Veterans Day: History of a symbol

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In this photo taken on Nov. 12, 2013, a red poppy on a wooden remembrance cross lays above a bronze plaque which contains the poem In Flanders Fields by World War I Canadian soldier John McCrae at the Essex Farm Commonwealth Cemetery on in Ypres, Belgium. McCrae, a doctor who had been treating wounded men in the field, saw that the resilient red corn poppy was the first plant to flourish in the churned-up landscape. The poem, penned shortly after McCrae buried a friend, soon became one of the most well-known wartime verses and sowed the seeds of the poppy’s symbolism in the English-speaking world. (Virginia Mayo/AP)

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