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79-482: Scheduled route service (called The Breeze until early 2008) consists of seven year-round lines covering every town on mainland Cape Cod. During the summer months (late June through early September) service runs seven days a week from approximately 5:30 am until midnight, and is complemented by local shuttles in downtown Hyannis, Provincetown, and Woods Hole. Service is somewhat reduced in the shoulder season ( Memorial Day to late June and Labor Day to Columbus Day ) and

158-528: A Ride Transportation" (formerly known as the "B-Bus") is the authority's federally mandated door to door paratransit service. Unlike many transit agencies (such as MBTA 's THE RIDE) riders do not need to qualify on the basis of disability or income, and any person who resides within CCRTA's service area can utilize DART. Fares are $ 3 each way or $ 1.50 for seniors and disabled, and unlike fixed route service, DART can be scheduled on Sundays. The CapeFLYER service

237-527: A day early on April 25, 1866, gathered together at Friendship Cemetery to decorate the graves of the Confederate soldiers. They also felt moved to honor the Union soldiers buried there, and to note the grief of their families, by decorating their graves as well. The story of their gesture of humanity and reconciliation is held by some writers as the inspiration of the original Memorial Day. According to

316-484: A footnote to a story about her brother, Mrs. Sophie (Keller) Hall described how she and Emma Hunter decorated the grave of Emma's father, Reuben Hunter, and then the graves of all soldiers in the cemetery. The original story did not account for Reuben Hunter's death occurring two months later on September 19, 1864. It also did not mention Mrs. Elizabeth Myers as one of the original participants. A bronze statue of all three women gazing upon Reuben Hunter's grave now stands near

395-453: A key role in using Memorial Day rituals to preserve Confederate culture. Various dates ranging from April 25 to mid-June were adopted in different Southern states. Across the South, associations were founded, many by women, to establish and care for permanent cemeteries for the Confederate dead, organize commemorative ceremonies, and sponsor appropriate monuments as a permanent way of remembering

474-532: A national holiday. . . . [W]e can keep alive the memory of debt we owe them by dedicating at least one day in the year, by embellishing their humble graves with flowers, therefore we beg the assistance of the press and the ladies throughout the South to help us in the effort to set apart a certain day to be observed, from the Potomac to the Rio Grande and be handed down through time as a religious custom of

553-619: A sacred charge upon a Nation's gratitude—the soldiers' and sailors' widow and orphan. — John A. Logan , May 5, 1868 On May 5, 1868, General John A. Logan issued a proclamation calling for "Decoration Day" to be observed annually and nationwide; he was commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), an organization of and for Union Civil War veterans founded in Decatur, Illinois . With his proclamation, Logan adopted

632-460: A sacred event. With the Civil War, a new theme of death, sacrifice, and rebirth enters the civil religion. Memorial Day gave ritual expression to these themes, integrating the local community into a sense of nationalism. The American civil religion, in contrast to that of France, was never anticlerical or militantly secular; in contrast to Britain, it was not tied to a specific denomination, such as

711-518: A series of articles published around 1850 called The Class Struggles in France . Rasmus B. Anderson in 1889 described an episode in Teutonic mythology as a "world war" (Swedish: världskrig ), justifying this description by a line in an Old Norse epic poem, " Völuspá : folcvig fyrst I heimi" ("The first great war in the world"). German writer August Wilhelm Otto Niemann used the term "world war" in

790-894: A widespread and prolonged fear of a potential third world war between nuclear-armed powers. It is often suggested that it would become a nuclear war , and be more devastating and violent than both the First and Second World Wars. Albert Einstein is often quoted as having said in 1947 that "I know not with what weapons World War   III will be fought, but World War   IV will be fought with sticks and stones." It has been anticipated and planned for by military and civil authorities, and it has also been explored in fiction . Scenarios have ranged from conventional warfare to limited or total nuclear warfare. Various former government officials, politicians, authors, and military leaders (including James Woolsey , Alexandre de Marenches , Eliot Cohen , and Subcomandante Marcos ) have attempted to apply

869-403: A worldwide conflict. That caused a very minute conflict between two countries to have the potential to set off a domino effect of alliances, triggering a world war. The fact that the powers involved had large overseas empires virtually guaranteed that such a war would be worldwide, as the colonies' resources would be a crucial strategic factor. The same strategic considerations also ensured that

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948-514: Is an international conflict that involves most or all of the world's major powers . Conventionally, the term is reserved for two major international conflicts that occurred during the first half of the 20th century, World War I (1914–1918) and World War II (1939–1945), although some historians have also characterised other global conflicts as world wars, such as the Nine Years' War , the War of

1027-646: Is earlier in May, an unofficial U.S. holiday for honoring those currently serving in the armed forces, and Veterans Day on November 11, which honors all those who have served in the United States Armed Forces. A variety of cities and people have claimed origination of Memorial Day. In some such cases, the claims relate to documented events, occurring before or after the Civil War. Others may stem from general traditions of decorating soldiers' graves with flowers, rather than specific events leading to

1106-449: Is limited in the off season when four of the eight routes do not run and the remainder only operate 5:30 am to 8 pm, Monday through Friday with most routes having reduced service on Saturday. The Flex is unique in that passengers may board or disembark up to 3/4 mile from the actual route itself. Off-route pickups can be scheduled by calling CCRTA customer service. Higher fares apply when boarding or disembarking off-route. DART or "Dial

1185-676: Is scheduled passenger rail service that runs between South Station in Boston and the Hyannis Transportation Center . The service operates on Friday evenings and on weekends from Memorial Day through Labor Day . Distance based fares were eliminated in 2006. RFID equipped electronic fareboxes were introduced in 2012. Passengers may now pay their fares with an MBTA Charlie Card or cash. As of January 2013, CCRTA fares are as follows: *Valid for 31 days after initial validation. Free transfers are available between

1264-523: Is set differently by each family or church for each cemetery to coordinate the maintenance, social, and spiritual aspects of decoration. Poems commemorating Memorial Day include: (federal) = federal holidays, (abbreviation) = state/territorial holidays, (religious) = religious holidays, (cultural) = holiday related to a specific racial/ethnic group or sexual minority , (week) = week-long holidays, (month) = month-long holidays, (36) = Title 36 Observances and Ceremonies World war A world war

1343-905: Is the only conflict in which nuclear weapons have been used; both Hiroshima and Nagasaki , in the Japanese Empire , were devastated by atomic bombs dropped by the United States. The main Axis powers were Nazi Germany , the Empire of Japan , and the Kingdom of Italy ; while the United Kingdom , the United States , the Soviet Union and China were the " Big Four " Allied powers. Nazi Germany , led by Adolf Hitler ,

1422-722: The Richmond Times-Dispatch in 1906. This decoration was for the funeral of the first soldier killed during the Civil War, John Quincy Marr , who died on June 1, 1861, during a skirmish at the Battle of Fairfax Courthouse in Virginia. On April 26, 1865, in Jackson, Mississippi , Sue Landon Vaughan decorated the graves of Confederate and Union soldiers according to her account. The first reference to this event however did not appear until many years later. Mention of

1501-1105: The Byzantine–Sasanian War of 602–628 "the World War of the 7th century" because it evolved into a war between the fourfold alliance of the Chinese Empire , the Western Turkic Khaganate , the Khazars , and the Byzantine Empire against a triple union of the Sasanian Empire , the Avars , and the Eastern Turkic Khaganate , with proxy conflicts in Afro-Eurasia (like the Aksumite–Persian wars ) and across

1580-496: The Church of England . The Americans borrowed from different religious traditions so that the average American saw no conflict between the two, and deep levels of personal motivation were aligned with attaining national goals. Since 1867, Brooklyn, New York, has held an annual Memorial Day parade which it claims to be the nation's oldest. Grafton, West Virginia , and Ironton, Ohio have also had an ongoing parade since 1868. However,

1659-825: The Nine Years' War (1689–1697), the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714), the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748), the French Revolutionary Wars (1792–1802), and the Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815). British historian John Robert Seeley dubbed all of those wars between France and Great Britain (later the UK) between 1689 and 1815 (including the American Revolutionary War from 1775 to 1783) as

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1738-963: The Old World . Others consider that the Ottoman–Portuguese confrontations and Ottoman–Habsburg wars can be considered as world conflicts, prototypes of the " Great Game " in Eurasia and the Scramble for Africa , but between two main power-projecting and religious blocs, the Ottomans , as holders of the Muslim Caliphate , and the Habsburgs , as Holy Roman Emperor . However, the Americas and Oceania were not involved in those conflicts, in which case, other historians consider

1817-723: The Second Hundred Years' War , echoing an earlier period of conflict between France and England known as the Hundred Years' War (1337–1453). Some writers have referred to the American Revolutionary War alone as a world war. Others (like William R. Thompson or Chase-Dunn and Sokolovsky) also wants to include the Italian Wars and Dutch wars [ Dutch-Spanish and Anglo-Dutch Wars ] as part of Global Wars, while clasificating WW1 and WW2 as

1896-645: The Thirty Years' War and Eighty Years' War (specially Iberian–Dutch War ) as the first global conflict, pitting the Spanish and Portuguese Empires against the French , Dutch , and British Empires and their allies (mostly Protestants , like Danish and Swedish oversea expeditions) across the five continents. Another possible example is the Second Congo War (1998–2003) even though it

1975-479: The Uniform Monday Holiday Act , which moved four holidays, including Memorial Day, from their traditional dates to a specified Monday in order to create a convenient three-day weekend. The change moved Memorial Day from its traditional May 30 date to the last Monday in May. The law took effect at the federal level in 1971. In 1913, an Indiana veteran complained that younger people born since

2054-535: The United States Library of Congress , "Southern women decorated the graves of soldiers even before the Civil War’s end. Records show that by 1865, Mississippi, Virginia, and South Carolina all had precedents for Memorial Day." The earliest Southern Memorial Day celebrations were simple, somber occasions for veterans and their families to honor the dead and tend to local cemeteries. In following years,

2133-473: The Yemeni civil war (2014–present), and their worldwide spillovers are sometimes described as proxy wars waged by the United States and Russia, which led some commentators to characterize the situation as a "proto-world war", with many countries embroiled in overlapping conflicts. The Seven Years' War (1754/56–1763) was fought across all of North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America. Most of

2212-551: The half-staff position, where it remains only until noon. It is then raised to full-staff for the remainder of the day. The National Memorial Day Concert takes place on the west lawn of the United States Capitol . Scholars, following the lead of sociologist Robert Bellah , often make the argument that the United States has a secular " civil religion "—one with no association with any religious denomination or viewpoint—that has incorporated Memorial Day as

2291-508: The "baptism of blood" on the battlefield. In the national capital in 1913 the four-day "Blue-Gray Reunion" featured parades, re-enactments, and speeches from a host of dignitaries, including President Woodrow Wilson , the first Southerner elected to the White House since the War. James Heflin of Alabama gave the main address. Heflin was a noted orator; his choice as Memorial Day speaker

2370-694: The Confederate dead. The most important of these was the United Daughters of the Confederacy , which grew throughout the South. Changes in the ceremony's hymns and speeches reflect an evolution of the ritual into a symbol of cultural renewal and conservatism in the South. By 1913, David Blight argues, the theme of American nationalism shared equal time with the Confederate. By the 20th century, various Union memorial traditions, celebrated on different days, merged, and Memorial Day eventually extended to honor all Americans who fought and died while in

2449-607: The Confederate prison camp located there. After the city fell, the freed Black population unearthed and properly buried the soldiers, placing flowers at their graves. The event was reported contemporaneously in the Charleston Daily Courier and the New-York Tribune . Historian David Blight has called this commemoration the first Memorial Day. However, no direct link has been established between this event and General John Logan 's 1868 proclamation for

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2528-540: The Global German Wars , and the Coalition Wars with Wars of Louis XIV as the 2nd and 1st Global French Wars . However, other historians prefer to see all of those conflicts as "Hegemonic Wars" or "General Wars", been inter-regional wars on the grand scale, but not worldly. Other historians suggest even earlier conflicts to be world wars. For example, Russian ethnologist L. N. Gumilyov called

2607-555: The Ladies' Memorial Association and other groups increasingly focused rituals on preserving Confederate culture and the Lost Cause of the Confederacy narrative. The 1863 cemetery dedication at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania , included a ceremony of commemoration at the graves of dead soldiers. Some have therefore claimed that President Abraham Lincoln was the founder of Memorial Day. However, Chicago journalist Lloyd Lewis tried to make

2686-848: The Memorial Day parade in Rochester, Wisconsin , predates both the Doylestown and the Grafton parades by one year (1867). In 1915, following the Second Battle of Ypres , Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae , a physician with the Canadian Expeditionary Force , wrote the poem " In Flanders Fields ". Its opening lines refer to the fields of poppies that grew among the soldiers' graves in Flanders . Inspired by

2765-491: The Memorial Day practice that had begun in the Southern states two years earlier. The northern states quickly adopted the holiday. In 1868, memorial events were held in 183 cemeteries in 27 states, and 336 in 1869. One author claims that the date was chosen because it was not the anniversary of any particular battle. Logan's wife noted that the date was chosen because it was the optimal date for flowers to be in bloom in

2844-590: The North. In 1873, New York made Decoration Day an official state holiday and by 1890, every northern state had followed suit. There was no standard program for the ceremonies, but they were typically sponsored by the Women's Relief Corps , the women's auxiliary of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) , which had 100,000 members. By 1870, the remains of nearly 300,000 Union dead had been reinterred in 73 national cemeteries, located near major battlefields and thus mainly in

2923-535: The South. In some cities, mostly in Virginia, other dates in May and June were observed. General John Logan commented on the observances in a speech to veterans on July 4, 1866, in Salem, Illinois . After General Logan's General Order No. 11 to the Grand Army of the Republic to observe May 30, 1868, the earlier version of the holiday began to be referred to as Confederate Memorial Day . Following Mary William's call for assistance, four women of Columbus, Mississippi

3002-613: The South. The letter was reprinted in several southern states and the plans were noted in newspapers in the North . The date of April 26 was chosen, which corresponded with the end date of the war with the surrender agreement between Generals Johnston and Sherman in 1865. The holiday was observed in Atlanta, Augusta, Macon, Columbus and elsewhere in Georgia as well as Montgomery, Alabama; Memphis, Tennessee; Louisville, Kentucky; New Orleans, Louisiana; Jackson, Mississippi, and across

3081-506: The South. The most famous are Gettysburg National Cemetery in Pennsylvania and Arlington National Cemetery , near Washington, D.C. On May 26, 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson designated an "official" birthplace of the holiday by signing the presidential proclamation naming Waterloo, New York , as the holder of the title. This action followed House Concurrent Resolution 587, in which the 89th Congress had officially recognized that

3160-676: The Spanish Succession , the Seven Years' War , the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , the Cold War , and the War on Terror . The Oxford English Dictionary cited the first known usage in the English language to a Scottish newspaper, The People's Journal , in 1848: "A war among the great powers is now necessarily a world-war." The term "world war" is used by Karl Marx and his associate, Friedrich Engels , in

3239-604: The U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces . It is observed on the last Monday of May. Memorial Day is also considered the unofficial beginning of summer in the United States. It is a day for visiting cemeteries and memorials to mourn the military personnel who died in the line of duty. Volunteers will place American flags on the graves of those military personnel in national cemeteries . Others such as family and friends will also come to lay flowers and grieve on

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3318-409: The U.S. military service. Indiana from the 1860s to the 1920s saw numerous debates on how to expand the celebration. It was a favorite lobbying activity of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR). An 1884 GAR handbook explained that Memorial Day was "the day of all days in the G.A.R. Calendar" in terms of mobilizing public support for pensions. It advised family members to "exercise great care" in keeping

3397-462: The Upland South argues for the age of the tradition, which was carried westward (and eastward to Africa) by nineteenth-century migration and has survived in essentially the same form till the present." While these customs may have inspired in part rituals to honor military dead like Memorial Day, numerous differences exist between Decoration Day customs and Memorial Day, including that the date

3476-433: The WOOSH and Sealine as well as the H2O East and West but not between other routes. Daily and monthly passes are valid on all routes, however a surcharge of $ 2.00 ($ 1.00 senior/ disabled) is collected for pass holders riding the Flex who board or disembark off-route. Memorial Day Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day ) is one of the federal holidays in the United States for honoring and mourning

3555-426: The beginning of a Memorial Day practice in the South to a group of women of Columbus, Georgia . The women were the Ladies Memorial Association of Columbus. They were represented by Mary Ann Williams (Mrs. Charles J. Williams) who as association secretary wrote an open letter to the press on March 11, 1866 asking for assistance in establishing an annual holiday to decorate the graves of soldiers throughout

3634-428: The big race to continue, so Governor Warren McCray vetoed the bill and the race went on. Memorial Day endures as a holiday which most businesses observe because it marks the unofficial beginning of summer. ( Labor Day is the unofficial end of summer.) The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) and Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW) advocated returning to the original date. The VFW stated in 2002: Changing

3713-426: The case that it was Lincoln's funeral that spurred the soldiers' grave decorating that followed. On July 4, 1864, ladies decorated soldiers' graves according to local historians in Boalsburg, Pennsylvania . Boalsburg promotes itself as the birthplace of Memorial Day. However, no published reference to this event has been found earlier than the printing of the History of the 148th Pennsylvania Volunteers in 1904. In

3792-498: The combatants would strike at each other's colonies, thus spreading the wars far more widely than those of pre-Columbian times. War crimes were perpetrated in World War I. Chemical weapons were used in the war despite the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 having outlawed the use of such weapons in warfare. The Ottoman Empire was responsible for the Armenian genocide , during the First World War, as well as other war crimes. The Second World War occurred from 1939 to 1945 and

3871-552: The conflict, many ethnic Germans were later expelled from Eastern Europe . Japan was responsible for attacking neutral nations without a declaration of war , such as the attack on Pearl Harbor . It is also known for its brutal treatment and killing of Allied prisoners of war and the inhabitants of Asia . It also used Asians as forced laborers and was responsible for the Nanjing Massacre in which 250,000 civilians were brutally murdered by Japanese troops. Noncombatants suffered at least as badly as or worse than combatants , and

3950-432: The country, to wreathe the graves of our martyred dead with flowers. . . Let the soldiers’ graves, for that day at least, be the Southern Mecca , to whose shrine her sorrowing women, like pilgrims, may annually bring their grateful hearts and floral offerings. . . — Mary Ann Williams , March 11, 1866 The National Cemetery Administration , a division of the Department of Veterans Affairs , and scholars attribute

4029-424: The date merely to create three-day weekends has undermined the very meaning of the day. No doubt, this has contributed a lot to the general public's nonchalant observance of Memorial Day. In 2000, Congress passed the National Moment of Remembrance Act, asking people to stop and remember at 3:00 pm. On Memorial Day, the flag of the United States is raised briskly to the top of the staff and then solemnly lowered to

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4108-441: The distinction between combatants and noncombatants was often blurred by the belligerents of total war in both conflicts. The outcome of the war had a profound effect on the course of world history . The old European empires collapsed or they were dismantled as a direct result of the crushing costs of the war and in some cases, their fall was caused by the defeat of imperial powers. The United States became firmly established as

4187-460: The dominant global superpower , along with its close competitor and ideological foe, the Soviet Union . The two superpowers exerted political influence over most of the world's nation-states for decades after the end of the Second World War. The modern international security, economic, and diplomatic system was created in the aftermath of the war. Institutions such as the United Nations were established to collectivize international affairs, with

4266-404: The end of the Civil War and Logan's declaration. Many cities and people have claimed to be the first to observe it. However, the National Cemetery Administration , a division of the Department of Veterans Affairs , credits Mary Ann Williams with originating the "idea of strewing the graves of Civil War soldiers—Union and Confederate" with flowers. Official recognition as a holiday spread among

4345-484: The entrance to the Boalsburg Cemetery. Although July 4, 1864, was a Monday, the town now claims that the original decoration was on one of the Sundays in October 1864. ... Let us then gather around their sacred remains and garland the passionless mounds above them with the choicest flowers of Springtime; let us raise above them the dear old flag they saved from dishonor; let us in this solemn presence renew our pledges to aid and assist those whom they have left among us as

4424-411: The explicit goal of preventing another outbreak of general war. The wars had also greatly changed the course of daily life. Technologies developed during wartime had a profound effect on peacetime life as well, such as by advances in jet aircraft , penicillin , nuclear energy , and electronic computers . Since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the Second World War, there has been

4503-419: The full sense of the word", citing a wire service report in the Indianapolis Star on 20 September 1914. In English, the term "First World War" had been used by Lieutenant Colonel Charles à Court Repington , as a title for his memoirs (published in 1920); he had noted his discussion on the matter with a Major Johnstone of Harvard University in his diary entry of September 10, 1918. The term "World War I"

4582-440: The graves of those who died in the US military. The first national observance of Memorial Day occurred on May 30, 1868. Then known as Decoration Day and observed on May 30, the holiday was proclaimed by Commander in Chief John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic to honor the Union soldiers who had died in the American Civil War . This national observance followed many local observances which were inaugurated between

4661-403: The great powers of the era participated, notably including the British Empire and French Empire , but polities from many continents played important roles. Some historians call it "World War Zero" as a result. Historians like Richard F. Hamilton and Holger H. Herwig created a list of eight world wars, including the two generally agreed-upon world wars, the Seven Years' War, and five others:

4740-481: The label "Confederate" to their commemorations and claimed that Northerners had appropriated the holiday. The first official celebration of Confederate Memorial Day as a public holiday occurred in 1874, following a proclamation by the Georgia legislature. By 1916, ten states celebrated it, on June 3, the birthday of CSA President Jefferson Davis . Other states chose late April dates, or May 10, commemorating Davis' capture. The Ladies' Memorial Association played

4819-413: The labels of the "Third World War" and the "Fourth World War" to various past and present global wars since the end of the Second World War, such as the Cold War and the war on terror respectively. During the early 21st century, the war in Afghanistan (2001–2021), the Arab Spring (2010–2012), the Syrian civil war (2011–present), the Iraq War (2003–2011), the Russo-Ukrainian War (2014–present),

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4898-444: The leadership of women during the war, an increasingly formal practice of decorating graves had taken shape. In 1865, the federal government also began creating the United States National Cemetery System for the Union war dead. By the 1880s, ceremonies were becoming more consistent across geography as the GAR provided handbooks that presented specific procedures, poems, and Bible verses for local post commanders to utilize in planning

4977-455: The local event. Historian Stuart McConnell reports: on the day itself, the post assembled and marched to the local cemetery to decorate the graves of the fallen, an enterprise meticulously organized months in advance to assure that none were missed. Finally came a simple and subdued graveyard service involving prayers, short patriotic speeches, and music ... and at the end perhaps a rifle salute. In 1868, some Southern public figures began adding

5056-410: The military dead. Appalachian and Liberian cemetery decoration traditions pre-date the United States Memorial Day holiday. According to scholars Alan and Karen Jabbour, "the geographic spread ... from the Smokies to northeastern Texas and Liberia, offer strong evidence that the southern Decoration Day originated well back in the nineteenth century. The presence of the same cultural tradition throughout

5135-418: The national proclamation. Soldiers' graves were decorated in the U.S. before and during the American Civil War . Other claims may be less respectable, appearing to some researchers as taking credit without evidence, while erasing better-evidenced events or connections. On June 3, 1861, Warrenton, Virginia was the location of the first Civil War soldier's grave to be decorated, according to an article in

5214-413: The observance is inscribed on the southeast panel of the Confederate Monument in Jackson, erected in 1891. Vaughan's account is contradicted by contemporary sources. On May 1, 1865, in Charleston, South Carolina , the recently freed Black population held a parade of 10,000 people to honor 257 dead Union soldiers. The soldiers had been buried in a mass grave at the Washington Race Course, having died at

5293-434: The patriotic tradition of observing Memorial Day had begun one hundred years prior in Waterloo, New York. The legitimacy of this claim has been called into question by several scholars. In April 1865, following Lincoln's assassination , commemorations were extensive. The more than 600,000 soldiers of both sides who fought and died in the Civil War meant that burial and memorialization took on new cultural significance. Under

5372-538: The poem, YWCA worker Moina Michael attended a YWCA Overseas War Secretaries' conference three years later wearing a silk poppy pinned to her coat and distributed over two dozen more to others present. The National American Legion adopted in 1920 the poppy as its official symbol of remembrance. Decoration Days in Southern Appalachia and Liberia are a tradition which arose by the 19th century. Decoration practices are localized and unique to individual families, cemeteries, and communities, but common elements that unify

5451-437: The states, beginning with New York in 1873. By 1890, every Union state had adopted it. The world wars turned it into a day of remembrance for all members of the U.S. military who fought and died in service. In 1971, Congress standardized the holiday as "Memorial Day" and changed its observance to the last Monday in May. Two other days celebrate those who have served or are serving in the U.S. military: Armed Forces Day , which

5530-451: The term on its front page, saying "The Second World War broke out yesterday at 11 a.m." Speculative fiction authors had been noting the concept of a Second World War in 1919 and 1920, when Milo Hastings wrote his dystopian novel, City of Endless Night . Other languages have also adopted the "world war" terminology; for example, in French , "world war" is translated as guerre mondiale ; in German , Weltkrieg (which, prior to

5609-418: The title of his anti-British novel, Der Weltkrieg: Deutsche Träume ( The World War: German Dreams ) in 1904, published in English as The Coming Conquest of England . The term "first world war" was first used in September 1914 by German biologist and philosopher Ernst Haeckel , who claimed that "there is no doubt that the course and character of the feared 'European War' ... will become the first world war in

5688-408: The various Decoration Day practices are thought to represent syncretism of predominantly Christian cultures in 19th century Southern Appalachia with pre-Christian influences from Scotland, Ireland, and African cultures. Appalachian and Liberian cemetery decoration traditions are thought to have more in common with one another than with United States Memorial Day traditions which are focused on honoring

5767-554: The veterans sober. Memorial Day speeches became an occasion for veterans, politicians, and ministers to commemorate the Civil War and, at first, to rehash the "atrocities" of the enemy. They mixed religion and celebratory nationalism, allowing Americans to make sense of their history in terms of sacrifice for a better nation. People of all religious beliefs joined, made that German and Irish soldiers – ethnic minorities that Anti-Irish sentiment#19th century faced Anti-German sentiment#United States  – had become true Americans in

5846-585: The war had a "tendency ... to forget the purpose of Memorial Day and make it a day for games, races, and revelry, instead of a day of memory and tears". In 1911 the scheduling of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway car race, later named the Indianapolis 500 , was vehemently opposed by the increasingly elderly GAR. The state legislature in 1923 rejected holding the race on the holiday. But the new American Legion and local officials wanted

5925-641: The war, had been used in the more abstract meaning of a global conflict); in Italian , guerra mondiale ; in Spanish and Portuguese , guerra mundial ; in Danish and Norwegian , verdenskrig ; in Russian , мировая война ( mirovaya voyna ); and in Finnish , maailmansota . The First World War occurred from 1914 to 1918. In terms of human technological history , the scale of World War   I

6004-538: Was coined by Time magazine on page 28 of its June 12, 1939, issue. In the same article, on page 32, the term "World War   II" was first used speculatively to describe the upcoming war. The first use for the actual war came in its issue of September 11, 1939. One week earlier, on September 4, the day after France and the United Kingdom declared war on Germany, the Danish newspaper Kristeligt Dagblad used

6083-420: Was criticized, as he was opposed for his support of segregation; however, his speech was moderate in tone and stressed national unity and goodwill, gaining him praise from newspapers. The name "Memorial Day", which was first attested in 1882, gradually became more common than "Decoration Day" after World War II but was not declared the official name by federal law until 1967. On June 28, 1968, Congress passed

6162-615: Was enabled by the technological advances of the Second Industrial Revolution and the resulting globalization that allowed global power projection and mass production of military hardware. It had been recognized that the complex system of opposing military alliances (the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires against the British , Italian , Russian , and French Empires) was likely, if war broke out, to lead to

6241-535: Was responsible for genocides , most notably the Holocaust , which murdered demographics considered Untermensch by the Nazis. These included about six million Jews and about five million others, such as Slavs , Roma , homosexuals , and the physically and mentally disabled. The United States , the Soviet Union , and Canada deported and interned minority groups within their own borders and, largely because of

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