The annual observance of Veterans Day in the United States on Nov. 11 has its roots in the armistice that ended World War I hostilities in 1918. The armistice between the Allied nations and Germany went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed thereafter that Nov. 11 be observed as “Armistice Day.” In 1954, Congress passed legislation that renamed the federal holiday “Veterans Day,” in recognition of the service of veterans of all U.S. wars.

U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops