Veterans Day 2019 trivia: 54 amazing facts the federal holiday

Veterans Day 2019 is on November 11 and is a federal holiday in the United States. This day honors military veterans.

So let’s dive into some trivia and facts about this holiday!

1. Veterans Day is a federal holiday in the United States
2. It was originally known as Armistice Day
3. It is observed annually on November 11
4. This holiday is for honoring military veterans
5. The people who have served in the United States Armed Forces and were discharged under conditions other than dishonorable
6. It coincides with other holidays including Armistice Day and Remembrance Day
7. These are celebrated in other countries that mark the anniversary of the end of World War I
8. Major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918
9. Then the Armistice with Germany went into effect
10. At the urging of major U.S. veteran organizations, Armistice Day was renamed Veterans Day in 1954
11. Veterans Day is distinct from Memorial Day, a U.S. public holiday in May
12. Veterans Day celebrates the service of all U.S. military veterans
13. While Memorial Day honors those who have died while in military service
14. There is another military holiday, Armed Forces Day
15. This is a U.S. remembrance that also occurs in May
16. It honors those currently serving in the U.S. military
17. On November 11, 1919, U.S. president Woodrow Wilson issued a message to his countrymen on the first Armistice Day
18. In which he expressed what he felt the day meant to Americans
19. The United States Congress adopted a resolution on June 4, 1926
20. Requesting that President Calvin Coolidge issue annual proclamations calling for the observance of November 11 with appropriate ceremonies
21. A Congressional Act (52 Stat. 351; 5 U.S. Code, Sec. 87a) approved May 13, 1938, made November 11 in each year a legal holiday
22. A day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as ‘Armistice Day’
23. In 1945, World War II veteran Raymond Weeks from Birmingham, Alabama, had the idea to expand Armistice Day to celebrate all veterans
24. Not just those who died in World War I
25. Weeks led a delegation to Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, who supported the idea of National Veterans Day
26. Weeks led the first national celebration in 1947 in Alabama and annually until his death in 1985
27. President Reagan honored Weeks at the White House with the Presidential Citizenship Medal in 1982 as the driving force for the national holiday
28. Elizabeth Dole, who prepared the briefing for President Reagan, determined Weeks as the “Father of Veterans Day”
29. U.S. representative Ed Rees from Emporia, Kansas, presented a bill establishing the holiday through Congress
30. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, also from Kansas, signed the bill into law on May 26, 1954
31. It had been eight and a half years since Weeks held his first Armistice Day celebration for all veterans
32. Congress amended the bill on June 1, 1954, replacing “Armistice” with “Veterans,” and it has been known as Veterans Day since
33. The National Veterans Award was also created in 1954
34. Congressman Rees of Kansas received the first National Veterans Award in Birmingham, Alabama, for his support offering legislation to make Veterans Day a federal holiday
35. Although originally scheduled for celebration on November 11 of every year, starting in 1971 in accordance with the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, Veterans Day was moved to the fourth Monday of October
36. In 1978, it was moved back to its original celebration on November 11
37. While the legal holiday remains on November 11, if that date happens to be on a Saturday or Sunday, then organizations that formally observe the holiday will normally be closed on the adjacent Friday or Monday, respectively
38. Because it is a federal holiday, some American workers and many students have Veterans Day off from work or school
39. When Veterans Day falls on a Saturday then either Saturday or the preceding Friday may be designated as the holiday
40. Whereas if it falls on a Sunday it is typically observed on the following Monday
41. When it falls on the weekend many private companies offer it as a floating holiday where employee can choose some other day
42. A Society for Human Resource Management poll in 2010 found that 21 percent of employers planned to observe the holiday in 2011
43. Non-essential federal government offices are closed
44. No mail is delivered. All federal workers are paid for the holiday
45. Those who are required to work on the holiday sometimes receive holiday pay for that day in addition to their wages
46. In his Armistice Day address to Congress, Wilson was sensitive to the psychological toll of the lean War years
47. As Veterans Day and the birthday of the United States Marine Corps (November 10, 1775) are only one day apart
48. That branch of the Armed Forces customarily observes both occasions as a 96-hour liberty period
49. Election Day is a regular working day, while Veterans Day, which typically falls the following week, is a federal holiday
50. The National Commission on Federal Election Reform called for the holidays to be merged, so citizens can have a day off to vote
51. They state this as a way to honor voting by exercising democratic rights
52. The holiday is commonly printed as Veteran’s Day or Veterans’ Day in calendars and advertisements
53. The United States Department of Veterans Affairs website states that the attributive (no apostrophe) rather than the possessive case is the official spelling
54. Because it is not a day that ‘belongs’ to veterans, it is a day for honoring all veterans