On Memorial Day, we remember and honor the approximately 1.1. million Americans who have been killed in U.S. Wars

Memorial Day has its origins in the Civil War, which incurred the greatest number of American casualties. Women had been putting flowers on the graves of fallen soldiers starting with the Battle of Gettysburg in 1864. Waterloo, New York began holding an annual community service on May 5, 1866. On May 30, 1868, General John A. Logan declared the first official Decoration Day, observed at Arlington National Cemetery, where volunteers decorated the graves of more than 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers. New York was the first state to designate the day a legal holiday, in 1873.

During World War II, Decoration Day was expanded and renamed Memorial Day to honor all Americans who died in military service. The day became a national holiday in 1971, when Congress established that Memorial Day would be commemorated on the last Monday of May

Worldwide, the deadliest war in history was World War II, from 1939 to 1945, with estimates of as many as 85 million deaths.