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at the best price. Good morning and welcome to a special episode of Kid News. It's Monday,

May 25th, 2026. Memorial Day in the United States, which is widely regarded as the nation's unofficial kickoff to summer. But much more important is its original intent to reflect and remember those who died while serving in the U.S. military.

The observation dates back to the Civil War, which took the lives of more than 600,000 soldiers between 1861 and 1865. In May of 1868, three years after it ended, veterans organized a

decoration day and called on all Americans to decorate war graves. That was the first national

observance. Locally, it began even earlier. Waterloo, New York basically shut itself down on

May 5, 1866, so the entire town could

honor the fallen.

Businesses closed and town residents dotted cemeteries with flags and flowers.

In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared Waterloo the birthplace of Memorial Day.

But it took until 1971 for Congress to designate the day an official federal holiday

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