Which U.S. law made Armistice Day a federal legal holiday in 1938?

The Act of May 13, 1938, made Armistice Day a federal legal holiday in the United States.

The law designated November 11 as a day to honor World War I veterans and made it an annual federal holiday. Before this legislation, Armistice Day had been observed through presidential proclamations and state or local customs, but it did not yet have the same nationwide federal status.

Armistice Day commemorated the armistice that ended major fighting in World War I. In 1954, after the United States had fought two additional major wars, Congress changed the holiday’s name to Veterans Day so it would honor American veterans of all wars.

This 1938 law is sometimes confused with the 1954 law that adopted the name Veterans Day or with the 1968 Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which temporarily moved the observance to Mondays. Those were separate measures with different purposes.