美国各地许多餐馆和商店星期三向美国退伍军人提供免费服务或优惠，以纪念一年一度的退伍军人节。
除此之外，美国还将举行更为传统的庄重纪念活动，其中包括奥巴马总统在与美国首都华盛顿一河之隔的阿灵顿国家公墓向无名战士墓敬献花圈。
向美国男女退伍军人表示敬意的退伍军人节可以追溯到1919年。当时的总统威尔逊宣布11月11日为停战日，庆祝一年前第一次世界大战结束。第一次世界大战交战国一方是德国，另一方是英国、法国和美国。威尔逊将第一次世界大战称作“结束一切战争的战争”。当时的停战在11月11日11时生效。
停战日在1938年成为美国的正式节日，但在1954年改称退伍军人节。当时是第二次世界大战和朝鲜战争结束不久。退伍军人节跟每年五月最后一个星期一的阵亡将士纪念日不同。
美国退伍军人节也跟世界其他国家纪年第一次世界大战的节日重合，其中包括英国和英联邦国家澳大利亚以及加拿大的纪念日。
Restaurants and other retailers across the United States are offering free or discounted items and service to the nation's military veterans Wednesday in honor of the annual Veterans Day holiday observance.
The special tokens of appreciation will take place alongside more traditional and somber observances, including the laying of a wreath by President Barack Obama at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, just across the Potomac River from the nation's capital.
The Veterans Day holiday, which pays tribute to all men and women who have served in the U.S. military, dates back to 1919, when President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed November 11 as Armistice Day to celebrate the end of fighting exactly one year earlier in World War One - "the war to end all wars" - between Germany and the allied nations of Britain, France and the United States. The armistice famously went into effect at "the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month."
Armistice Day became an official U.S. holiday in 1938, and remained so until 1954, when it was renamed Veterans Day in the aftermath of both World War Two and the Korean War. It is separate from Memorial Day, which is observed on the last Monday in May and honors servicemen and women killed in war.
The U.S. Veterans Day holiday also coincides with other World War One-era holidays around the world, including Remembrance Day in Britain and the Commonwealth nations of Australia and Canada.
