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."

President Eisenhower signs the Veterans Day bill

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

The Marine Corps War Memorial (also called the Iwo Jima Memorial) is a U.S.
military monument outside the walls of Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington
Ridge Park, Arlington, Virginia. The memorial is dedicated to all personnel of the
United States Marine Corps who have died in the defense of the United States
since 1775. 

Raising the flag on Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima on February 23, 1945

10 November 1775, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARINES!

The Marine Corps War Memorial (also called the Iwo Jima Memorial) is a U.S.
military monument outside the walls of Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington
Ridge Park, Arlington, Virginia. The memorial is dedicated to all personnel of the
United States Marine Corps who have died in the defense of the United States
since 1775. 

Raising the flag on Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima on February 23, 1945

William James "Count" Basie (August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984)

Swing-era bandleader Count Basie is noted for his theme songs One O’clock
Jump from 1937 and April in Paris from 1932. He originally wanted to be a 
drummer, but took up the piano at age 15.

 
        Sir George Shearing (August 13, 1919 – February 14, 2011)

Shearing led a popular jazz group for many years that recorded for Discovery
Records, MGM Records and Capitol Records. The composer of over 300 titles,
including the jazz standard "Lullaby of Birdland", he had multiple albums on the
Billboard charts from the 1950s to the 1990s. He died of heart failure in New York
City, at the age of 91.