Latest news with #MuseumandMemorial
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
President Donald Trump declares two national holidays, one of them would fall on Veterans Day. What to know
President Trump announced he wanted to create two new holidays with a themed focus for both. In a post on Truth Social on Monday, the president said that the United States never took credit for winning the two world wars that it fought in, and he believes it is time to change this. His post dictates that there will be two new national holidays to commemorate the United States' victory in World War I and in World War II. The president listed these dates as the final dates for each war. According to the same Truth Social post, offices will not close on either holiday as, "We already have too many Holidays in America." Here is when we can expect to see these new national holidays on the calendar. When did World War I end? According to the National World War I Museum and Memorial, the Armistice, which marked the end of the war, occurred on Nov. 11, 1918. The Armistice signaled the end of the war between Germany and the Allied forces, of which the United States was a part. Though several armistices were signed in 1918 to bring about the end of the war, the Nov. 11 armistice is credited as the end of the war. The United States made the decision to enter World War I on April 4, 1917, after Congress voted in support of President Woodrow Wilson's measure to declare war on Germany. Nineteen months later, the First World War would come to an end in November 1918. The only caveat to President Trump's plan is that another national holiday already happens on Nov. 11 – Veterans Day. Prior to Veterans Day, Nov. 11 was still a recognized day as Armistice Day, which was designated in 1926. However, in 1947, the first celebration of the holiday, newly termed as Veterans Day, took place in Birmingham, Alabama. In 1954, the 83rd U.S. Congress amended the 1938 act that made Armistice Day a holiday, removing the word armistice in favor of veterans. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the legislation on June 1, 1954, and it has been a national holiday to honor American veterans from all wars ever since. When did World War II end? In his post, President Trump states that the Second World War ended on May 8, 1945. According to the National World War II Museum, this is true, but only for European troops. While the war ended in Europe in May, the United States continued to fight against Japan through the summer. It was not until Sept. 2, 1945, that formal surrender documents were signed aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay between the United States and Japan. How to create a national holiday? National holidays differ significantly from federal holidays. While both can be recognized, offices and businesses only close on federal holidays rather than national ones. In the United States, there are 11 federal holidays recognized. Congress votes on federal holidays through a legislative process similar to that used for lawmaking. There is no formal system in place to determine and designate national holidays in the United States, unlike the system for federal holidays. This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Trump declares new national holidays, one of them on Veterans Day
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Experience WWI like never before in this upcoming virtual exhibit
The National WWI Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri, is getting a facelift. Since 2023, the Museum and Memorial 'has been carrying out a multi-year upgrade plan, the most expansive changes to the buildings and grounds since opening in 2006,' according to its landing page. The modifications, the announcement continued, 'will not only see upgrades in technology to tell new and interesting narratives from WWI, they will create a richer and more immersive visitor experience.' Opening over Memorial Day weekend, the museum's latest exhibit, 'Encounters,' will take viewers through the lives of 16 individuals that include: Allied and Central Power combat soldiers; British colonial Indian soldiers; women working in munitions factories; and dissenters arrested and tried for anti-war stances. Crafted from diaries, letters and photos, 'Encounters' includes state-of-the-art media displays that will feature 1.25 mm Pixel Pitch LED Display technology from Nanolumens — the first installation of its kind in a museum in the U.S. The museum aims for 'Encounters' to go beyond the simple showcasing of artifacts and historical data. Delving into more than troop movements and the number of rivets on a Sopwith Triplane, the installation aims to fully engage its visitors visually and audibly on 'a deeply emotional level, focusing on the human side of the war through the stories of individuals who lived it,' according to a museum press release. This isn't the museum's first foray into immersing cutting edge technology and meshing it with the past. In 2021, the National WWI Museum debuted its impressive virtual reality experience, 'War Remains,' which allowed visitors to take a trip through time to the battlefields of World War I. The initiative was designed for viewers to feel — as much as possible — the true trench experience. 'We wanted to simulate what it was like to lose your hearing to an explosion,' director Brandon Oldenburg told Military Times in 2021. 'Skywalker sound does an amazing job of putting ringing in your ears. You feel it, but you can't hear it. … I think it makes a lasting memory of what it was like even though it is not even coming close to the real thing. You can walk out alive [and] unscathed.' Now, the museum is once again leading the way when it comes to what museums of the present can and should be, with 'stations' boasting recreated virtual scenes from the front lines, the home front and military hospitals replete with interactive soundscape technology found in just one other space in the U.S. — the Las Vegas Sphere. According to the press release, 'the spatial audio used in this exhibit creates a 360-degree sound environment, making it feel as if the voices, sounds, and stories are unfolding around visitors in real time.' Despite more than a century separating museum-goers from the war's end, the lives of the ordinary man and woman caught up in this titanic clash will once again be seen — and felt — like never before. Renovations at the National WWI Museum and Memorial will continue through 2025. 'Encounters' opens Memorial Day weekend, 2025.
