the soldier was lowered to his final resting place, a two-
inch layer of soil brought from France was placed below his
coffin so that he might rest forever atop the earth on which
he died.
