BRIEFING ROOM

...but did you know, two other Presidents were born in February? Do you know who they were?

  President's Day rarely falls on the actual birthday of any American president.

Four presidents - George Washington, William Henry Harrison, Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan—were born in February.

Presidents Day, today, is celebrated on the third Monday of the month. However, it wasn't always. 

Presidents Day is celebrated on the third Monday in February, thanks to the 1968 Uniform Monday Holiday Act.

Presidents’ Days origin lies in the 1880s, when the birthday of Washington—commander of the Continental Army during the American Revolution and the first president of the United States—was first celebrated as a federal holiday. In 1968 Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Bill, which moved a number of federal holidays to Mondays. The change was designed to schedule certain holidays so that workers had a number of long weekends throughout the year, however, many to this day opposethe idea and believe that those holidays should be celebrated on the dates they actually occurred.

During debate on the bill, it was proposed that Washington’s Birthday be renamed Presidents’ Day to honor the birthdays of both Washington (February 22) and Lincoln (February 12). 

Lincoln’s birthday was celebrated in many states, but it has never been an official federal holiday.

Following much discussion, Congress rejected the name change. After the bill went into effect in 1971, however, Presidents’ Day became the commonly accepted name, due in part to retailers’ use of that name to promote sales and the holiday’s proximity to Lincoln’s birthday.

At the Presidents Hall of Fame, every day is Presidents Day!

Following is a list of every Presidents Birthday: