American schoolchildren were shafted with the introduction of President’s Day.
They were cheated out of learning about the Great Man.
Washington’s Birthday was on Feb 22nd and Lincoln’s on Feb 12th.
Washington’s Birthday was celebrated on Feb 22nd from 1879 until 1970.
To give federal employees a three-day weekend, in 1968 the Uniform Monday Holiday Act moved it to the third Monday in February, which can occur between February 15 and 21, starting in 1971.
(I enlisted on Friday Feb 18th 1972 and this caused my buzz cut to be delayed til Tuesday, but we cut each others hair with sewing scissors on Saturday as it was too warm marching with longer hair.)
The day soon became known as Presidents Day and provides an occasion to remember all the U.S. presidents, to honor Abraham Lincoln’s and Washington’s birthdays together, or any single president of choice.
When everyone is special, nobody is special.
William Henry Harrison was president for 40 days.
Barack Obama was president for 8 years.
Biden and Carter, 4 each.
None of them deserve to share a day with Washington.
George Washington was the superhero who not only led us to victory in our separation from Britain and the founding of our nation, but became its first president for two terms, turning down the opportunity to be king!
George Washington was born on February 11, 1731, Julian Calendar.
At the time, the entire British Empire, including its North American possessions, was on the Julian calendar; the Empire, not being bound to the Catholic Church, had not yet adopted the modern Gregorian calendar that Catholic countries had adopted in 1582.
Consequently, by the 1730s, the Julian calendar used by Britain and the Colonies was eleven days behind the Gregorian, because of leap year differences.
Furthermore, the British civil year began on March 25 rather than January 1, so that dates in February (such as this one) ‘belonged’ to the preceding year.
In 1752, the British Empire switched to the Gregorian calendar and since then, Americans born prior to 1752, including Washington, typically had their birthdays recognized according to the Gregorian calendar .
Since February 11, 1731, on the Julian calendar was February 22, 1732, on the Gregorian (with new year now on Jan 1), and he was alive at the time the change was made, Washington changed his birth date to February 22, 1732, to match the new calendar.
This did not affect his Social Security.
