All birthdays are worth celebrating, but some are bigger than others. In the case of the United States Army, this Saturday is a very big birthday: Number 250. Yes, the Army is even older than the United States itself.

The Second Continental Congress established the Continental Army on June 14, 1775, more than a year before the thirteen colonies formally declared independence from Great Britain. The next day, the Continental Congress put George Washington of Virginia in command. The rest, as they say, is history.

That history is long and illustrious, running from Valley Forge through the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. If you are unfamiliar with the Army’s history, here are five things worth knowing: The Army provides much more information about its mission, structure, and accomplishments on its official webpage. Birthday Celebrations The Army is hosting a range of events this week to celebrate its semiquincentennial, or sestercentennial if you prefer.

Those events include Army Day with the Washington Nationals on Friday night—the opponent is the Miami Marlins—and a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery on Saturday morning. The wreath laying will be livestreamed starting at 8:05 a.m. EDT. At the direction of President Donald Trump, the Army will also hold a parade Saturday evening along the National Mall to mark its birthday, which also happens to be the president’s seventy-ninth birthday.

(June 14 is Flag Day as well.) Saturday’s parade is the first of its kind to be held in the nation’s capital since the National Victory Celebration was held in June 1991 to commemorate victory in the Gulf War. That parade honored all the U.S. military services.

Saturday’s parade is set to begin at 6:30 p.m. EDT. It will start on Constitution Avenue and 23rd Street just north of the Lincoln Memorial and end at 15th Street, just past the Washington Monument. That’s less than a mile.

The parade is expected to last ninety minutes. You do not need tickets to watch it in person. However, if you get tickets, you will likely have a better view of the procession.

CSPAN plans to carry the parade live. Your favorite cable news network will likely carry at least parts of the procession. Some 6,600 soldiers are expected to participate in the parade.

To highlight how the Army has changed over two and a half centuries, soldiers will be organized into groups by eras dating back to the Revolutionary War and wear corresponding uniforms and carry appropriate gear. The parade will also feature a range of weapons systems, including M1/A2 Abram tanks, UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters, Bradley fighting vehicles, and Paladin self-propelled howitzers. The parade will end with a parachute jump by the Army's Golden Knights and be followed by a concert and fireworks.

At some point, Trump will give a speech honoring the Army. Learning More About the U.S. Army I asked Colonel Nathan Colvin, a U.S. Army officer who has spent the past year as a military fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, how people can learn more about the service he has devoted his adult life to. He recommended an Army field manual, two books, and one movie: Colonel Colvin added that “today’s Army balances change and history.

It fuses the efforts of individual Soldiers so that units can succeed on and off of the battlefield. That change is happening before our eyes at Soldiers-Authors write for their professional journals at the Army’s new hub for professional writing Line of Departure and through the Army’s Harding Fellowship for Professional Writing.” You can learn more about Army culture, heritage, and history first hand by visiting the Army’s many museums and libraries. One of my favorites is the National Museum of the United States Army in Fort Belvoir, Virginia, twenty miles southwest of Washington, DC.

You also cannot go wrong by visiting the United States Military Academy at West Point, especially during the fall, and touring the West Point Museum. Oscar Berry assisted in the preparation of this post.