Lincoln Memorial dedicated, May 30, 1922
Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in the nation’s service. On this day in 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson officially declared Waterloo, New York, as the birthplace of Memorial Day.
But it is hard to pinpoint its origins. More than likely, it had many separate beginnings as communities across the country held ceremonies to honor their dead soldiers in the aftermath of the Civil War — a struggle that claimed more lives than any conflict in U.S. history and prompted the establishment of national cemeteries.
In 1868, Gen. John Logan, commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, officially proclaimed Decoration Day. A few weeks later, it was first observed on this day when flowers were placed on the graves of both Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. In 1873, New York became the first state to officially recognize the holiday. Southern states, however, declined to mark the day until after World War I, when the holiday became one that honors Americans who died fighting in all wars.
Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), a World War II veteran, introduced legislation in 1999 that would have restored May 30, rather than the last Monday in May, as the official day of observance. His proposal reflected the view that by converting the day into a three-day weekend — a practice that began in 1971 under the Uniform Holidays Act — Congress had diminished its original meaning. Inouye’s initiative never advanced out of committee.
On this day in 1922, William Howard Taft, a former president who at the time was chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and president of the Lincoln Memorial commission, dedicated the structure, which stands on the west end of the National Mall. Taft thereupon presented it to President Warren Harding, who accepted it on behalf of the American people. The ceremony was attended by President Abraham Lincoln’s only surviving child, 78-year-old Robert Todd Lincoln.
The project had gotten underway in 1914 after Congress approved a $300,000 appropriation, about $14.5 million in today’s dollars. Henry Bacon, a New York architect, designed the neoclassical structure, which had taken eight years to complete. Daniel Chester French, a Massachusetts sculptor, designed the 19-foot statue of Lincoln.
SOURCE: WWW.HISTORY.COM