Today the United States marks Memorial Day, a day set aside to honor those members of the US armed forces who have died while serving their country. While it was celebrated independently by various towns across the country in the aftermath of the Civil War, Union General John A. Logan was the first to call for a national day of remembrance on May 30, 1868. Originally called Decoration Day, it was a day set aside for the public to offer prayers and honors for those lost to battle and to decorate their graves with flags and flowers. On the first national Decoration Day, over 5,000 widows, orphans, and other mourners attended a ceremony in Arlington National Cemetery, and placed flowers on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers interred there. Originally only a commemoration of those soldiers killed in the Civil War, by the end of WWI it had come to be a holiday honoring all American war casualties from the Revolutionary War onward.
Here we mark the price of freedom
Today in History
More Desktop Wallpapers:
-
Wanderin Wawayanda
-
Happy Thanksgiving
-
Night of the ‘Cold Moon’
-
The last thing seen by Wile E. Coyote
-
Patriot Day
-
Sitka shines on Alaska Day
-
Waiting for the perfect shot
-
Happy Star Wars Day!
-
Visiting Ahch-To on Star Wars Day
-
Everglades National Park turns 75
-
International Museum Day
-
When in Rome...celebrate Saturnalia
-
Bohemian Switzerland
-
The Alhambra in Granada, Spain
-
Scottish Blackface sheep, Aberdeenshire, Scotland
-
National Park Week: Yosemite National Park, California
-
Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes in Death Valley National Park, California
-
National Merry-Go-Round Day
-
Happy Halloween!
-
Lunar eclipse
-
Hidden beauty in Thailand
-
Memorial Day
-
Make way for robots
-
National Bison Day
-
Vote!
-
Bungle Bungle Range in Purnululu National Park, Australia
-
International Day of Friendship
-
Chestnut-headed bee-eaters, Bardia National Park, Nepal
-
Pont Alexandre III, Paris, France
-
Registan Square, Samarkand, Uzbekistan
Bing Wallpaper Gallery

