11/11/2014
President Woodrow Wilson first proclaimed Veterans Day (then known as Armistice Day) on November 11, 1919. As he proclaimed this national holiday, Wilson said, “To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country's service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations.” However, Veterans Day did not become a yearly tradition until Congress passed a resolution in 1938, making every November 11th in each year a legal holiday.
It was originally named ‘Armistice Day’ in reference to the formal ending of WWI, however, in 1945, a WWII veteran named Raymond Weeks had the idea to expand the holiday to celebrate all veterans, not just those who dies in WWI. The idea caught on, sparking Congress to eventually rename the day Veterans Day in 1954, to which it has been known every year since (wikipedia.org).
