YEREVAN, MAY 30, ARMENPRESS. President Barack Obama has several planned events on Memorial Day, the holiday that honors men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military, “Armenpress” reports citing Voice of America.

Obama will host a breakfast for military and veteran service groups, as well as senior military leaders, at the White House Monday morning.

Later, the president will participate in a Memorial Day observation at Arlington National Cemetery where he will lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

The U.S. observes the holiday on the last Monday of May.

Obama said in his weekly address: "The debt we owe our fallen heroes is one we can never truly repay."

The first large-scale observance of what was originally called Decoration Day took place at Arlington Cemetery in 1868, three years after the bloody U.S. Civil War that killed more than 600,000 people.