California State University, San Bernardino and its Palm Desert Campus will be closed Wednesday, Nov. 11, in observance of Veterans Day.

The university will reopen remotely for business and virtual classes will resume on Thursday, Nov. 12.

University Police will remain on duty on all days when the campus is closed.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the university has temporarily suspended all non-essential on-campus operations.

Veterans Day, which is on Nov. 11, is a federal and state holiday, and the American name for the international observance of Armistice Day. It is the anniversary of the signing of the armistice ending World War I. The day is observed elsewhere as Remembrance Day or Armistice Day.

All major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, with the German signing of the Armistice.

Armistice Day was first commemorated in the United States by President Woodrow Wilson in 1919 and Congress made it a legal holiday in 1938. The holiday has been observed annually on Nov. 11 since that date – first as Armistice Day, later as Veterans Day – except for a brief period when it was celebrated on the fourth Monday of October.

The day has since evolved as a time for honoring living veterans who have served in the military during wartime or peacetime, partially to complement Memorial Day, which primarily honors those who have died in service.