Veterans Day is 91 years old or 56 years old today, depending on how you want to count it.

Washington state is 121 years old, and there's no two ways to count it.

Veterans Day started as Armistice Day on Nov. 11, 1919. It marked the one year anniversary of the end of World War I, which was in those days was know as "The Great War" because people didn't have to foresight to number their world wars. The Armistice was signed on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. After we'd had another world war, plus a contained war in Korea, President Eisenhower decided to honor all veterans in 1954 and rename the holiday Veterans Day.

For information about Veterans Day events around Spokane, click here.

Washington went from being a state to a territory on this day in 1889, when President Benjamin Harrison signed the law at 5:27 p.m. A copy of the telegram from Harrison to territorial Elisha Ferry can be seen here.

 

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