Each year on Nov. 11, restaurants, businesses, local organizations and municipalities plan celebrations and run promotions to honor and thank the men and women who have served our country.

Veterans Day was originally observed as Armistice Day, a celebration of the end of World War I. Per the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs , fighting ceased on Nov. 11, 1918, when an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

This date, generally regarded as the end of "the war to end all wars," was commemorated in many countries as Armistice Day the following year.

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Nov. 11 became a federal holiday in the U.S. in 1938, according to HISTORY . It ultimately became known as V

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