Every Memorial Day, Americans unite to remember and honor those who gave their lives in service of our country. As worthy of a cause as that is, not every state was on board with the idea at first.
The holiday was originally proposed by General John Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic, a group of Union veterans. He wanted a day to honor soldiers who died in the Civil War by covering their graves with flowers. He reportedly chose May 30 because it didn’t overlap with the anniversary of any battles—and plenty of flowers would be in bloom by then.
The first Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, was held on May 30, 1868, at Arlington National Cemetery. A crowd of 5,000 came to decorate the graves of 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers.
New York was the first state to declare Memorial Day an official holiday, and by 1890, all northern states followed suit. The South, however, refused to acknowledge it, even though the day honored soldiers fighting on both sides of the war. Instead, those states made their own days of commemoration for their dead.
It stayed that way until after World War I, when Memorial Day was changed to remember Americans who died fighting in any war. In 1971, the date was changed to the last Monday in May, as per the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which moved federal holidays like Presidents’ Day to a Monday so workers could enjoy more three-day weekends.
But some southern states continue to honor the Confederate dead: January 19 in Texas; April 26 in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi; May 10 in South Carolina; and June 3 in Louisiana and Tennessee.
Want more fascinating facts about America? We’ve got ‘em, history buffs.
from Reader's Digest http://ift.tt/2oAh1pR
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