Memorial Day was started as a way to remember the more than 620,000 people who died in Civil War, which has been called the bloodiest conflict on U.S. soil. The first official Memorial Day observance took place in 1866 in Carbondale, Illinois, but the official “birthplace of Memorial Day” is Waterloo, New York, according to CNN. At the time, it was referred to as Decoration Day.
Over the years, the observance widened in scope to include all American casualties of war. It became a formal national holiday in 1971 and has been observed ever since.
“The Americans who rest beneath these beautiful hills, and in sacred ground across our country and around the world, they are why our nation endures,” President Barack Obama said in a speechcommemorating Memorial Day last year. “Each simple stone marker, arranged in perfect military precision, signifies the cost of our blessings. It is a debt we can never fully repay, but it is a debt we will never stop trying to fully repay. By remaining a nation worthy of their sacrifice.”