VIDEO: A Look Back on the History of Veteran’s Day

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI)- Once a year, at 11 am on the 11th day of the 11th month, we stop and honor our veterans.

It happened all around north Mississippi today, including Columbus, where the Veterans of Foreign Wars held their own ceremony.

This holiday has been a part of this nation for nearly one hundred years.

It’s a day for honoring those who have served and those who have fallen.

“It shows that we unite as a nation. It shows our history, and it shows that we can literally make it through anything,” said veteran, Taylor Morrison.

One of the things that we can literally make it through would be a Great War.

Nearly a century ago, Allied forces defeated the German army by agreeing to an armistice, otherwise known as a ceasefire, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

The war was basically won, but it wasn’t until June of that next year that leaders signed the Treaty of Versailles to officially end it.

Aside from the leaders, it was the soldiers who fought the long battle to victory.
throughout the decades of our nations history they are the ones who preserve our freedom.

“We live in a great nation. We have privileges that other nations don’t have, and… Because of the veterans of America we’ve been able to keep these privileges,” said VFW Post Chaplain, Bill Wesley.

Over the years following World War I, the day slowly made its way onto the calendar.

In 1926, Congress passes a resolution for the annual recognition.

In 1938, the day, November 11th, became recognized as a nation holiday, Armistice Day, and in ’54 President Eisenhower changed the name to focus more on where the credit is due: the veterans.

“It’s an opportunity, for not only just us veterans but the general populace, to take advantage of the opportunity to thank all of those who have served both past and present and future,” said VFW Post member Robert Clark.

“It’s a time that we honor… All of our veterans, those who have passed and those who are living, for their service they have done,” said Post Commander, Phil Lovell.

Almost a hundred years in the books for Veteran’s Day celebrations; here’s to another hundred for our brave men and women.