Medal of Honor Day is a United States federal observance that is celebrated every year on March 25.
It was created to honor the "heroism and sacrifice of Medal of Honor recipients for the United States." The holiday has been celebrated since 1991, when George H. W. Bush signed Public Law 101-564 on November 15, 1990, which was passed by the 101st United States Congress in November 1990, and created it. The holiday was chosen to be celebrated on March 25 to honor the 23 men who participated in the Great Locomotive Chase and received Medals of Honor for it, particularly William Bensinger, Robert Buffum, Elihu H. Mason, Jacob Parrott, William Pittenger, and William H. H. Reddick, who received the first six Medals of Honor on March 25, 1863. The law reads (in part):
Medal of Honor Day | |
---|---|
Observed by | United States |
Type | National |
Date | March 25 |
Frequency | Annual |
Whereas the Medal of Honor is the highest distinction that can be awarded by the president, in the name of the congress, to members of the armed forces who have distinguished themselves conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of their lives above and beyond the call of duty ... Whereas public awareness of the importance of the Medal of Honor has declined in recent years; and Whereas the designation of National Medal of Honor Day will focus the efforts of national, State, and local organizations striving to foster public appreciation and recognition of Medal of Honor recipients."
Media related to Medal of Honor Day at Wiki Commons
This article uses material from the Wikipedia English article Medal of Honor Day, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license ("CC BY-SA 3.0"); additional terms may apply (view authors). Content is available under CC BY-SA 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
®Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wiki Foundation, Inc. Wiki English (DUHOCTRUNGQUOC.VN) is an independent company and has no affiliation with Wiki Foundation.