Kankakee Times

In a Nov. 11 Facebook post, Sen. Jason Barickman (R-Bloomington) observed Veterans Day.

“To all those who have served, and those who continue to serve… Happy Veterans Day!” Barickman posted on Facebook.

Veterans Day was first known as Armistice Day, celebrating the end of the First World War, when "fighting ceased seven months earlier when an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, between the Allied nations and Germany went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month," according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

The first commemoration of the day was in November 1919, when President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the first Armistice Day. He 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…"

Armistice Day officially received its name in America in 1926 through a Congressional resolution. It became a national holiday 12 years later by similar Congressional action. If the idealistic hope had been realized that World War I was “the War to end all wars,” Nov. 11 might still be called Armistice Day. But only a few years after the holiday was proclaimed, war broke out in Europe. 

The first celebration using the term Veterans Day occurred in Birmingham, Ala., in 1947. Raymond Weeks, a World War II veteran, organized "National Veterans Day," which included a parade and other festivities, to honor all veterans. The event was held on Nov. 11, then designated Armistice Day.