Archive: Around Town

The monuments in Dewitt Park were decked out for Veterans Day this week.  The holiday began as 'Armistce Day' in 1919 when President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the holiday to celebrate the end of World War I.  In 1938 it was codified as a legal Federal holiday to be celebrated on the 11th day of November each year.

In 1953 Kansas shoe store owner Al King wanted to expand Armistice Day to celebrate all veterans.  He convinced his Congressman to sponsor a bill, which was passed and signed into law by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1954.   Congress officially renamed the holiday 'Veterans Day' later that year.