Today is: Memorial Day

News-Messenger/News Herald
·1 min read
Members of the Waukesha Police Department march in the Waukesha Memorial Day parade in 2022.
Members of the Waukesha Police Department march in the Waukesha Memorial Day parade in 2022.

Memorial Day honors men and women who have died while serving in the U.S. military. It began in the years following the Civil War, a war in which more soldiers sacrificed their lives than in any previous conflict. After the war ended in 1865, the first national cemeteries were established. By the late 1860s, Americans started having springtime tributes to fallen soldiers.,

On May 5, 1868, a proclamation was made by General John A. Logan, commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, a Northern Civil War veterans organization, calling for a day of decoration and national remembrance for May 30 of that year.

In 1968, the Uniform Monday Holiday Act was passed, and the holiday was moved from May 30 to the last Monday in May. This went into effect in 1971, the same year the holiday also became an official federal holiday.

Source: Checkiday.com

This article originally appeared on Fremont News-Messenger: Today is: Memorial Day