Memorial Day

Memorial Day, formerly known as Decoration Day is a U.S federal holiday that commemorates the men and women who died while in military service.

 Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No. 11, and was first observed on 30 May 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery.

General John Logan

Logan Circle

The first state to officially recognize the holiday was New York in 1873. By 1890 it was recognized by all of the northern states. The South refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days until after World War I --when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war.

It is now celebrated in almost every State on the last Monday in May (passed by Congress with the National Holiday Act of 197. Memorial Day often marks the start of the summer vacation season, and Labor Day its end.

At Arlington National Cemetery today, President Obama expressed the honor and responsibility he feels serving as commander in chief of "one of the finest fighting forces the world has ever known. Venerable warriors who lay here and across this country and around the globe. Each of them adds honor to what it means to be a soldier, sailor, airman, Marine and Coast Guardsman. Each is a link in an unbroken chain that stretches back to the earliest days of our republic. "And on this day, we memorialize them all. We memorialize our first patriots, blacksmiths, farmers, slaves and freed men who never knew the independence they won with their lives. We memorialize the armies of men - and women disguised as men - black and white, who fell in apple orchards and corn fields in a war that saved our union."