In honor of Veterans Day, watch the Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment drop into the Atlanta Falcons game against the Minnesota Vikings on Nov. 5.
The Army posted a reel of the event on Thursday, and so far it’s gotten more than 4,000 likes. The post was captioned, “Check it out! The @75th_rasp air dropped into the @atlantafalcons @nfl Call to Service game with the American Flag. Did you catch it?”
Veterans Day is celebrated on Nov. 11 because it signifies the end of World War I, which ended with a cease-fire agreement signed at 11 a.m. on Nov. 11, 1918, according to the Library of Congress.
When news first spread that a peace treaty had been signed in 1918, Americans celebrated in the streets, as one man, James Hughes, noted in a later interview tracked by the Library of Congress.
“There was a lot of excitement when we heard about the Armistice … some of them old fellas was walkin’ on the streets with open Bibles in their hands. All the shops were shut down. I never seen the people so crazy … confetti was a-flying in all directions … I’ll never forget it,” Hughes said about Boston.
President Woodrow Wilson made the day a national holiday the next year, in 1919, and called it Armistice Day.
According to the Library of Congress, he said, “To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations.”
The Deseret News front page from Nov. 11, 1918, can be viewed here.