100 Fun Facts About Presidents' Day

Which Monday of February is Presidents' Day?

3rd: that Monday always arrives before Washington's real birthday comes round, so the holiday held in his honour can never fall on the day itself.

Which 1794 agreement with Britain did Washington back despite French Revolution tensions?

Jay Treaty: Chief Justice John Jay sailed to London and settled quarrels left over from independence. The deal proved unpopular with the American public, yet it kept the young country out of a war.

The 1879 Washington's Birthday holiday covered federal workers only where?

The capital alone: the first law covered only federal offices in the District of Columbia. Congress extended it to federal workers everywhere in 1885.

Which 1968 law gave federal workers a three-day weekend in February?

Uniform Monday Holiday Act: its backers argued that more long weekends would lift trade and spare business and labour the cost of midweek shutdowns.

Which president signed the 1968 law that turned Washington's Birthday into a long weekend?

Lyndon B. Johnson signed the bill in June 1968, but it did not take effect until 1971. So the first of the new long weekends arrived under his successor, Richard Nixon.

George Washington chose the site in 1791 for which building?

The White House took eight years to build, and Washington died in 1799 with the work unfinished. It was his successor who moved in, to rooms that were still not ready.

Why did George Washington's birthday move from February 11 to February 22?

Britain changed calendars in 1752, adopting the Gregorian, which skipped eleven days and moved New Year from March to January. So February 11, 1731, became February 22, 1732.

Every elector voted for Washington in 1789; which runner-up became vice president?

John Adams: each elector cast two votes, and all 69 gave one to Washington. Adams's 34 were the next most, which under the rules of the day made him vice president.

Besides George Washington, which American's birthday is marked by a US federal holiday?

Martin Luther King Jr. is the only other American on the list. Congress added his birthday in 1983 and, as with Washington's, fixed it by weekday rather than by date, so the holiday often misses the real birthday.

Which president's birthday, February 12, do some states fold into Presidents' Day?

Abraham Lincoln's birthday has never been a federal holiday. Congress dropped a plan to merge it with Washington's in 1968, though Illinois and a few other states keep February 12 for themselves.

Mount Rushmore shows four presidents: which of these is one of them?

Theodore Roosevelt stands for the country's development on a mountain meant to show its birth, growth and preservation. He had set the Panama Canal in motion, linking the Atlantic and the Pacific.

Which state's February holiday honours civil rights leader Daisy Bates alongside George Washington?

Arkansas added Daisy Gatson Bates Day in 2001. She had guided the Little Rock Nine, the Black students who integrated the city's Central High School in 1957, while segregationists attacked her home.

Which state officially calls the February holiday "George Washington Day"?

Virginia was his home from birth to death, and its law leaves the other presidents out: the day is set aside simply 'to honor George Washington, the first President of the United States'.

Which president served the shortest term, dying just a month after his inauguration?

William Henry Harrison spoke for nearly two hours at his inauguration, in the cold without coat or hat, and was dead on his 32nd day as president.

Which army did Congress put George Washington in command of in 1775?

The Continental Army was created by Congress in June 1775. Washington was picked to lead it for his military experience, and because a southerner in command would help bind the colonies together.

Which state's governor issues a "Presidents Day" proclamation on May 29, JFK's birthday?

Massachusetts keeps the day for four presidents of its own: John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Calvin Coolidge and Kennedy. George H. W. Bush was born in the state too, but the law does not list him.

Who is the only person to have served as both US president and chief justice?

William Howard Taft was voted out of the presidency in 1912, then named chief justice nine years later. He led the Supreme Court until shortly before his death in 1930.

In New Mexico, when is Presidents' Day taken as a paid state holiday?

The Friday after Thanksgiving: New Mexico's official holiday list puts 'Presidents' Day' in late November, which hands state workers a four-day Thanksgiving weekend.

Which US president was the first to serve two non-consecutive terms?

Grover Cleveland lost the 1888 election despite winning the popular vote, then took the presidency back four years later. That is why he is counted as both the 22nd and the 24th president.

Before becoming president, which 1787 gathering did George Washington chair?

The Constitutional Convention chose him unanimously to preside. Its organisers had thought his presence essential to success, since no other name carried the same trust.

Which group is credited with pushing "Presidents' Day" into public use by the mid-1980s?

Advertisers found 'Presidents' Day' a handy banner for a long weekend of sales. Congress never adopted the name: in federal law the holiday is still Washington's Birthday.

Which food is traditionally linked to Washington's Birthday?

Cherry pie recalls the tale of the boy who took a hatchet to his father's cherry tree and owned up at once. The story was invented after his death, but the pie caught on anyway.

Which medal bearing Washington's image was revived on his 200th birthday in 1932?

Purple Heart: the medal revived Washington's own Badge of Military Merit, a heart cut from purple cloth that he had created for his soldiers during the Revolutionary War.

Which document has a senator read aloud in the US Senate every Washington's Birthday since 1896?

Farewell Address: the custom began in 1862 as a way to lift spirits in the darkest days of the Civil War. Senators of each party now take turns to read all 7,641 words.

The Washington Monument was the world's tallest structure in 1884; what overtook it five years later?

The Eiffel Tower took the record in 1889 and kept it for four decades. The monument has a title left, though: nothing built of stone has ever risen higher.

In which war did the young George Washington first see combat, in a skirmish that helped start it?

The French and Indian War grew out of his 1754 ambush of a French patrol in the Ohio backcountry. Weeks later he was cornered at Fort Necessity, the only time he ever surrendered to an enemy.

Which sports league holds its All-Star festivities over the Presidents' Day weekend?

No games are played on the holiday itself; the season resumes the following Thursday.

Which NASCAR race is traditionally run the day before Presidents' Day?

Daytona 500: NASCAR opens its season with its most prestigious race rather than ending on it. In 2024 rain washed out the Sunday, and the whole race was run a day late, on the holiday itself.

Which style guide uses the form "Presidents Day" with no apostrophe?

Associated Press Stylebook: the guide most American newsrooms follow drops the apostrophe. Federal law sidesteps the whole argument, because officially the holiday is still Washington's Birthday.

Which holiday did Congress move in 1968, only to restore its old date ten years later?

Veterans Day spent a few years in late October, but November 11 is the day the fighting stopped in the First World War, and many states simply went on marking it. Congress gave way and restored the date.

Which holiday did Congress newly add to the federal calendar in 1968?

Columbus Day was already a holiday in 34 states, so Congress gave it national standing, though on a floating date in October rather than the traditional 12th.

Which Japanese policy moved public holidays to create three-day weekends?

Happy Monday System: from 2000 Japan moved four holidays from fixed dates to Mondays, so Sports Day lost its date of 10 October, the day the 1964 Tokyo Olympics had opened.

Washington spent most of his presidency in which temporary capital?

Philadelphia was the temporary capital from 1790 while the new federal city was being built. Washington left office in 1797 without ever governing from the city that bears his name.

Where did Washington take the oath of office in 1789?

Federal Hall, on Wall Street: he swore the oath out on a second-floor balcony so that the crowd packed into the streets below could watch, then went inside to address Congress.

Which river did Washington cross before the Battle of Trenton?

Delaware: he ferried his army across the ice-choked river on Christmas night 1776, in the teeth of a winter storm, and fell on the Hessian garrison at Trenton at dawn.

Where did Washington's army spend the winter of 1777–78?

Valley Forge never saw a battle, yet disease killed nearly 2,000 people in the camp. The survivors were drilled there by the Prussian officer von Steuben and marched out a far better army.

Which 1781 battle was the last significant fight of the Revolutionary War?

Yorktown: Washington feinted at New York, then slipped south while a French fleet closed Chesapeake Bay behind the British. Cut off by land and sea, Cornwallis surrendered his whole army.

Which French general marched south with Washington's army in 1781 for the war's decisive siege?

Rochambeau had landed at Newport the year before with 5,500 French troops. He led them down from New England to join the Americans, and the two armies marched to the Chesapeake together.

What was the name of Washington's plantation home?

Mount Vernon honours a British admiral. Washington's half-brother Lawrence had served under Edward Vernon and renamed the family's Little Hunting Creek farm after him.

Whom did Washington marry in January 1759?

Martha Dandridge Custis was a young widow with a large fortune, and the match lifted him into the top rank of planters. They raised her children and grandchildren, but he had none of his own.

What profession did young Washington take up with a licence from William & Mary?

Surveyor: he was made official surveyor of the new Culpeper County at 17, and within a few years had run almost 200 surveys of frontier land before the army drew him away.

Which cash crop replaced tobacco on Washington's estate in the 1760s?

Wheat: tobacco was wearing out his soil and fetching less every year from the London merchant who set its price. Grain he could mill into flour and sell on his own terms.

Which Pennsylvania revolt did President Washington ride out with the militia to put down in 1794?

Whiskey Rebellion: frontier farmers refused to pay a federal tax on the spirits they distilled. Washington called up the militia of four states and rode out to inspect it himself, and the revolt melted away.

Which congressman and future president helped George Washington write his first inaugural address in 1789?

James Madison had just been elected to the House and soon became its most influential member. Washington leaned on him so heavily in his first term that he worked almost as a prime minister.

Which standard treatment of the day was Washington given four times in his final illness?

Bloodletting began at his own request before the doctors even arrived, and by evening he had lost about five pints. It did nothing for the throat infection that was choking him, and he died that night.

Who eulogized Washington as "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen"?

Henry Lee III, the cavalry general known as 'Light-Horse Harry', had fought under Washington and wrote the eulogy within days of his death. His own son, Robert E. Lee, would one day lead the Confederate army.

Which early biographer spread the tale of young Washington, the hatchet and the tree?

Mason Locke Weems, a travelling parson and bookseller, rushed out his Life of Washington within months of the great man's death in 1799, and slipped the story of the tree into a later edition.

According to popular legend, what were George Washington's false teeth made of?

Wood is the legend, but none was ever used. His dentures were built from metal and from human and animal teeth, and may simply have looked wooden once they stained.

What rank was Washington posthumously given during the 1976 Bicentennial?

General of the Armies: he had died a mere lieutenant general, outranked on paper by the commanders of later wars. Congress declared it fitting that no officer of the Army should ever outrank him.

Which US coin carries Washington's portrait?

Quarter: until 1932 the coin showed Liberty. Washington's portrait took her place that year to honour his 200th birthday, and it has never left.

Which body has elected only one president unanimously, choosing George Washington that way twice?

The Electoral College gave Washington a vote from every elector in both of his elections, which no later president has matched. Runner-up John Adams became vice president each time.

Which structure, finished in 1889, ended the Washington Monument's five-year run as the world's tallest?

The Eiffel Tower, built as the centrepiece of the 1889 World's Fair, then held the height record for 41 years. New York's Chrysler Building finally topped it in 1930.

Former presidents Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died within hours of each other on which date in 1826?

July 4, 1826 was the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence that both men helped write. Adams's last words named Jefferson, who had in fact died several hours earlier.

The 16th US president was born in a one-room log cabin in which state in 1809?

Kentucky was his home only until he was seven, when his parents moved north across the Ohio River. He did not reach Illinois, the state most tied to his name, until he was 21.

British troops captured Washington and burned the White House during which war?

The War of 1812 saw the only capture of a US capital by a foreign power since the Revolution. A heavy thunderstorm put out the fires less than a day after they were set.

Which agency was founded to fight counterfeit money and only later began guarding US presidents?

The Secret Service took on presidential protection after William McKinley was assassinated in 1901. It stayed part of the Treasury Department until 2003.

Mount Rushmore's four 60-foot presidential faces are carved into the Black Hills of which state?

South Dakota's state historian, Doane Robinson, proposed the carving to boost tourism. He first pictured heroes of the West such as Lewis and Clark, not presidents.

Which scandal, named after a Washington office complex, made Richard Nixon the only president to resign?

Watergate began with a break-in at Democratic Party offices and ended with Nixon's resignation in August 1974. His successor, Gerald Ford, pardoned him a month later.

Presidents' Day sales in the United States are especially known for deep discounts on which household item?

Mattresses top a list of big-ticket Presidents' Day deals that also includes appliances and furniture. Most businesses stay open for the long weekend and run promotions.

Which presidential mountain retreat, once called Shangri-La, did Dwight D. Eisenhower rename for his grandson?

Camp David honors both Eisenhower's grandson and his father, who shared the name. Franklin D. Roosevelt had named the Maryland hideaway after a fictional Himalayan paradise.

Who shot the 16th US president during a performance of Our American Cousin in April 1865?

John Wilkes Booth was a famous stage actor and a Confederate sympathizer. He fled on horseback and was tracked down twelve days later, hiding in a tobacco barn.

Which 1863 speech by the 16th US president lasted about two minutes at a battlefield cemetery dedication?

The Gettysburg Address runs to about 270 words. It followed a two-hour oration by Edward Everett, who had top billing that day.

Which document, issued by the 16th US president on January 1, 1863, declared slaves in rebel states free?

The Emancipation Proclamation was a wartime executive order, so it left out the four slave states that had stayed in the Union. Slavery was not abolished nationwide until 1865.

Which 1803 agreement with France, made under Thomas Jefferson, nearly doubled the size of the United States?

The Louisiana Purchase cost $15 million, or about $18 per square mile. Napoleon sold after failing to put down a revolt in Saint-Domingue, with a new war against Britain looming.

Which hilltop home, designed by Thomas Jefferson himself, appears on the back of the US nickel?

Monticello has been on the nickel's reverse since 1938, apart from two years of special designs. Jefferson spent most of his adult life designing and rebuilding the house.

Barack Obama was born in which state in 1961, barely two years after it joined the Union?

Hawaii makes Obama the only president born outside the contiguous United States. He was born in Honolulu, where his parents had met as university students.

Which crop was Jimmy Carter known for farming in Plains, Georgia, before he entered politics?

Peanuts were Carter's trade from his teens, when he sold a crop grown on his own acre. He left a Navy submarine career to run the farm after his father died.

Future president Dwight D. Eisenhower commanded the Allied D-Day landings of June 1944 in which French region?

Normandy was the target of Operation Overlord, which Eisenhower planned and led as supreme Allied commander. He went on to head Columbia University and NATO before entering the White House.

Which volunteer program did John F. Kennedy create by executive order weeks after taking office in 1961?

The Peace Corps trains volunteers and sends them to work in communities abroad. Congress wrote it into law that September, and it still runs as an independent agency.

Which name is given to the Depression-era relief programs Franklin D. Roosevelt launched from 1933?

The New Deal aimed at relief, recovery and reform, and opened with a rush of programs in Roosevelt's first hundred days. It later inspired Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society.

Whom did George Washington appoint as the first Secretary of the Treasury in his original cabinet?

Alexander Hamilton got the job on the advice of financier Robert Morris, who had been Washington's first pick. A statue of Hamilton still stands outside the Treasury Building.

Which city served as the national capital for most of George Washington's presidency, from 1790 onward?

Philadelphia hosted the government from 1790 to 1800 while a permanent capital was being built. Washington's official home there was a mansion on High Street, later used by John Adams.

Which Caribbean island did George Washington visit in 1751 on the only trip abroad of his life?

Barbados was chosen in the hope that its climate would cure his half-brother Lawrence's tuberculosis. Washington caught smallpox there, which left him immune to later outbreaks.

George Washington first commanded troops as a young colonial officer in which war of the 1750s?

The French and Indian War was partly Washington's own doing. A 1754 skirmish between his men and a French patrol, the Jumonville affair, became the incident that ignited it.

Which 1787 gathering did George Washington preside over, two years before becoming the first president?

The Constitutional Convention elected Washington to the chair unanimously on its opening day. Its delegates went on to draft the Constitution still in force.

The 1790 Residence Act, signed by George Washington, placed the permanent national capital beside which river?

The Potomac site was one half of a bargain. Southern members won a capital on their doorstep, and in return several of them switched to back a federal funding bill.

Which artist painted the unfinished 1796 portrait of George Washington used on the one-dollar bill?

Gilbert Stuart kept the original after finishing only the face, then used it to paint scores of copies that he sold for $100 each. It was still unfinished when he died in 1828.

Which dog breed counts George Washington as its founding father, thanks to hounds he bred for the hunt?

The American Foxhound owes its start to Washington's own pack, which he crossed with French hounds sent to him as a gift by the Marquis de Lafayette.

George Washington laid the cornerstone of which federal building in a Masonic ceremony in 1793?

The US Capitol cornerstone was laid on September 18, 1793, by Washington and eight fellow Freemasons in full regalia. The ritual was re-enacted on the same date 200 years later.

Which Roman farmer-general, famed for giving up power, has George Washington often been compared to?

Cincinnatus was called from his plough to run Rome in a crisis, won fast and was back on his farm within weeks. Washington earned the comparison by handing back command of the army.

The Resolute desk, first used in the White House by Rutherford B. Hayes, was a present from which British monarch?

Queen Victoria had it built from the oak timbers of HMS Resolute, a British Arctic ship. The United States had bought the abandoned vessel from its salvagers and sent it home as a gift.

William Howard Taft is the only person to serve as president and later hold which other office?

Chief Justice was the office Taft had long sought, having turned down earlier seats on the court. Warren G. Harding appointed him in 1921, eight years after he left the White House.

Which language did Martin Van Buren, the only president to learn English second, grow up speaking in Kinderhook?

Dutch was the everyday language of Kinderhook, New York, where most residents had Dutch roots. Van Buren was also the first president born after the Declaration of Independence.

Which 1823 foreign policy, written chiefly by John Quincy Adams, warned European powers off the Western Hemisphere?

The Monroe Doctrine was first set out in President James Monroe's annual message to Congress. It did not carry his name until 1850, long after he had died.

Which nickname did Andrew Jackson earn for his toughness on a hard trek home with his troops?

Old Hickory began as plain Hickory in 1813, when Jackson refused to disband his troops far from home and led them on the difficult journey back to Nashville himself.

Which change to the Constitution, ratified after Franklin D. Roosevelt won four elections, limits presidents to two?

The 22nd Amendment came into force in 1951, after Roosevelt's unprecedented third and fourth wins. Its limit did not apply to Harry S. Truman, the president in office when it was proposed.

Under the 1947 Presidential Succession Act, which official is next in line after the vice president?

The Speaker of the House has come first since 1947, ahead of the Senate's president pro tempore and the Cabinet. A 1792 law had ranked those two officers the other way round.

In which New York city was William McKinley shot at the Pan-American Exposition in September 1901?

Buffalo was hosting the fair when an anarchist shot McKinley as he shook hands with the public at its Temple of Music. He died eight days later, making Theodore Roosevelt president.

Woodrow Wilson, the only president with a PhD, ran which Ivy League university before entering politics?

Princeton was also where Wilson had studied as an undergraduate, before it took its modern name. His doctorate, in history and government, came from Johns Hopkins.

Theodore Roosevelt became the first American Nobel laureate in 1906 for helping to end which war?

The Russo-Japanese War ended with a treaty signed in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, after Japan asked Roosevelt to broker talks. He had quietly favoured Japan but wanted Russia kept in the region as a counterweight.

Theodore Roosevelt's refusal to shoot a tied-up bear, the origin of the teddy bear, happened in which state?

Mississippi's governor had invited Roosevelt on the 1902 hunt. A newspaper cartoon of the scene inspired Morris Michtom to create the toy, which he named after the president.

Gerald Ford became vice president in 1973 after which man resigned the office over a corruption case?

Spiro Agnew's exit let Ford be appointed vice president two months later. When Richard Nixon also quit in 1974, Ford became president without ever winning a national election.

Alberta, Ontario and British Columbia give which name to the holiday they observe on Presidents' Day Monday?

Family Day was championed in Alberta by Premier Getty, who said people needed to spend time with their families. Manitoba calls the same Monday Louis Riel Day, after the Métis leader.

James Hoban modelled his winning White House design on Leinster House, a mansion in which European capital?

Dublin's Leinster House now houses the Irish legislature. Hoban, who was born in Ireland, was named winner of the design competition for the president's home in 1792.

Which Texas border city hosts a month-long Washington's Birthday Celebration that was first staged in 1898?

Laredo's festival packs in two parades, a carnival, an air show and a colonial ball. It was started by a fraternal lodge, the Improved Order of Red Men.

Which sculptor led the carving of Mount Rushmore from 1927 until his death in 1941?

Gutzon Borglum, the son of Danish immigrants, picked the mountain partly because it faces southeast and catches the most sunlight. His son took over the project after he died.

Which engineer did George Washington pick in 1791 to design the street plan of the new capital?

Pierre L'Enfant produced his baroque street plan in 1791, but an incensed Washington soon dismissed him for insubordination. The plan later inspired the layouts of Detroit and Sacramento.

At which Manhattan inn did George Washington say goodbye to his officers at the end of the Revolutionary War?

Fraunces Tavern hosted the gathering nine days after British troops left New York. Washington took each officer by the hand in turn, and the building now holds a museum.

Which niece served as White House hostess for James Buchanan, the only president never to marry?

Harriet Lane had asked for Buchanan, her favourite uncle, to become her guardian when she was orphaned as a girl. She is counted as the first First Lady to a bachelor president.

Which Prussian officer drilled George Washington's Continental Army into shape during the winter of 1777–78?

Baron von Steuben taught drill and discipline through interpreters, as his orders had to be translated into English. His training manual stayed in army use for decades.