As every schoolboy knows — well, no, they don't, but I've always wanted to begin a paragraph with that — Armistice Day commemorates the cessation of the Great War, so inaccurately dubbed the War to End All Wars by Woodrow Wilson, on November 11, 1918.

Armistice Day in these United States was established by Congressional resolution in 1926, as a day of 'thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations.' It was elevated to a national holiday in 1938, when perpetuating peace still seemed like a good idea to many members of Congress. Sixteen years and two wars later, this occasion for somber and pacific reflection was restyled 'Veterans Day.'