Monday, February 19, 2007

Today is President's Day, isn't it?

The reason we have no postal delivery today is because it is a federal holiday. According to my calendar, today is President's day, but federal statute states that today is a holiday in celebration of Washington's Birthday.

Want proof? Check out the Office of Personal Management's Federal Holiday site. See the note at the bottom: "This holiday is designated as "Washington's Birthday" in section 6103(a) of title 5 of the United States Code, which is the law that specifies holidays for Federal employees. Though other institutions such as state and local governments and private businesses may use other names, it is our policy to always refer to holidays by the names designated in the law."

Want to know more about the reason the name changed in the public consciousness? The National Archive's has a well-written article on the history of this holiday (as well as some discussion of why most federal holidays are on Monday). The article is "By George, IT IS Washington's Birthday!" and was written by C. L. Arbelbide.

Want to know more about the Presidents of the United States? Check out the White House's President's page
. You can find the names and terms of all the President's as well as a brief story on what happened in the White House on this day in history.

The National Archives has also released a new interactive web site, "The Presidential Timeline of the Twentieth Century." This site has "documents, photographs, audio recordings, and video relating to the events of the presidents’ lives."

Finally, if you still need more Presidential information, check out the library's guide.

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