Selected

Timeline

1903 May 30: Judge Ivory Kimball attends Memorial Day services at Arlington and is dismayed by its poor facilities; he begins a personal lobbying campaign for a new Memorial Amphitheater. 1910 May 17: The Commission of Fine Arts is created by an act of Congress. 1913 March 3: Congress appropriates funds for the construction of a new amphitheater at Arlington to serve as “not only a memorial to our soldier dead, but which [will] provide an assembly place for such exercises as might be held in the cemetery grounds.” President William Howard Taft signs the legislation the following day in one of the last official acts of his presidency. 1914-1918 The “Great War,” World War I. 1914 June 28: Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, are assassinated in Sarajevo. Oct. 12: The architectural firm of Carrere and Hastings of New York are commissioned to design the Memorial Amphitheater. Dec. 31: At the end of the year, British casualties are placed at 16,200 dead, 47,707 wounded, and 16,746 missing or prisoners of war; German loses are estimated to exceed 142,000 killed. 1915 March 1: Ground is broken for the construction of the Memorial Amphitheater. May 7: RMS Lusitania is sunk off of the coast of Ireland with 1,198 civilians killed including 128 American citizens. May 10: President Wilson delivers his “Too Proud to Fight” address in Philadelphia. May 31: President Wilson attends Memorial Day services at Arlington, marking the 50 th anniversary of the end of the Civil War; the Mast of the USS Maine memorial is dedicated. Oct. 13: President Woodrow Wilson lays the cornerstone to the Memorial Amphitheater. Dec. 18: President Woodrow Wilson marries Edith Galt in Washington, D.C. 1916 May 15: Judge Ivory Kimbell, the leading advocate for the construction of the Memorial Amphitheater, dies in Washington, D.C. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Section 3, #1538. 1917 Jan. 31: The Germans launch a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare in an effort to starve the British into submission; neutral shipping including American merchant vessels are targeted. Nov. 3: Pvt. Thomas Enright, Corp. James B. Gresham, and Pvt. Merle Hay become the first American soldiers are killed in action. Dec.: Only 175,655 American troops are deployed in Europe eight months after President Wilson’s declaration of war. 1918 May 28: American forces engage in its first major combat operations at the Battle of Cantigny. American military deaths during the Great War are estimated to be 116,000, of this number, 63,000 died of illness or disease. 1919 May 30: President Wilson and his wife, Edith, participate in Memorial Day ceremonies at the Suresnes American Cemetery in France. June 28: The Treaty of Versailles is signed. Oct. 2: President Wilson suffers a massive stroke while at the White House in Washington, D.C. Nov. 19: The Senate fails to ratify the Treaty of Versailles by the required two-thirds majority. 1920 The first American war dead from the Great War are repatriated to Arlington; eventually over 5,241 soldiers would be buried at the cemetery, mostly in Section 18. May 15: The Memorial Amphitheater is dedicated at Arlington National Cemetery. June 20: The Memorial Amphitheater is turned over to the Quartermaster Department of the Army. Nov. 7/8: The British unknown is selected at St. Pol-sur-Ternoise in France. Nov. 9: The French unknown is selected. Nov. 11: Ceremonies are held for the British and French unknown soldiers. Dec. 21: Congressman Hamilton Fish of New York introduces legislation, HR 426, to authorize the burial of an American unknown soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. 1921 March 4: Woodrow Wilson signs Public Resolution #67 authorizing the selection of an American Unknown Soldier. Aug. 24: Congress authorized the awarding of the Medal of Honor to the Unknown Soldier. Oct. 23: Four unknown candidates are disinterred from the American cemeteries at Meuse Argonne, St. Mihiel, Somme, and Aisne Marne. Oct. 24: Sgt. Edward F. Younger selects the Unknown Soldier during ceremonies at Châlons- sur-Marne, France. Nov. 4: Congress passes HJ Res. 215 declaring Armistice Day a National Holiday in honor of the Unknown. Nov. 9: The American Unknown Soldier arrives in Washington, D.C. aboard the USS Olympia. Nov. 11: The Unknown is interred on the plaza of the Memorial Amphitheater at Arlington National Cemetery with President Warren G. Harding presiding of the interment ceremonies. 1923 The Argonne Cross is dedicated at Arlington: “In Memory of Our Men in France 1917-1918;” 5,241 World War I dead are reinterred from Europe for burial at Arlington. March 4: The American Battle Monuments Commission is chartered by Congress to construct permeant cemeteries for American soldiers killed abroad. December: Architect Thomas Hastings erects a temporary, 35-foot plaster memorial on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to showcase his idea for completing the tomb. 1924 Feb. 3: President Woodrow Wilson dies at his home in Washington, D.C.; he is later buried at the National Cathedral. 1925 May 11: 6,000 people attend Mother’s Day services at the Memorial Amphitheater and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. 1926 March 24: The 3d Cavalry is assigned daylight guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. July 3: Congress approves $50,000 for completion of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. 1927 June 12: Aviator Charles Lindbergh places a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier shortly after completing the first solo trans- Atlantic flight. 1928 The Quartermaster General begins the process of soliciting ideas for an addition to the Tomb of the Unknown. Sculptor Thomas Hudson Jones and Architect Lorimer Rich are selected to enhance and complete the original Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. 1929 Congress authorizes the improvement of approaches and landscaping at the Tomb. 1930 Dec. 19: Ground-breaking ceremonies are held at Arlington marking the beginning of construction of the new memorial plaza. 1932 Feb. 1: The Memorial Bridge linking Arlington with Washington, D.C. is officially opened. April 9: The completed Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is unveiled at Arlington without ceremony. 1936 Nov. 11: Sgt. Edward F. Younger, the soldier who selected the Unknown in 1921, places a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. 1937 The Tomb is placed under a 24-hour, 365-day military guard. 1938 Armistice Day becomes a national holiday in the United States. 1941-1945 World War II 1942 Aug. 2: Sgt. Edward F. Younger, age 44, dies in Chicago, Illinois. He is interred at Arlington National Cemetery, Section 18, 1918-B. 1946 June 24: Congress passes Public Law 429 authorizing the selection of a World War II unknown soldier. 1948 Soldiers from the 3 rd United States Infantry Regiment, “The Old Guard,” assumes responsibility for guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier; July 15: General of the Armies, John J. Pershing dies at age 87 and is interred at Arlington National Cemetery four days later. 1950-1953 The Korean War 1950 June 25: North Korean troops cross the 38 th parallel and invade South Korea. 1951 Feb.: The military initiates the concurrent return of remains from the Korean War. 1953 July 27: An armistice is declared in the Korean War. 1954 June 1: Congress changes Armistice Day to Veterans Day in order to honor all American veterans. 1956 The remains of 848 unidentified American soldiers from the Korean War are interred at the Punchbowl in Honolulu, Hawaii. Aug. 3: Congress passes Public Law 975 authorizing the selection of an American unknown from the Korean conflict. 1958-1975 The Vietnam War 1958 May 12: US Army Major General Edward O’Neil selects the World War II Trans-Atlantic Unknown at the Epinal American Cemetery, France. May 15: Master Sergeant Ned Lyle is given the honor of selecting the Korean War Unknown at the Punch Bowl National Memorial Cemetery in Hawaii. May 16: Colonel Glenn Eagleston, USAF, selects the World War II Trans-Pacific Unknown at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii. May 26: The final selection of the World War II takes place at sea on the USS Canberra. Hospital Corpsman First Class and Medal of Honor recipient, William Charette, makes the selection; the Unknowns are transferred to the USS Blandy for the final trip to Washington, D.C. May 28: The World War II and Korean Unknowns arrive in Washington, D.C. to lie in state at the U.S. Capitol. May 30: The World War II and Korean Unknown Servicemen are buried on the plaza of the Memorial Amphitheater with President Dwight Eisenhower and Vice President Richard Nixon presiding. June 2: The graves of the World War II and Korean Unknowns are sealed with marble crypt covers inscribed with the dates of the conflicts: 1941-1945 and 1950-1953. 1959 July 8: Major Dale Buis and MSGT Chester Ovnand are killed in a Viet Cong attack in Bien Hoa becoming America’s first combat casualties in the Vietnam War. 1961 SP4 Fred Moore becomes the first African- American Tomb Guard. 1963 A detailed study is conducted to chronicle the extent of existing cracks in the Tomb; the first American serviceman is reported to be Missing in Action in Vietnam. 1965 Oct. 25: S.Sgt. William Spates (TGIB #033) becomes the first Tomb Guard to be killed in action. Spates is buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Section 48, #432 near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. 1967 Aug. 31: Sgt. Marvin L. Franklin (TGIB #056) is killed in Vietnam. 1971 Jan. 1: The Uniform Monday Holiday Act takes effect moving Veterans Day to the fourth Monday in October. Nov.: President Richard M. Nixon orders the construction of a crypt for a potential unknown from the Vietnam War. 1973 Jan. 23: The Joint Casualty Resolution Center (SCRC) is created in Saigon to conduct “field search, excavation, recovery, and repatriation” of American remains in Vietnam; the Secretary of Defense is instruction to find a Vietnam unknown soldier. Jan. 27: The Paris Peace Accords are signed, ostensibly ending American combat operations in Vietnam. June 18: Public Law No. 93-43 is passed in the United States Senate by an 85-4 margin. It authorizes “the burial of an unknown soldier from the Vietnam Conflict at Arlington National Cemetery after the United States has concluded its participation in hostilities in Southeast Asia.” 1975 March: The crypt for a Vietnam unknown is finished on the plaza. April 30: Saigon falls to Communist forces ending the Vietnam War. 1978 June 21: Architect Lorimer Rich, the co-designer of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is interred at Arlington National Cemetery in Section 48. Rich who served as a private during the first world war, was granted an exception for inground burial by President Jimmy Carter. Nov. 11: The celebration of Veterans Day returns to its original date. 1979 Jan. 9: Major General Edward O’Neil, the officer who selected the World War II European Theater unknown dies; he is buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Sec. 30, #1801. 1982 Aug.: The Veterans of Foreign Wars urges the immediate burial of an unknown soldier from the Vietnam War; Nov. 1: The Vietnam Memorial is dedicated on the National Mall. 1984 May 28: The Vietnam Unknown Soldier is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. 1987 April 10: Master Sergeant Ned Lyle, United States Army, the soldier who made the selection of the Korean Unknown Soldier, dies at age 61. He is interred at Fort Jackson National Cemetery, South Carolina. 1991 Jan. 18: Former Congressman Hamilton Fish dies at the age of 102. June 5: Colonel Glenn T. Eagleston, the officer who chose the trans-Pacific World War II Unknown, is inurned at the Arlington Columbarium. 1994 Former Green Beret, Ted Sampley, claims he can identify the Vietnam Unknown Soldier. 1995 SGT Heather Johnsen (TGIB 423) becomes the first woman to guard the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. 1997 Jan. 22: SGT Danyell E. Wilson (TGIB 439) becomes the first African American woman to receive a Tomb Guard badge. 1998 May 14: The Vietnam Unknown is disinterred; June 30: The Department of Defense announces that the Unknown Soldier has been identified as First Lieutenant Michael Blassie, USAF. 1999 Sept. 17: A new inscription: “Honoring and Keeping Faith with America’s Missing Servicemen, 1958-1975,”is added to the marble cover over the empty crypt of the Vietnam Unknown. 2005 A 57-ton replacement block is quarried in Colorado for potential installation at Arlington to replace the cracked die block. 2008 The federal government fails to act on replacing the damaged Tomb. 2010 Oct. 28: SSGT Adam Dickmyer (TGIB 528) is killed during Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan at age 26. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Section 60, #9396. 2012 March 18: Corpsman William Charette, dies in Florida and is interred at the Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell, Florida. 2014 May 30: The Old Amphitheater near the Arlington House Mansion is renamed for Corporal James Tanner (Section 2, #877), 82 nd New York Infantry. Tanner lost both legs during the second battle of Bull Run and later became the stenographer who recorded testimony in the immediate aftermath of President Lincoln’s assassination. 2016 SGT Ruth Hanks (TGIB 643), the fourth woman sentinel at the Tomb, becomes commander of the 3 rd Relief. 2018 Aug. 2: North Korea returns 55 boxes of remains of missing American soldiers who died fighting at the Chosen Reservoir.