How is Memorial Day different from Veterans Day?
Both national holidays, Memorial Day and Veterans Day, honor the sacrifice of Americans who served in the U.S. Armed Forces and celebrate the people who served and the values Americans hold as a nation: duty, honor and civic responsibility. Each holiday, though they commemorate the sacrifices of thousands of American service members, is distinctly different. The establishment of Veterans Day as a national holiday grew out of U.S. involvement in World War I. The holiday was called “Armistice Day” and marked the end of hostilities at 11 a.m. on Nov. 11, 1918 — the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the year. After World War II, with even more Americans under arms, Representative Edwin K. Rees of Kansas proposed the day be celebrated as Veterans Day. Rees proposed the holiday as an occasion to honor those who served America in all wars instead of just World War I. Shortly afterward, in 1954, President Dwight Eisenhower signed the bill which officially changed the
