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President’s Day dates back to 1800. The year after the death of President George Washington.
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George Washington was born on February 22, 1732 and died on December 14, 1799. He was America’s first president.
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George Washington birthday on February 22 became a day of remembrance to celebrate our nations first president.
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Each year more and more people celebrated George Washington’s birthday and in 1885 it became a holiday.
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In the late 1870′s Arkansas Senator Steven Wallace Dorsey proposed that the nation declare George Washington’s Birthday a federal holiday.
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In 1879 President Rutherford B. Hayes signed a bill declaring February 22nd George Washington Day a federal holiday.
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George Washington became the first American citizen with a federal holiday.
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By 1885 the holiday expanded and the entire country was celebrating George Washington’s birthday.
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In 1968 the congress passes a bill called the uniform Monday Holiday Bill. The bill was passed to create me 3 day weekends for workers and moved some holidays to Mondays.
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The bill combined George Washington’s birthday February 22nd with Abraham Lincoln’s birthday February 12th.
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In 1971 George Washington’s Day was moved to the third Monday in the month of February.
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Even though not official change of the name of the holiday was made most states now called the holiday President’s Day.
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Presidents born in February are George Washington 2/22, Abraham Lincoln 2/12, Ronald Reagan 2/6 and William Henry Harrison 2/9.
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President’s Day is a federal holiday however each state chooses how to celebrate it and what to call it.
