Veterans Day - Tomb of the Unknowns - Birmingham

“The Great War”, World War I, officially ended when the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919. Fighting, however, actually ceased seven months prior to the Treaty when an armistice between the Allied nations and Germany went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. For that reason, November 11, 1918, is generally regarded as the end of “the war to end all wars.”

In November 1919, President Wilson proclaimed November 11 as the first commemoration of Armistice Day. The United States Congress officially recognized the end of World War I when it passed a concurrent resolution on June 4, 1926. An Act (52 Stat. 351; 5 U. S. Code, Sec. 87a) approved May 13, 1938, made the 11th of November in each year a legal holiday known as "Armistice Day." Public Law 380, on June 1, 1954, changed Armistice to Veterans and November 11th became Veterans Day.

The Veterans Day National Ceremony is held on November 11th at Arlington National Cemetery. At 11:00 a.m., a color guard renders honors to America's war dead during a ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns. The ceremony takes place inside the Memorial Amphitheater. For more information, go to The United States Department of Veterans Affairs site at http://www1.va.gov/opa/vetsday/

The Nation’s oldest and largest Veteran’s Day celebration is in Birmingham, Alabama. As part of the celebration each year, a National Veterans Award is given to honor an outstanding veteran in the United States who has made the greatest contribution to further the patriotic interests of veterans and veteran organizations throughout the country. The recipient of the National Veterans Award for 2009 is Admiral Frank B. Kelso II, USN Retired. The dinner speaker at the award ceremony will be Mr. Thomas T. Tradewell, Sr., Commander-in-Chief, Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States. Judson E. Bennett, Jr., director of the National Museum of the United States Army, will be the guest speaker for The World Peace Luncheon. The celebration is capped off by a parade through downtown Birmingham from 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm. For more information, go to The National Veterans Day site at http://www.nationalveteransday.org/