Armistice Day Became Veterans Day

World War I ended, June 28, 1919, with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. The fighting had ended seven months earlier with the armistice, signed on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918. Armistice Day, as November 11 became known, officially became a holiday in the United States in 1926, and a national holiday in 1938. On June 1, 1954, the name was changed to Veterans Day, honoring all U.S. veterans.

In 1968, new legislation changing four holidays, including Veterans Day, to Mondays, creating three-day government weekends. Veterans Day was to be celebrated on the fourth Monday of October. It soon became obvious that America was not buying the change and not about to change Veterans Day because November 11 was a date of historic significance to so many Americans. Because of this the government backed off the change and in 1978 Congress returned the observance to its traditional date.