Chambana Sun

In a Nov. 11 Facebook post, Sen. Scott Bennett (D-Champaign) shared his thoughts on Veterans Day.

“Happy Veterans Day,” Bennett wrote on Facebook. “Today we remember the service our brave men and women in uniform have made for our country. We honor your sacrifice and thank you for your service.”

The 11th hour of the 11th day of November in 1918 is the time and day World War I ended after Germany signed the armistice agreement.

Veterans Day was first known as Armistice Day, celebrating the end of the First World War, when "fighting ceased seven months earlier when an armistice, or temporary cessation of hostilities, between the Allied nations and Germany went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month," according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

The first commemoration of the day was in November 1919, when President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the first Armistice Day. He said: "To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations…"

Bennett has served the 52nd District since January 2015.