Veterans Day
11 November 2026
Veterans Day is a federal holiday on 11 November. It honors everyone who has served in the U.S. armed forces, in war and in peacetime, and it is not the same as Memorial Day, which honors those who died in service. In 2026 it falls on a Wednesday, and federal offices, banks and most schools close.
The date comes from the armistice that ended the fighting in World War I, which took effect at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918. In November 1919, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the first commemoration of Armistice Day. Congress recognized the anniversary in a concurrent resolution in 1926, by which time 27 states had already made 11 November a legal holiday.
An act approved on 13 May 1938 made 11 November a legal federal holiday known as Armistice Day, honoring veterans of World War I. In 1954, after World War II and the Korean War, the 83rd Congress struck the word Armistice and inserted Veterans. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the change on 1 June 1954 and issued the first Veterans Day proclamation that October.
The Uniform Holiday Bill of 1968 moved four holidays to Mondays, Veterans Day among them, and the first observance under the new law fell on 25 October 1971. States and veterans’ organizations objected, and Congress moved it back: Public Law 94-97, signed on 20 September 1975, returned the holiday to 11 November beginning in 1978.
The day is observed on 11 November whatever weekday it lands on. When it falls on a weekend, federal employees get the Friday or the Monday instead (OPM). There is a wreath-laying at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, and the first unidentified American soldier from World War I was buried there on 11 November 1921.
Sources
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, “History of Veterans Day”
- U.S. Office of Personnel Management, “Federal Holidays”
- Congressional Research Service, “Federal Holidays: Evolution and Current Practices” (R41990)
- HISTORY, “Veterans Day 2026: Founding, Facts & Meaning”
- Timeanddate.com, “Holidays and Observances in the United States in 2026”
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