Materials relating to our nation's veterans can be found throughout the Library's Web sites. In American Memory, for example, there is a photograph of President Calvin Coolidge signing the legislation that established the Veterans Bureau, which is now the Department of Veterans Affairs. The image is from "Prosperity and Thrift: The Coolidge Era and the Consumer Economy, 1921-1929."

In a letter to "His Excellency, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States," the sender says he was wounded at the battle of Antietam and lost his right arm. He tells the president he is "anxious to obtain a situation in some one of the departments of the government." The letter is from the "Abraham Lincoln Papers at the Library of Congress," a collection of about 20,000 documents, including such treasures as Lincoln's draft of the Emancipation Proclamation; his March 4, 1865, draft of his second Inaugural Address; and his August 23, 1864, memorandum expressing his expectation of being defeated for re-election in the upcoming presidential contest.

The first Memorial Day was celebrated nationally on May 30, 1868, at Arlington National Cemetery. You can learn how the holiday was established at the May 30 entry for Today in History, which will tell you what important things happened in history for any day of the year.