History of Veterans’ Day
Lest We Forget
A professor once commented,
“We write things down so we can forget them.”
Now, of course, this is true in the sense of writing down appointments so we don’t have to worry about missing meetings. But that’s just it; we do forget things. As individuals, we forget things that are important to us. Companies seem to possess little in the way of corporate memory to do things better the next time. Countries forget the things that have occurred in their past, things that make them unique.
In many parts of the world — Europe in particular and several of the former British Commonwealth countries specifically — there are memorials in the town square commemorating their war heroes, usually with the words “Lest we forget.”
History of Veterans Day
Veterans Day used to be called Armistice Day, commemorating the ending of hostilities on the western front of World War I on November 11, 1918
the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.
At 5:45 am on that day, Germany signed the Armistice (truce) in the Forest of Compiegne, and the order was given for a cease-fire later that morning, after four years of war.
