Monday, February 15, 2010

Presidents Day 2010

Today isn’t really any presidents’ birthday. Abraham Lincoln’s birthday was last Friday and George Washington’s birthday is a week from today. Prior to 1971, the federal holiday was always celebrated on Washington’s actual birthday on the 22nd. In 1971 the holiday was shifted to the third Monday in February in order to create a three day weekend holiday. As a result, the federal holiday, which is still officially called Washington’s Birthday, doesn’t fall on any our 44 presidents birthdays.

My personal favorite of the 44 commanders in chief was Theodore Roosevelt. For those who are also fans of our 26th president, I wholeheartedly recommend the biographies Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris or Theodore Roosevelt a Life by Nathan Miller.

And just for the record, today is actually a famous world leader’s birthday. In 1710, King Louis XV of France was born on this day. Happy Birthday Louie!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

For the record, today is officially known as "Washington's Birthday."

Freemarket said...

I don't like how TR paved the way for the Food and Drug Administration. I think he did a lot of harm by getting the ball rolling with that.

He is most interesting for what he did while not being president. Like putting the River of Doubt on the map through his exploration.