# History of Veterans Day: Lest We Forget > Reading Time: 3 minutesVeterans Day used to be called Armistice Day, commemorating the ending of hostilities on the western front of World War I on November 11, 1918, the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. At 5:45 am on that day, Germany signed the Armistice (truce) in the Forest of Compiegne, and the order was given for a cease-fire later that morning, after four years of war. > URL: https://billpetro.com/history-of-veterans-day/ > Last modified: 2025-11-10T16:29:00+00:00 Reading Time: 3 minutesRemembrance Day Poppy, Lest We Forget. Image: [Wikimedia](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7a/Lest_we_forget.jpg/640px-Lest_we_forget.jpg) ## HISTORY OF VETERANS DAY [*Podcast version*](https://open.spotify.com/episode/71S47CHyHXQLdwwgX5CxDO?si=a1d4c8a346204c30) Lest we forget… But that’s just it; we *do* forget things. As individuals, we forget things that are important to us. Companies seem to possess little in the way of corporate memory to do things better the next time. Countries forget the things that have occurred in their past, things that make them unique. In many parts of the world — Europe in particular, and several former British Commonwealth countries specifically — there are memorials in town squares commemorating war heroes, usually with the words “*Lest we forget*.”   Table of Contents Toggle - [History of Veterans Day](#History_of_Veterans_Day) - [Inspiration for Veterans Day Poppy](#Inspiration_for_Veterans_Day_Poppy) - [International Veterans Day](#International_Veterans_Day) - [Veterans Day Remembered](#Veterans_Day_Remembered) - [Related](#Related) ### History of Veterans Day NY Times page 1: 11/11/1918. Image: [Wikipedia](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/75/NYTimes-Page1-11-11-1918.jpg/220px-NYTimes-Page1-11-11-1918.jpg) **Veterans Day** used to be called **Armistice Day**, commemorating the ending of hostilities on the Western Front of **World War I** on **November 11, 1918** the *11th* hour of the *11th* day of the *11th* month. At 5:45 am on that day, Germany signed the Armistice (truce) in the *Forest of Compiegne,* and the order was given for a cease-fire later that morning, after four years of war. In the United States in 1919, President **Woodrow Wilson** issued an “Armistice Day” proclamation. However, it was not until Congress passed a resolution in 1926 and then passed a bill 12 years later that it became a federal holiday. But **World War I**, “the War to End All Wars,” was not the final war, and of the 16 million who served in World War II, more than 400,000 died. Birmingham, Alabama, organized a “Veterans Day” parade on November 11, 1947, to honor all of America’s veterans of all wars. In 1953, townspeople in Emporia, Kansas, called the holiday Veterans Day in gratitude to the veterans in their town. Soon after, Congress passed a bill introduced by a Kansas congressman that renamed the federal holiday “Veterans Day.” In 1954, President **Dwight Eisenhower** proclaimed November 11 as Veterans Day, asking Americans to rededicate themselves to the cause of peace.   ### Inspiration for Veterans Day Poppy Flanders Field “No Man’s Land”. Image: [Wikipedia](http://By%20King,%20W.%20L.%20(William%20Lester)%20-%20https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2007663169/,%20Public%20Domain,%20Link)   The initial inspiration for using the poppy in association with this holiday was the 1915 WWI poem by a Canadian soldier, poet, and physician, **John McCrae,** “In Flanders Fields.” It tells how poppies were the first flowers to grow above the graves of soldiers who had died in Flanders, Belgium. *In Flanders fields the poppies blow* *Between the crosses, row on row,* *That mark our place; and in the sky* *The larks, still bravely singing, fly* *Scarce heard amid the guns below. **We are the Dead…*   ### International Veterans Day In Malta and South Africa, the day is called **Poppy Day**; in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United Kingdom, it is called **Remembrance Day**. Roundabout on Penny Lane, Liverpool. Author’s photo In [**The Beatles**](https://billpetro.com/history-beatles-50-years-ago-today/)‘ song *Penny Lane*, **John Lennon** refers to the widespread practice of this day. He had met Nurse Cadet **Beth Davidson** on Penny Lane in Liverpool when she was a young woman, 12 or 13, carrying a tray of poppies to sell: *Behind the shelter in the middle of a roundabout **The pretty nurse is selling Poppies from a tray* … to benefit veterans, the poppy being a symbol of sacrifice. Years later, when I toured **Liverpool**, I took a trip down Penny Lane to this roundabout.   ### Veterans Day Remembered Let there be memorials, tributes, and parades. Let us remember, recognize, and preserve the memory of those who came before us and what freedoms we now enjoy because of their many sacrifices. Memorial from my visit to Dachau. Author’s photo This is one of the reasons I created a [tribute webpage](https://www.billpetro.com/johnpetro) for my father, a World War II veteran and a hero who liberated the concentration camp at [**Dachau**](https://billpetro.com/history-of-dachau-70-years). HBO picked up my father’s story and featured it on [their website](https://web.archive.org/web/20030501060452/http://www.hbo.com/apps/band/site/client/stories/curated_story.jsp?exid=638) back when they ran the [Dachau episode](https://www.hbo.com/band-of-brothers/episodes/9-why-we-fight) of the Steven Spielberg/Tom Hanks miniseries **Band of Brothers,** based on the novel by **Stephen Ambrose**. You can read my history behind Band of Brothers [*here*](http://www.davidkenyonwebster.com). Get yourself a copy of the DVD and watch it. It will be good for your memory.   Some have said that we are raising a generation that knows less about its own history than any generation before it. Let that not be our legacy for the future. *“Lest we forget.”*   Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian [billpetro.com](https://billpetro.com)   [*Subscribe*](http://g003.enterprise.ipost.com/billpetrofriend/prefs) to have future articles delivered to your email. If you enjoyed this article, please consider leaving a comment. ### *Related* [](https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/facebook?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbillpetro.com%2Fhistory-of-veterans-day%2F&linkname=History%20of%20Veterans%20Day%3A%20Lest%20We%20Forget)[](https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/x?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbillpetro.com%2Fhistory-of-veterans-day%2F&linkname=History%20of%20Veterans%20Day%3A%20Lest%20We%20Forget)[](https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/pinterest?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbillpetro.com%2Fhistory-of-veterans-day%2F&linkname=History%20of%20Veterans%20Day%3A%20Lest%20We%20Forget)[](https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/linkedin?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbillpetro.com%2Fhistory-of-veterans-day%2F&linkname=History%20of%20Veterans%20Day%3A%20Lest%20We%20Forget)[](https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/mastodon?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbillpetro.com%2Fhistory-of-veterans-day%2F&linkname=History%20of%20Veterans%20Day%3A%20Lest%20We%20Forget)[](https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/threads?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbillpetro.com%2Fhistory-of-veterans-day%2F&linkname=History%20of%20Veterans%20Day%3A%20Lest%20We%20Forget)[](https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/bluesky?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbillpetro.com%2Fhistory-of-veterans-day%2F&linkname=History%20of%20Veterans%20Day%3A%20Lest%20We%20Forget)[](https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/reddit?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbillpetro.com%2Fhistory-of-veterans-day%2F&linkname=History%20of%20Veterans%20Day%3A%20Lest%20We%20Forget)[](https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/tumblr?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbillpetro.com%2Fhistory-of-veterans-day%2F&linkname=History%20of%20Veterans%20Day%3A%20Lest%20We%20Forget)[](https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/kindle_it?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbillpetro.com%2Fhistory-of-veterans-day%2F&linkname=History%20of%20Veterans%20Day%3A%20Lest%20We%20Forget)[](https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/snapchat?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbillpetro.com%2Fhistory-of-veterans-day%2F&linkname=History%20of%20Veterans%20Day%3A%20Lest%20We%20Forget)[](https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/email?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbillpetro.com%2Fhistory-of-veterans-day%2F&linkname=History%20of%20Veterans%20Day%3A%20Lest%20We%20Forget)[](https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/print?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fbillpetro.com%2Fhistory-of-veterans-day%2F&linkname=History%20of%20Veterans%20Day%3A%20Lest%20We%20Forget)[](https://www.addtoany.com/share)