136 Fun Facts About Memorial Day

Which president spoke at the 1913 Gettysburg reunion of Union and Confederate veterans?

Woodrow Wilson told the old soldiers of both armies on July 4, 1913: 'We have found one another again as brothers and comrades in arms, enemies no longer.'

A May 2000 Gallup poll found that what share of Americans knew the true meaning of Memorial Day?

28% gave the exact answer in Gallup's survey, that the day honors those who died in war; another 40% said it was for veterans in general, the holiday's most common mix-up.

Between April and September, how often is the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier?

The guard changes every half-hour from April 1 through September 30, hourly from October through March, and every two hours overnight while Arlington is closed to visitors.

Which US state was the first to make Memorial Day an official state holiday, in 1873?

New York made the day a legal state holiday in 1873 and other Northern states followed, while Southern states went on honoring their Confederate dead on separate days.

What was Memorial Day originally called?

Memorial Day was originally known as Decoration Day, because mourners would decorate the graves of fallen soldiers with flowers and flags.

Which US holiday honors all who served in the military, living or dead?

Veterans Day began as Armistice Day, marking the end of World War I on November 11, 1918; it was renamed in 1954 to honor American veterans of all wars.

What is the famous national cemetery in Virginia where many fallen soldiers are buried?

Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, is the most well-known military cemetery in the U.S. and hosts major Memorial Day ceremonies each year.

Memorial Day weekend is often considered the unofficial start of what season?

Memorial Day weekend is widely considered the unofficial start of summer in the United States, marking the beginning of vacation season, outdoor activities, and pool openings.

What war originally gave rise to the tradition that became Memorial Day?

The Civil War killed more Americans than any other conflict, so many that the country created its first national cemeteries; decorating those graves each spring grew into the holiday.

At what hour are Americans asked to pause for the National Moment of Remembrance on Memorial Day?

3:00 PM local time was picked as an hour when most Americans are enjoying the holiday; the idea began in 1996, after children touring Washington said Memorial Day was the day the pools open.

Into what shape is the US flag folded before it is handed to the family at a military funeral?

A triangle is the finished shape, with only the blue field of stars showing; the folded flag is said to recall the cocked hats worn by soldiers of the American Revolution.

On Memorial Day, US flags fly at half-staff only until what time, when they are raised to the top?

Noon ends the mourning: the flag is first run briskly to the top, lowered to half-staff for the morning, then raised to full height for the rest of the day.

What major auto race is traditionally held on Memorial Day weekend?

The Indianapolis 500 was first run in 1911, when winner Ray Harroun fitted what is often called racing's first rear-view mirror instead of carrying a riding mechanic.

Which term, dating to the service flags of World War I, describes families who have lost a member in military service?

Gold Star families take the name from the gold stars on service flags; in 1929 Congress funded pilgrimages that carried thousands of mothers and widows to their men's graves in Europe.

Which U.S. president signed the 1968 act moving Memorial Day to the last Monday in May?

Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act in June 1968 to give federal workers more long weekends; the change took effect in 1971.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, completed in 1982 and later joined by the Three Servicemen statue, is commonly called what?

The Wall's two black granite walls were completed in 1982 and later joined by the Three Servicemen statue in 1984 and the Vietnam Women's Memorial in 1993.

Which 1915 poem by Canadian physician John McCrae inspired the remembrance poppy, worn on Memorial Day?

In Flanders Fields was written on May 3, 1915, after McCrae presided over the funeral of a friend killed at the Second Battle of Ypres; Moina Michael promoted the poppy it inspired.

Which decoration outranks every other in the US military?

The Medal of Honor is presented by the president in the name of Congress, which is why it is often miscalled the Congressional Medal of Honor; it rewards valor 'above and beyond the call of duty'.

Which National Mall memorial features 19 stainless steel statues of soldiers on patrol?

The Korean War Veterans Memorial's 19 steel soldiers reflect in a polished granite wall, appearing as 38 figures, a nod to the 38th parallel that divided Korea.

On what date was Memorial Day originally observed before the Uniform Monday Holiday Act?

Memorial Day was observed on May 30 from the first national observance until 1970, reportedly because that date was no battle's anniversary; the last-Monday observance began in 1971.

Which Grand Army of the Republic commander issued General Order No. 11, calling for a day to decorate soldiers' graves?

John A. Logan, a wartime general turned congressman, issued the order on May 5, 1868; weeks later about 5,000 people decorated some 20,000 soldiers' graves at Arlington.

Arlington's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier contains unidentified remains from how many wars?

Three unknowns rest there: the World War I unknown interred in 1921 and the World War II and Korean War unknowns added in 1958; the Vietnam crypt, filled in 1984, has been empty since 1998.

Nearly 13,000 Union prisoners died at which Confederate prison camp in Georgia, now a national cemetery?

Andersonville held about 45,000 prisoners over the war; a death list secretly kept by prisoner Dorence Atwater later let the graves of some 13,000 men be marked by name.

Who designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.?

Maya Lin was a 21-year-old Yale architecture student when her design won the open national competition, in which entries were judged by number, without names.

What does a Blue Star on a service flag signify?

A family member currently serving is what each blue star stands for; the white banner with a red border hangs in the family's window while that person is in uniform in wartime.

What do the World War II Memorial's 56 granite pillars represent?

States and territories of the 1940s each have one, 48 states, seven territories and the District of Columbia, and the states stand in the order they joined the Union, alternating from side to side.

Which town was declared the 'official' birthplace of Memorial Day by a 1966 presidential proclamation?

Waterloo, New York was honored for a village-wide observance on May 5, 1866, when businesses closed and residents decorated soldiers' graves; other towns still dispute the title.

Roughly how many names are inscribed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.?

About 58,000 names are on the memorial: 57,939 when it was dedicated in 1982, with several hundred added since.

France laid its Unknown Soldier of World War I to rest beneath which Paris monument?

The Arc de Triomphe received him on 11 November 1920, the same day Britain buried its own unknown; an eternal flame added in 1923 is rekindled every evening at 6:30.

The Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington depicts a wartime flag raising on which Pacific island?

Iwo Jima's Mount Suribachi is where six Marines raised the flag on February 23, 1945; sculptor Felix de Weldon modeled the scene the weekend he first saw the photograph.

Which future president, later assassinated in office, gave the address at Arlington's first national Memorial Day ceremony in 1868?

James A. Garfield, then an Ohio congressman and former Union general, spoke before about 5,000 people decorated the graves; he won the presidency in 1880 and was shot months into his term.

Why were guards first posted at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the 1920s?

To stop visitors climbing on it, and even picnicking on the flat slab, a civilian guard was posted in 1925 and soldiers in 1926, by day only; the round-the-clock watch began in 1937.

How many steps does the sentinel at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier take before turning to face the tomb?

The sentinel takes 21 steps, pauses for 21 seconds facing the tomb, then turns and pauses 21 seconds before walking 21 steps back. The number 21 represents the highest military honor, the 21-gun salute.

In which city did formerly enslaved people parade on May 1, 1865 to honor Union dead at a Confederate prison camp?

In Charleston, South Carolina, on May 1, 1865, thousands of freed people and Black Union troops paraded to honor 257 Union prisoners buried at the Washington Race Course; historian David Blight calls it the first Memorial Day.

Anna Guérin, 'The Poppy Lady from France', persuaded which veterans' group to adopt the poppy at its 1920 convention?

The American Legion made the poppy its official flower in September 1920 after hearing her 'Inter-Allied Poppy Day' plan in Cleveland; veterans' groups across the British Empire soon took up the idea.

The Purple Heart descends from the Badge of Military Merit, established in 1782 by whom?

George Washington created the Badge of Military Merit, a heart of purple cloth, at his Newburgh headquarters in August 1782; it lapsed until 1932, when the Army revived it for the bicentennial of his birth.

What is the Purple Heart medal awarded for?

Being wounded or killed in action is what it marks; when the medal was created in 1932, it was also awarded to veterans who had been wounded years earlier in World War I.

In which year did federal law finally declare 'Memorial Day' the holiday's official name?

Congress made 'Memorial Day' the holiday's official name in 1967; the name overtook 'Decoration Day' in popular usage after World War II, decades before it became official.

Which NYC borough has held a Memorial Day parade since 1867 and claims it as the nation's oldest?

Brooklyn's parade has marched since 1867 and bills itself as the oldest run continuously in a large city; it moved to Bay Ridge to be near the Army's Fort Hamilton.

How was the Vietnam War Unknown at Arlington identified in 1998 as Air Force pilot Michael Blassie?

DNA testing was done at his family's request after the remains were exhumed; Blassie was reburied at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St. Louis, and the crypt was left vacant.

Which branch of the military guards the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier?

U.S. Army volunteers from the 3rd Infantry Regiment, 'The Old Guard', keep the watch after months of training and exams; the regiment, serving since 1784, is the Army's oldest active infantry unit.

Approximately how many American service members have died in all U.S. wars combined?

Combat and non-combat military deaths across all U.S. wars from 1775 onward total more than 1.3 million. The Civil War alone accounts for an estimated 655,000 Union and Confederate deaths — more than any other conflict in American history.

Which AP photographer took the 1945 Marines flag-raising picture on Mount Suribachi?

Joe Rosenthal of the Associated Press shot it on February 23, 1945; it won that year's Pulitzer Prize and became the model for the Marine Corps War Memorial.

The Grand Army of the Republic, founded in 1866, was a brotherhood of which veterans?

Union veterans founded it in Decatur, Illinois in April 1866; by 1890, its peak year, it had the political weight to win federal pensions for old soldiers.

Which Confederate general's family estate was seized to create Arlington National Cemetery?

Robert E. Lee's wife Mary Custis Lee owned Arlington; the estate was seized after an 1864 tax dispute, the Supreme Court ruled the seizure unlawful in 1882, and the family sold it back for $150,000.

Why did Quartermaster General Montgomery Meigs have Union dead buried beside the Arlington mansion in 1864?

To keep its owners away, Meigs wanted graves as close to the house as possible; in August 1864 he had 26 soldiers buried along the edge of the family's garden.

Which National Mall memorial was dedicated on Memorial Day in 1922?

The Lincoln Memorial was dedicated on Memorial Day 1922 by Chief Justice William Howard Taft, who had chaired its commission; Lincoln's only surviving son, Robert, took part in the ceremony.

The marble for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was quarried in which state?

Colorado's Yule quarry, near the town of Marble, supplied the stone: 75 men spent a year freeing a 124-ton block, which was sawn down to the tomb's 56-ton centerpiece.

How did Sgt. Edward Younger pick the World War I Unknown from four identical caskets in 1921?

He chose the second casket from the right at the city hall in Chalons-en-Champagne, France.

Which ship carried the World War I Unknown Soldier home from France?

USS Olympia, Commodore Dewey's flagship in the Spanish-American War, carried the Unknown from Le Havre to the Washington Navy Yard in November 1921; she survives as a museum ship in Philadelphia.

Which president officiated when the World War I Unknown Soldier was buried at Arlington on Armistice Day 1921?

Warren G. Harding presided over the ceremony on Armistice Day, November 11, 1921, after the Unknown had lain in state in the Capitol Rotunda.

Which president signed the 1956 bill to honor Unknowns from World War II and Korea?

Dwight D. Eisenhower, the wartime Allied commander in Europe, signed the bill in August 1956 and presided when both Unknowns were buried on Memorial Day 1958.

As of 2025, which rifle did sentinels at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier carry?

M14 rifles are carried as of 2025, always on the shoulder nearer the visitors and away from the Tomb, a sign that the sentinel stands between it and any threat.

What now replaces 'Vietnam' on the cover of the Vietnam Unknown's empty crypt at Arlington?

Words honoring America's missing servicemen, 'Honoring and Keeping Faith with America's Missing Servicemen', mark the crypt, which was rededicated to all the war's missing as a reminder of the pledge to account for them.

Why do Tomb of the Unknown Soldier sentinels wear sunglasses?

Glare reflecting off the marble of the tomb and plaza is the reason; the sentinels' shoes also carry metal plates, which give the sharp click heard on each turn.

Why was late May reportedly chosen for the first national Memorial Day in 1868?

Flowers would be in bloom in the North by late May, one reason given for the date; another account says it was picked precisely because it was not the anniversary of any battle.

Women decorating soldiers' graves at a Mississippi cemetery in 1866 inspired which poem?

'The Blue and the Gray' was Francis Miles Finch's 1867 tribute to the women of Columbus, Mississippi, who had tended Union graves as well as Confederate ones the spring before.

Australia and New Zealand honor their war dead on Anzac Day, the anniversary of a 1915 landing where?

Gallipoli, in Turkey, is where Australian and New Zealand troops came ashore on 25 April 1915; services are still held at dawn, the hour of the original landing.

About how long did Abraham Lincoln speak at the 1863 dedication of the soldiers' cemetery at Gettysburg?

Two minutes or so: Edward Everett, who had spoken first for two hours, wrote to Lincoln the next day that he wished he had come as near the heart of the occasion in two hours as Lincoln had in two minutes.

In the Memorial Day massacre of 1937, Chicago police killed ten people who had gathered for what purpose?

To support striking steelworkers, the crowd marched toward a Republic Steel plant; Republic was one of the smaller 'Little Steel' firms that refused the union contract U.S. Steel had signed.

The National Memorial Day Concert is held each year on the west lawn of which Washington landmark?

The US Capitol's west lawn has hosted the free concert since 1989; between the songs, well-known actors read the real stories of service members, and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff speaks.

Which network broadcasts the National Memorial Day Concert?

PBS airs the concert live each year, and the American Forces Network carries it to US troops serving overseas and aboard Navy ships.

Which veterans' organization registered the name 'Buddy Poppy' for the paper flowers it hands out each May?

Veterans of Foreign Wars registered the name in 1924; its poppies are assembled by disabled and needy veterans, who are paid for the work.

John McCrae wrote 'In Flanders Fields' after presiding over the funeral of which friend?

Lieutenant Alexis Helmer, a close friend, was killed by a shell on May 2, 1915; McCrae presided at his burial and wrote the poem the next day, reportedly discarding it until fellow officers retrieved it.

John McCrae's famous war poem was first published in December 1915 by which London magazine?

Punch printed the poem anonymously on December 8, 1915, after The Spectator had turned it down; within months it was being reprinted under McCrae's name.

At an 1862 burial, Taps was first sounded in place of what customary practice?

Captain John Tidball had Taps sounded at a cannoneer's burial at Harrison's Landing in 1862 instead of firing three rifle volleys, which might have provoked the nearby enemy; it became standard at military funerals in 1891.

The bugle call Taps may take its name from the Dutch 'taptoe', an order to do what?

Close the beer taps is the sense of 'taptoe', the Dutch signal that sent soldiers back to camp and gave English 'tattoo'; Taps is said to come from it, though a rival account points to drum taps struck after the evening call.

What message is inlaid in silver on a granite wall at the Korean War Veterans Memorial?

'Freedom Is Not Free' is inlaid in silver letters on the granite wall beside the Pool of Remembrance; nearby inscriptions list the numbers killed, wounded, missing and held prisoner.

The Korean War Veterans Memorial was dedicated on July 27, 1995, the anniversary of what?

The armistice ending the war was signed on July 27, 1953, and no peace treaty has ever followed; Presidents Bill Clinton and Kim Young Sam dedicated the memorial on its 42nd anniversary.

Each star on the World War II Memorial's Freedom Wall represents how many American dead?

100 American military dead stand behind each of the Freedom Wall's 4,048 stars, more than 400,000 in all, above the words 'Here we mark the price of freedom'.

Which wartime graffiti is hidden in two spots on the World War II Memorial?

'Kilroy was here', the doodle of a long-nosed man peering over a wall that marked American presence wherever GIs went, is engraved in two hidden spots on the memorial.

Which president dedicated the World War II Memorial on the National Mall?

George W. Bush dedicated it on May 29, 2004, a month after it opened, during a four-day reunion of World War II veterans on the National Mall.

Which film inspired veteran Jan Scruggs to start the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund?

Scruggs, a wounded Army veteran, saw The Deer Hunter in March 1979 and conceived a memorial naming every American lost; the fund was incorporated that April, four years after the fall of Saigon.

Why was black granite chosen for the walls of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial?

For its reflective surface: visitors see their own faces among the names. The stone was quarried in India, and the names were lettered in Memphis, Tennessee.

In what order are the names listed on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall?

By date of casualty: the list starts at the center in 1959, runs to the end of the east wall and resumes at the far west end, so the war's first and last names meet in the middle.

The eight women whose names appear on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial all served in which role?

Nurses all, they include Lt. Sharon Lane, the only American servicewoman killed by hostile fire in the war; some 11,000 American women served in Vietnam.

Rolling Thunder's Memorial Day weekend motorcycle ride through Washington began at which landmark?

The Pentagon's parking lot was the staging area: riders set off together, crossed Memorial Bridge and finished near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial; the Washington ride was held for the last time in 2019.

Which NASCAR race runs at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Memorial Day weekend each year?

The Coca-Cola 600 is the longest race on NASCAR's schedule; partway through, the drivers stop and shut off their engines for a moment of silence for the military dead.

Texas calls its state holiday for the Confederacy's war dead by what name?

Confederate Heroes Day has been a Texas state holiday on January 19 since 1973, when lawmakers merged two older holidays for Confederate leaders' birthdays into one.

Several Southern states set Confederate Memorial Day on June 3, the birthday of which leader?

Jefferson Davis, the Confederacy's only president, was born on June 3, 1808; Texas kept his birthday as a state holiday until 1973, when it was folded into a single Confederate observance.

Which Israeli day of remembrance for fallen soldiers falls the day before Independence Day?

Yom HaZikaron precedes Independence Day (Yom HaAtzmaut) so that mourning passes directly into celebration; a one-minute siren stops the country at 8 p.m., followed by a two-minute siren at 11 the next morning.

Which country marks its own Memorial Day on June 6 with a nationwide siren and a minute of silent prayer?

South Korea has kept the day since 1956, soon after the Korean War: the siren sounds at 10 a.m., and the national flag flies at half-mast all day.

The Normandy American Cemetery in France sits on a bluff above which D-Day landing beach?

The cemetery at Colleville-sur-Mer overlooks Omaha Beach, where the American landings of June 6, 1944 were bloodiest; it holds 9,389 American dead across 172.5 acres.

Which president's son, a general who landed on D-Day, is buried at the Normandy American Cemetery?

Theodore Roosevelt Jr., at 56 the oldest man in the invasion, led the first wave ashore at Utah Beach and died of a heart attack weeks later; his brother Quentin, killed in World War I, now lies beside him.

Puowaina, the Hawaiian name of Honolulu's Punchbowl crater cemetery, is most commonly translated as what?

Puowaina means 'Hill of Sacrifice'; the crater was once a site of human sacrifice for taboo-breakers and later held ceremonial cannon under Kamehameha, before becoming the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in 1949.

Wreaths Across America began with a 1992 donation of surplus wreaths from which state?

Morrill Worcester of the Worcester Wreath Company in Harrington, Maine sent 5,000 surplus wreaths to Arlington in 1992; a 2005 photo of snow-covered headstones with wreaths went viral and made it a national event.

Which drink does the winner of the Brickyard's Memorial Day weekend race traditionally swig in Victory Lane?

A bottle of milk became the ritual after the 1936 winner asked for a glass of buttermilk, as his mother had advised on hot days. Drivers now file a choice of whole, 2% or fat-free.

Which cookout food do Americans eat about seven billion of between Memorial Day and early September each year?

Hot dogs go down at a rate of 818 every second through that stretch, which the sausage industry's own council calls peak season.

Which blockbuster opened in just 32 theaters on the Wednesday before Memorial Day weekend in 1977?

Star Wars was finished less than a week before that debut, and George Lucas had pushed for the holiday weekend. It proved a surprise hit and quickly spread to a much wider release.

Which president's grave at Arlington is marked by an eternal flame that his widow lit at the burial?

John F. Kennedy has the flame because Jacqueline Kennedy asked for one the day before the funeral, leaving almost no time to build it. She lit it with a taper at the graveside.

Which 1998 war film opens and closes with an old veteran visiting the Normandy American Cemetery in France?

Saving Private Ryan took those scenes from Steven Spielberg's boyhood visit to the area, when he watched a man fall to his knees in tears at a grave marker.

Which naval tradition docks warships at Manhattan's piers and sends sailors ashore around Memorial Day weekend?

Fleet Week lets the public tour the docked ships while their crews see the city. The custom began in San Diego in 1935, when 114 warships arrived during an exposition.

Which holiday, federal since 1894, is the unofficial close of the vacation season that Memorial Day opens?

Labor Day was already official in thirty states when Congress made it federal, shortly after the Pullman Strike. Oregon had been the first to adopt it, in 1887.

Which clothing color did an old American fashion rule ban once the first Monday of September had passed?

White shared the ban with seersucker, the other uniform of hot-weather dressing. By the 2020s plenty of people had dropped the rule and wore white all year round.

Which Forrest Gump actor began co-hosting the National Memorial Day Concert with Joe Mantegna in 2006?

Gary Sinise, Oscar-nominated as Lieutenant Dan, named his Lt. Dan Band after the role and has played USO shows at military bases around the world.

Which pledge appears beneath the prisoner's silhouette on the black POW/MIA flag flown on Memorial Day?

You Are Not Forgotten sits below the outline of a guard tower and barbed wire. Newt Heisley drew the design in 1971 after the wife of a Navy officer missing in action asked a flag maker for one.

Which May observance, on the third Saturday of the month, honors Americans serving in uniform rather than the fallen?

Armed Forces Day was meant to replace the separate Army, Navy and Air Force days with one shared date, yet each service carried on marking its own as well.

Which natural hazard's official US season opens on June 1, days after Memorial Day, and runs until the end of November?

Hurricanes were first given a watch period of June 15 to October 31, and the dates were stretched in stages until they settled in 1965.

Which sunken battleship at Pearl Harbor lies beneath a memorial that visitors can reach only by boat?

USS Arizona still leaks oil that rises to the surface, drops known as the tears of the Arizona. Elvis Presley raised $64,000 for the memorial with a 1961 benefit concert.

Which soldier buried at Arlington, celebrated as the most decorated American of World War II, played himself on film?

Audie Murphy starred in To Hell and Back, the 1955 film of his own memoir, which became the biggest hit Universal Studios had yet released.

Which heavyweight boxing champion, who enlisted as an Army private in 1942, was buried at Arlington in 1981?

Joe Louis needed a presidential waiver of the burial rules to rest there, having staged 96 boxing exhibitions before two million soldiers during his service.

Which April 25 observance remembers the war dead of two Commonwealth nations with dawn services?

Anzac Day marks the 1915 landing at Gallipoli, where Australian and New Zealand troops met fierce Ottoman resistance in their first engagement of the Great War.

Which Memorial Day workout, bookended by mile runs, honors a Navy SEAL lieutenant killed in Afghanistan in 2005?

Murph was the lieutenant's nickname; he had called the routine Body Armor because he did it in a 16-pound vest. CrossFit posted it as a workout of the day weeks after his death.

Which man served as both US president and chief justice before his 1930 burial at Arlington?

William Howard Taft was the first president laid to rest in the cemetery, and the first member of the Supreme Court as well.

In which London church was Britain's Unknown Warrior buried in 1920, the year before America honored its own?

Westminster Abbey laid him 'amongst the kings' under black Belgian marble, the only tombstone in the building that nobody may walk on. Royal brides have their bouquets placed there.

Which riderless horse walked in over 1,000 military funerals, most at Arlington, with boots reversed in the stirrups?

Black Jack was the last of the Army's quartermaster-issue horses, served for more than two decades and was himself buried with full military honors.

What sight in 1948 moved a general's wife to found the Arlington Ladies?

Burials with no family present, only a chaplain and an honor guard, led Gladys Vandenberg to organize officers' wives to attend. The Navy, Coast Guard and Marines later formed groups of their own.

Which horse-drawn artillery wagon carries the flag-draped casket in a full-honors funeral at Arlington?

A caisson was designed as a two-wheeled cart for hauling artillery ammunition. Soldiers of the Old Guard ride the horses that pull it to the grave.

Which improvised memorial to a fallen soldier combines an upturned rifle, a helmet and a pair of boots?

Battlefield cross is the name even though no cross is involved: the rifle is stuck in the ground with the helmet on top, and the boots stand for the final march of the last battle.

Federal law asks the president to call on Americans each Memorial Day to unite in prayer for what?

Permanent peace is the object, with each person praying in their own faith during a set period of the day. The same law asks the media to join in the observance.

Which general who led American forces in France in 1918 chaired the commission that built US war cemeteries overseas?

John J. Pershing was elected chairman of the American Battle Monuments Commission by its other members in 1923 and held the post until his death in 1948.

Where in Missouri stands the Liberty Memorial, home to America's official museum of the Great War?

Kansas City opened the Liberty Memorial in 1926. At night its 217-foot tower appears to burn, an effect made with steam lit in red and orange.

Which college sport plays its NCAA Division I men's championship final on Memorial Day itself?

Lacrosse takes over the whole holiday weekend: the semifinals are a Saturday afternoon doubleheader, and the title is decided on the Monday.

In which European capital did delegates of the American Expeditionary Forces found the American Legion in 1919?

Paris hosted the founding caucus that March, where about a thousand officers and enlisted men adopted a draft constitution and chose the group's name.

Which British author's 1897 poem Recessional gave remembrance services the refrain 'Lest we forget'?

Rudyard Kipling wrote it for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, and it cut against the party mood by reminding Britain that imperial power does not last.

Which river separates Arlington's military cemetery from the monuments of Washington, D.C.?

The Potomac made the hilltop a military worry in 1861: once Virginia seceded, the capital lay directly across the water from the Arlington estate, open to attack.

What is set afloat off Honolulu's Ala Moana Beach each Memorial Day in a ceremony of remembrance?

Lanterns, each lit by a candle, were first floated on Memorial Day 1999 at Keʻehi Lagoon, in a ceremony led by the head priest of a Japanese Buddhist order. It moved along the coast to Ala Moana Beach in 2002.

Which wartime nurse ran the Office of Missing Soldiers and helped identify 13,000 dead at Andersonville in 1865?

Clara Barton and her assistants wrote 41,855 replies to worried families and helped locate more than 22,000 missing men. She went on to found the American Red Cross.

Beneath which French monument has an Unknown Soldier lain since 1920, with a flame rekindled every evening?

Arc de Triomphe ceremonies relight the flame at 6:30 each evening, a ritual that began in 1923. The grave was among the first of its kind anywhere in the world.

Which American general, who died after a car crash in 1945, is buried among his Third Army soldiers in Luxembourg?

George S. Patton had asked to be buried with his men, and was laid to rest on Christmas Eve at the American cemetery in Hamm among the dead of the army he had led.

Which big-band leader, lost on a 1944 flight over the English Channel, has a memorial headstone at Arlington?

Glenn Miller's body was never recovered, so the stone marks no grave. It was placed in 1992 at his daughter's request, nearly 50 years after he vanished.

What happens to the letters, medals and keepsakes that visitors leave at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington?

Cataloged and stored by the National Park Service, the collection grows by several thousand items a year. Among them was a glass storm door fitted with a replica tiger cage.

In which country has every grave at the American war cemetery at Margraten been adopted by local people?

The Netherlands has seen every grave there adopted since 1945, when a village official proposed the idea. Families hand the duty down, and by 2021 there was a waiting list for lapsed adoptions.

Which Asian capital gives its name to the American cemetery holding the most World War II graves?

Manila American Cemetery, in Taguig within Metro Manila, holds 17,206 graves, more than any other cemetery for Americans killed in that war, along with war dead from the Philippines and other allied nations.

Which sterling silver prize carries a sculpted likeness of every winner of the Brickyard's Memorial Day weekend race?

Borg-Warner Trophy faces alternate with race details in a checkerboard pattern that evokes the checkered flag. It stands more than five feet tall and weighs nearly 153 pounds.

Which autumn 1918 offensive gives its name to the largest American military cemetery in Europe?

Meuse-Argonne holds 14,246 American dead, most of them killed in that offensive during the last weeks of the war and buried there.

Which future Supreme Court justice, wounded three times as a Union officer, gave Harvard's 1895 Memorial Day address?

Oliver Wendell Holmes gave the speech known as The Soldier's Faith, and admiration for it is believed to have helped win him his nomination to the Court in 1902.

Which poem did American teacher Moina Michael write in 1918 in reply to John McCrae's famous war verses?

We Shall Keep the Faith was written two days before the Armistice, and with it she vowed always to wear a red poppy in remembrance of those who served.

Which Theodore O'Hara poem, written for Kentuckians killed in the Mexican-American War, adorns Arlington's gateway?

Bivouac of the Dead mourned the heavy losses of Kentucky troops at Buena Vista. Its verses later appeared on many Confederate memorials across the South as well.

Which American composer's Holidays Symphony recalls his father's band marching to a Danbury cemetery each May?

Charles Ives finished the movement in 1912, drawing on boyhood memories of the Connecticut town where his father George led the marching band.

Which Illinois city claims an April 1866 ceremony at its Woodlawn Cemetery as one of the first Memorial Days?

Carbondale heard its principal address that day from a local Union general, who went on to issue the order that turned the custom into a national observance.

Which war correspondent, killed in 1945, was among five war dead honored when Honolulu's Punchbowl cemetery opened?

Ernie Pyle, a Pulitzer Prize winner, was the lone civilian in those services of July 1949, held for an unknown serviceman, two Marines and an Army lieutenant as well.

Which 1987 Francis Ford Coppola film follows the Old Guard soldiers who bury the dead at Arlington?

Gardens of Stone, based on Nicholas Proffitt's novel, stars James Caan as a sergeant who would rather be training soldiers for Vietnam than burying them.

Which French-born planner of Washington, D.C. lay in state at the Capitol before his 1909 reburial at Arlington?

Pierre L'Enfant had first been buried at Green Hill. His remains were exhumed, placed in a metal-lined casket and laid to rest on a slope in front of Arlington House.

On the fallen comrade table set at military dinners, what is sprinkled on the bread plate?

Salt stands for the tears of waiting families. It shares the plate with a slice of lemon for the bitter fate of the missing, beside a single rose and a glass turned upside down.

Which country singer's 2005 single Arlington is sung from the viewpoint of a fallen soldier buried there?

Trace Adkins recorded the song, which its writers based on Marine Corporal Patrick Nixon, who died in battle in 2003.