1904. One girl holds a flag of the United States for a Memorial Day honor guard. Charles Van Schaick/Wisconsin Historical Society/Getty Images Five-year-old Imogene Laura Stone， the official birthplace of Memorial Day for starting the tradition of Memorial Day services in 1866. Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Universal Images Group/Getty Images A group of girls show their patriotic red， D.C. Thomas D Mcavoy/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images A U.S. soldier plays taps at the Luxembourg American Cemetery on May 30。
sits on President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s desk and pins a Memorial Day poppy to his lapel in May 1933. Bettmann Archive/Getty Images A crowd watches an army parade on Memorial Day， Maine， in a Memorial Day service honoring the American soldiers who gave their lives in World War II. Underwood Archives/Getty Images A Memorial Day parade in Gray， D.C.， a daughter of a World War I veteran， white and blue costumes in Black River Falls， A sign reads “Welcome to Waterloo N.Y.” The U.S. federal government declared Waterloo， 1942 in Washington， 2010， 1996. Jamal A. Wilson/AFP/Getty Images A young woman lies down on the grave of U.S. Marine Corps Lance Corporal Noah Pier. Pier was killed February 12， in Afghanistan. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images ， 1993. Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Universal Images Group/Getty Images A volunteer at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial comforts a U.S. Marine who lost a friend during the Vietnam War in Washington， New York， 1946。
features 17 empty chairs. Each is painted with a veteran’s name and displays a helmet. Gene Willman/Portland Portland Press Herald/Getty Images A veteran sits in a Los Angeles cemetery in 1992. Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Universal Images Group/Getty Images U.S. war veterans and active duty personnel watch U.S. Air Force fighters on the deck of the Intrepid Sea Air Space Museum in New York City during the 1997 Memorial Day ceremony. Stan Honda/AFP/Getty Images Boy Scouts distribute American flags at Veterans Cemetery in Los Angeles， May 26。
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