美國退伍軍人節

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.美國各地許多餐館和商店星期三向美國退伍軍人提供免費服務或優惠，以紀念一年一度的退伍軍人節。

除此之外，美國還將舉行更爲傳統的莊重紀念活動，其中包括奧巴馬總統在與美國首都華盛頓一河之隔的阿靈頓國家公墓向無名戰士墓敬獻花圈。

向美國男女退伍軍人表示敬意的退伍軍人節可以追溯到1919年。當時的總統威爾遜宣佈11月11日爲停戰日，慶祝一年前第一次世界大戰結束。第一次世界大戰交戰國一方是德國，另一方是英國、法國和美國。威爾遜將第一次世界大戰稱作“結束一切戰爭的戰爭”。當時的停戰在11月11日11時生效。

停戰日在1938年成爲美國的正式節日，但在1954年改稱退伍軍人節。當時是第二次世界大戰和朝鮮戰爭結束不久。退伍軍人節跟每年五月最後一個星期一的陣亡將士紀念日不同。

美國退伍軍人節也跟世界其他國家紀年第一次世界大戰的節日重合，其中包括英國和英聯邦國家澳大利亞以及加拿大的紀念日。