Memorial Day was first commemorated in both the North and South of the U.S. in 1866 in honor of the soldiers killed in the U.S. Civil War. In 1868, General Jonathan Logan, commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, the organization for Northern Civil War veterans, established May 30 as the official day of observance to honor all those who had given their lives in service of their country. The day was called Decoration Day, and was also intended as a day of reconciliation.

In 1882, the name was changed from Decoration Day to Memorial Day to honor soldiers who had died in all previous wars, not only in the Civil War. In the North it was a designated legal holiday. The South honored their war dead on a different day until after World War I. In 1971, President Richard Nixon declared Memorial Day a national holiday, to be observed on the last Monday in May.

We wish you a happy unofficial start of summer on Monday and we honor our fallen soldiers and those who continue to risk their lives in service of their country.

For more information on the history of Memorial Day:

http://exchanges.state.gov/englishteaching/resources-et/celebrate/federal-holidays/pdfs/memorialday.pdf