The "The USA Celebrates Their Leaders Day" Story

It was an ordinary day.  President's Day 2019 and today we celebrate all U.S. Presidents, past and present. President's Day was originally established in 1885 in recognition of President George Washington's birthday.  It is now celebrated on the third Monday in February after the Uniform Monday Holiday Act was passed in 1971.  The Act was meant to create more three-day weekends for the nation's workers.  Actually, some states still have individual holidays honoring the birthdays of Washington, Lincoln and other figures.  The special day began in 1800, following the death of George Washington in 1799.  His birthday, February 22, became a perennial day of remembrance with events in 1832 to celebrate his 100th birthday and in 1848 to celebrate the start of construction of the Washington Monument.  It wasn't until the late 1870s that his birthday became an official federal holiday.  The measure was signed into law in 1879 by President Rutherford B. Hayes.  Originally the holiday was meant for the District of Columbia, but six years later was expanded to the entire country.  At that time there were four other federal holidays in Christmas, New Year's, Fourth of July and Thanksgiving.  Washington's birthday was the only federal holiday that celebrated an individual American until 1983 when we began to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.  Then in the late 1960s Congress proposed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act.  The Act included a provision to combine the celebration of Washington's birthday with that of Abraham Lincoln, which fell on February 12.  The Act took effect in 1971 following an executive order from President Richard Nixon.  Eventually Columbus Day, Memorial Day and Veterans Day were moved from their traditional dates to Mondays.  Seems people love the three days off they may get due to the holidays.  For many workers it doesn't matter what day the celebrations may occur, since they have to work on all holidays.  I did find a rather unusual fact:  President's Day never falls on the actual birthday of any President.  Four Presidents (Washington, Harrison, Lincoln and Reagan) were born in February, but their birthdays all come either too early or too late to coincide with Presidents Day which is now always on the third Monday of the month.  Presidents Day and Independence Day are viewed as a time of patriotic celebration and remembrance. 

Abraham Lincoln postcard from 1909.

Some states require that their schools spend the days leading up to President's Day teaching students about the accomplishments of all Presidents with a focus on Washington and Lincoln.  I recently read a story from a person in Lancaster, Pennsylvania where I live that said as an elementary student his class covered the bulletin board with rail fences and log cabins of construction paper for the 12th, then replaced them with cherry trees and cannons for the 22nd.  Included in the online story was an unmailed postcard that commemorated Abraham Lincoln.  It was believed to have been printed in 1909.  So, today, let us all remember all Presidents of the United States on this, their special day of remembrance.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.