VETERANS DAY
Veterans Day is an official United States holiday that honors people who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces, also known as veterans. It is a federal holiday that is observed on November 11. It coincides with other holidays such as Armistice Day and Remembrance Day, which are celebrated in other parts of the world and also mark the anniversary of the end of World War I (major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, when the Armistice with Germany went into effect). The United States also originally observed Armistice Day, it then evolved into the current Veterans Day holiday in 1954.
OBSERVE
Because it is a federal holiday, some American workers and many students have Veterans Day off from work or school. When Veterans Day falls on a Saturday then either Saturday or the preceding Friday may be designated as the holiday, whereas if it falls on a Sunday it is typically observed on the following Monday. A Society for Human Resource Management poll in 2010 found that 21 percent of employers planned to observe the holiday in 2011.
Non-essential federal government offices are closed. No mail is delivered. All federal workers are paid for the holiday. Those who are required to work on the holiday sometimes receive holiday pay for that day in addition to their wages.
In his Armistice Day address to Congress, Wilson was sensitive to the psychological toll of the lean War years. “Hunger does not breed reform, it breeds madness,” he remarked. As Veterans Day and the birthday of the United States Marine Corps (November 10, 1775) are only one day apart, that branch of the Armed Forces customarily observes both occasions as a 96-hour liberty period.
Spelling of Veterans Day
While the holiday is commonly printed as Veteran’s Day or Veterans’ Day in calendars and advertisements (spellings that are grammatically acceptable), the United States government has declared that the attributive (no apostrophe) rather than the possessive case is the official spelling.
Thank a veteran and use #VeteransDay to post on social media.
HISTORY
U.S. President Woodrow Wilson first proclaimed Armistice Day for November 11, 1919. In proclaiming the holiday, 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.”
The United States Congress passed a concurrent resolution seven years later on June 4, 1926, requesting that President Calvin Coolidge issue another proclamation to observe November 11 with appropriate ceremonies. A Congressional Act (52 Stat. 351; 5 U.S. Code, Sec. 87a) approved May 13, 1938, made the 11th of November in each year a legal holiday: “a day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace and to be thereafter celebrated and known as ‘Armistice Day’.”
In 1945, World War II veteran Raymond Weeks from Birmingham, Alabama, had the idea to expand Armistice Day to celebrate all veterans, not just those who died in World War I. Weeks led a delegation to Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, who supported the idea of National Veterans Day. Weeks led the first national celebration in 1947 in Alabama and annually until his death in 1985. President Reagan honored Weeks at the White House with the Presidential Citizenship Medal in 1982 as the driving force for the national holiday. Elizabeth Dole, who prepared the briefing for President Reagan, determined Weeks as the “Father of Veterans Day.”
U.S. Representative Ed Rees from Emporia, Kansas, presented a bill establishing the holiday through Congress. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, also from Kansas, signed the bill into law on May 26, 1954.
Congress amended this act on June 1, 1954, replacing “Armistice” with “Veterans,” and it has been known as Veterans Day since.
The National Veterans Award, created in 1954, also started in Birmingham. Congressman Rees of Kansas was honored in Alabama as the first recipient of the award for his support offering legislation to make Veterans Day a federal holiday, which marked nine years of effort by Raymond Weeks. Weeks conceived the idea in 1945, petitioned Gen. Eisenhower in 1946, and led the first Veterans Day celebration in 1947 (keeping the official name Armistice Day until Veterans Day was legal in 1954).
Although originally scheduled for celebration on November 11 of every year, starting in 1971 in accordance with the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, Veterans Day was moved to the fourth Monday of October. In 1978, it was moved back to its original celebration on November 11. While the legal holiday remains on November 11, if that date happens to be on a Saturday or Sunday, then organizations that formally observe the holiday will normally be closed on the adjacent Friday or Monday, respectively.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veterans_Day
National Sundae Day – November 11
NATIONAL SUNDAE DAY
National Sundae Day is celebrated each year on November 11. Ice cream lovers across the country will celebrate all day, enjoying one (or more) of the most famous ice cream dessert, the ice cream sundae.An ice cream sundae typically consists of one or two scoops of ice cream topped with a syrup or sauce. The sundae is often times topped with whipped cream, maraschino cherry, sprinkles, pineapple or a variety of other toppings.
July 25 – National Hot Fudge Sundae Day
July 7 – National Strawberry Sundae Day
OBSERVE
Make yourself a sundae or go out with friends and order one. Use #NationalSundaeDay to post on social media.
HISTORY
Within our research we were unable to find the creator of National Sundae Day. The oldest known record of an ice cream sundae is an advertisement in the Ithica Daily Journal dated October 5, 1892 with the conventional day of the week spelling – Sunday. It has been hotly debated where the sundae originated. There has been a friendly rivalry between Ithica, New York and Two Rivers, Wisconsin over which city is the true birthplace of the sundae.
The Two Rivers’ claim is that in 1881 Druggist Edward Berners served the sweet concoction when customer George Hallauer ordered an ice cream soda. Because it was the Sabbath, ice cream sodas were prohibited at that time. As a compromise, Berners served the ice cream in a dish without soda and topped it with chocolate syrup. This story is disputed by some because Berners would have only been 18 at the time the story takes place.
In Ithica on a Sunday after church in 1892, Chester Platt, proprietor of Platt & Colt Pharmacy, and the Reverend John M. Scott stopped at the pharmacy to enjoy a bowl of ice cream. Instead of just plain vanilla, Platt topped the scoops with cherry syrup and a candied cherry. The dessert looked and tasted so delightful it required its own name. It was named for the day it was created. Ithica also has some historical evidence supporting the, including the advertisement for a Cherry Sunday
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