On September 16, 1919, the American Legion was incorporated by an act of Congress. A short excerpt from the article:
"The Founding of the American Legion
Paris March 1919
The American Legion was founded in 1919 by veterans returning from Europe after World War I and was chartered by Congress in the same year as a patriotic, war-time veterans organization, devoted to mutual helpfulness. It is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana and also has offices in Washington D.C. It is a not-for-profit community-service organization which now numbers nearly 3 million members, men and women, in nearly 15,000 American Legion posts worldwide. Paris Post #1 is one of those posts."