Haiti celebrates Battle of Vertieres Day on 18 November. This is a public holiday that remembers the last great battle in the Second War for Haitian Independence. It was fought against the French and won by the Haitian rebel forces in the year 1803.
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The victory at Vertieres was decisive, and independence came within two months of the battle’s end. The defeat of a major colonial power by rebel slaves and the setting up of the first “black republic” in the Americas, were earth-shattering events.
Every year on 18 November, Haiti’s president will give a commemorative speech at the monument to the Battle of Vertieres in Port au Prince. And there are various celebratory and patriotic events held throughout the country.
However, the name Armed Forces Day, once applied to this holiday, was dropped, and the military parade was discontinued in the 1990’s due to the history of violence that had accompanied it.