In what state and town did Memorial Day begin?

Answer 1

There are over two dozen cities and towns to have claimed to be the first to observe Memorial Day. There is evidence that the very first Memorial Day-like commemoration took place on May 1, 1866 in Charleston, South Carolina when freedmen (freed slaves) honored over 170 Union soldiers of the Civil War that had died there while being held as prisoners of war.

In the northern states the first observance of Decoration Day (the original name of Memorial Day) was on May 30, 1868 at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington County, Virginia. General John Logan had officially declared Decoration Day on May 5, 1868. New York was the first state to officially recognize Decoration Day in 1873. By 1890 all northern states had recognized the holiday. The southern states each had their own Memorial Day on different days of the year. They did not recognize the northern version of the holiday until after World War I when Decoration Day was changed from honoring the dead from the Civil War to those who died in all wars in which the US was involved. Memorial Day became the most often used name for the holiday by the time of World War II.

Waterloo, New York was officially declared the birthplace of Memorial Day by President Lyndon B. Johnson in May 1966 and in 1967 he signed the legislation officially renaming Decoration Day to Memorial Day.