Calvin Graham lied about his age when he enlisted in the U.S. Navy. After he was wounded in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, it was discovered that he was only 12 years old. He was awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart for his service.

405,399 Americans died in World War II.

General James Garfield made a speech at Arlington National Cemetery, which had previously been General Robert E. Lee's plantation. 5,000 participants decorated the graves of the 20,000 Union and Confederate soldiers buried there.

Memorial Day was previously observed on May 30.

4,411 American service members died in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Although President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a presidential proclamation officially recognizing that the tradition of observing Memorial Day had begun in Waterloo, New York in 1866, scholars have since determined that the Waterloo account is a myth.

The Lincoln Memorial was dedicated on Memorial Day 1922.

116,516 Americans died in World War I, more than half from disease.

The Doylestown parade dates to 1866, a year before Ironton's.

The United States Marine Corps Memorial, located near Arlington Cemetery, sets in bronze a photograph from 1945, in which five Marines and a sailor are shown raising a flag over Iwo Jima, Japan.