WARS, ARMISTICE, VETERANS, and COMMITTEES

On November 11, we’ll observe ‘Veterans day’.

As a holiday, it started out as ‘Armistice Day’ and was put in place by Woodrow Wilson in 1919 to commemorate the cessation of hostilities a year earlier in what was then called the “Great War”, or the “War to End All Wars”. Roughly 10 million people were killed in that war and at the time it was thought to be the most terrible human caused event of all time (which, after reading 1491, may not be fully true).

The Great War ended on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918.


Of course the war to end all wars did not end all wars.

We renamed it World War I after World War II . Roughly 60 million died in World War II. Then, after Korea, we stopped calling them wars.

In 1954, in recognition of both the 2nd world war and Korea, the word ‘Armistice’ was replaced by the word ‘Veterans’ and ‘Veterans Day’ was created. Still celebrated on November 11th.

Then a committee got involved, and in 1968 the ‘Uniform Holiday Bill’ was passed to ensure Federal workers got as many 3 day weekends as possible. Washington’s Birthday (now presidents day), Memorial Day, Columbus Day, as well as Veterans day were linked to Mondays. That change was to start in 1971.

And, on Monday, October 25th of 1971, there was great confusion. As it turns out, there was a great number of the population that thought November 11th had great significance.

President Ford, in 1975, reverted ‘Veterans Day’ back to November 11th, regardless of what day of the week it occurred, and that started in 1978, which is where it continues today. And in 2013, it turns out that November 11 is a Monday.

Without at all trying to say that one war was worse than another, the popular press will likely focus on the most recent conflicts. It’s highly likely that the world could have looked very much different had WWI and WWII turned out different. The last veteran from WWI passed away a few years ago. The ranks of WWII vets are being thinned daily.