Here we mark the price of freedom May 25, 2020

Here we mark the price of freedom

Today the United States marks Memorial Day, a day set aside to honor those members of the US armed forces who have died while serving their country. While it was celebrated independently by various towns across the country in the aftermath of the Civil War, Union General John A. Logan was the first to call for a national day of remembrance on May 30, 1868. Originally called Decoration Day, it was a day set aside for the public to offer prayers and honors for those lost to battle and to decorate their graves with flags and flowers. On the first national Decoration Day, over 5,000 widows, orphans, and other mourners attended a ceremony in Arlington National Cemetery, and placed flowers on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers interred there. Originally only a commemoration of those soldiers killed in the Civil War, by the end of WWI it had come to be a holiday honoring all American war casualties from the Revolutionary War onward.

© John Roush II/Getty Images

palette

Today in History

May 25, 2018Cheers! It’s National Wine Day
May 25, 2019Traveling warblers
May 25, 2021An improbable tribute for Towel Day
May 25, 2022The Alhambra in Granada, Spain
May 25, 2023Saksun, Faroe Islands, Denmark
May 25, 2024Aït Benhaddou, Morocco
May 25, 2025Butchart Gardens in Brentwood Bay, British Columbia, Canada

More Desktop Wallpapers:

Nov 9, 2022European hedgehog in Sussex, England
Jun 11, 2023Goliath heron in Kruger National Park, South Africa
Mar 4, 2018Australian baobab tree, Kimberley region, Western Australia
Dec 3, 2019It’s Giving Tuesday
May 1, 2021It s Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
Jun 24, 2024Kelimutu, Flores, Indonesia
Apr 14, 2023Mediterranean red sea stars
Nov 3, 2021World Jellyfish Day
May 21, 2020A visionary artist paints his own garden view
Dec 9, 2022Muskoxen in Dovre-Sunndalsfjella National Park, Norway
Feb 19, 2021Colorful cows of the reef
Mar 10, 2022Bobbio, Italy
Feb 27, 2018A polar bear near Churchill, Manitoba, Canada
Jun 2, 2024National Gardening Week
Jun 11, 2018A Great view from above
Dec 19, 2020Four Sisters, thousands of trees
Jan 5, 2020Digging the birds
Jan 28, 2018Winter scenery near Kuhmo, Finland
Sep 1, 2018Let the Highland games begin
Sep 4, 2019Social climbing
May 11, 2020A tree amid the Tetons
Dec 2, 2019Wild and beautiful Alaska
Apr 14, 2024Bowling Ball Beach in Mendocino County, California
Feb 15, 2020Whales in winter
Jun 17, 2023International Surfing Day
Oct 18, 2020Sitka shines on Alaska Day
Mar 22, 2023World Water Day
Aug 14, 2020In the Navajo Nation for Code Talkers Day
Oct 23, 2022Mute swan
Jul 2, 2021A meerkat stands alone