Five takeaways:
- It began as a grassroots holiday– many towns had small yearly celebrations of the sacrifices of the nation’s veterans before the holiday was made official in 1868.
- The holiday was first celebrated after the Civil War, when it was called Decoration Day
- On Memorial Day in 1922, the Lincoln Memorial was dedicated– by Supreme Court Chief Justice and former president William Howard Taft
- In 1971, the Uniform Monday Holiday Act shifted Memorial Day from May 30 to the last Monday in May.
- In 2000, Congress established a National Moment of Remembrance, which asks Americans to pause for one minute at 3 p.m. in an act of national unity.
From David Holzel at Mental Floss:
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