Restaurants and other retailers across the United States are offering free or discounted items and service to the nation's military veterans Wednesday in honor of the annual Veterans Day holiday observance.
The special tokens of appreciation will take place alongside more traditional and somber observances, including the laying of a wreath by President Barack Obama at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, just across the Potomac River from the nation's capital.
The Veterans Day holiday, which pays tribute to all men and women who have served in the U.S. military, dates back to 1919, when President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed November 11 as Armistice Day to celebrate the end of fighting exactly one year earlier in World War One - "the war to end all wars" - between Germany and the allied nations of Britain, France and the United States. The armistice famously went into effect at "the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month."
Armistice Day became an official U.S. holiday in 1938, and remained so until 1954, when it was renamed Veterans Day in the aftermath of both World War Two and the Korean War. It is separate from Memorial Day, which is observed on the last Monday in May and honors servicemen and women killed in war.
The U.S. Veterans Day holiday also coincides with other World War One-era holidays around the world, including Remembrance Day in Britain and the Commonwealth nations of Australia and Canada.