A dedicated day to honor American military personnel who have died while serving in the United States Armed Forces.
After World War I, the day became an occasion for honoring those who died in all of America's wars and was then more widely established as a national holiday throughout the United States.
This U.S. federal holiday is observed on the last Monday of May to honor the men and women who have died while serving in the military. It was formerly known as Decoration Day
In 1869, the head of an organization of Union veterans, Maj. Gen. John A. Logan, established Decoration Day as a way for the nation to honor the graves of those who died in the Civil War with flowers
It is said that Logan, a staunch defender of the Union, believed Memorial Day should occur when flowers are in full bloom across the country, according to the National Museum of the U.S. Army.
In the war-torn battlefields of Europe, the common red field poppy was one of the first plants to reappear. The poppy came to represent the immeasurable sacrifice made by his comrades.