Veterans Day

November 11th is a day to honor all veterans on a national scale. This particular date is quite significant, given that on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, an armistice was called between the Allied nations and Germany in the First World War. The following year, November 11th was celebrated as Armistice Day. It became a legal federal holiday in 1938. After WWII and the Korean War, the name was changed to Veterans Day to honor American veterans of all wars.

The library has a wide variety of resources to help honor American veterans on November 11th and all year long.

CDs
The Civil War: Its Music and Sounds
United States Army Field Band
United States Marine Band

DVDs
Band of Brothers
The Deer Hunter
Full Metal Jacket
Muse of Fire
The Pacific
Platoon
Vietnam: A Television History
The War
WWII in HD

Fiction Books

All Quiet on the Western Front by Eric Maria Remarque
The Marines of Autumn by James Brady
Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes
The Sandbox by David Zimmerman
The Thin Red Line by James Jones
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson

Non-fiction Books
Helmet for My Pillow by Robert Leckie
Joker One by Donovan Campbell
The Last Stand of Fox Company by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin
Never will We Forget: Oral Histories of WWII by Marilyn Mayer Culpepper
Radioman by Ray Daves

Websites
History.com
Lehigh Valley area Veterans Day events (from The Morning Call)
U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs
Veterans of Foreign Wars

Interesting Facts
~There are currently about 23.2 million military veterans in the United States
~9.2 million of those veterans are over the age of 65
~1.9 million veterans are under the age of 35
~Congress passed a bill that moved Veterans Day to the fourth Monday in October, in 1968 (the law went into effect in 1971.) President Ford returned the holiday back to November 11th in 1975, due to the date's historical importance
~Britain, France, Australia and Canada also honor the vets of WWI and WWII on or near November 11th

How will you commemorate Veterans Day this year?

Interesting facts found on History.com's Veterans Day Facts page.
Information about Veterans Day found on History.com's Veterans Day page.