70 Fun Facts About U.S. Holiday

How many federal holidays did the U.S. government designate each year as of 2025?

The count grew from four in 1870 to eleven with Juneteenth's 2021 addition. Federal workers in the Washington, D.C. area get a twelfth day off every fourth January.

In which year did Congress pass the Uniform Monday Holiday Act?

The act took effect in 1971 and created the modern three-day weekends for Memorial Day, Columbus Day and Presidents' Day. Veterans Day was moved too, but the backlash sent it back to November 11.

Which day is a paid holiday only for federal employees who work in the Washington, D.C. area?

It exists to ease crowds and traffic in the capital every fourth January 20. Federal workers elsewhere in the country get no day off.

What is the official federal name of the February holiday most Americans call Presidents' Day?

Congress never renamed it; the 'Presidents' Day' label spread through state laws and advertising after the 1971 move to a Monday. Some states officially honour Lincoln on the same day.

On which day of February was George Washington born, a date the third-Monday holiday can never land on?

The third Monday always falls between February 15 and 21, one day short at best. Washington was born February 11, 1731 under the old Julian calendar, which became February 22, 1732 after the switch.

Which president signed the bill that created Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 1983?

The holiday was first observed in January 1986. It took until 2000 for every state to observe it, South Carolina being the last to make it a paid holiday for all state employees.

Which musician released the single 'Happy Birthday' in 1980 as part of the campaign for a King holiday?

The song became an anthem of the campaign, and its singer also hosted the 1981 Rally for Peace Press Conference. Millions of signatures were delivered to Congress before the bill passed.

After voters rejected a King holiday in 1990, the NFL pulled Super Bowl XXVII from which state?

The game went to Pasadena instead. The state's voters approved the holiday in 1992 and Tempe hosted Super Bowl XXX in 1996.

Juneteenth marks General Order No. 3, announcing freedom in 1865, read in which Texas city?

Union Major General Gordon Granger arrived on the island with more than 2,000 troops, two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation. The day is also known as Jubilee Day and Freedom Day.

In which year did Juneteenth become a federal holiday, the first new one since 1983?

President Biden signed the law on June 17 and the first federal observance came just two days later. Texas had recognised the day by legislation back in 1979.

From which city did Opal Lee, 'grandmother of Juneteenth', begin her 2016 walk to Washington?

She set out in September 2016 and arrived in the capital in January 2017. At the signing ceremony she received the first pen the president used.

Whose decades of editorials prompted Abraham Lincoln to proclaim a national Thanksgiving in 1863?

The magazine editor, also credited with 'Mary Had a Little Lamb', had lobbied five presidents. Lincoln's proclamation set the last Thursday of November.

What did critics nickname the 1939 Thanksgiving after Roosevelt moved it a week earlier?

Sixteen states refused to move, so the country ate turkey on two different days for two years. Congress ended the confusion by fixing the fourth Thursday in law.

In which year did federal law first fix Thanksgiving as the fourth Thursday of November?

Roosevelt signed the bill the day after Christmas. Before that the date rested on an annual presidential proclamation.

Which NFL team has hosted a game every Thanksgiving Day since 1945, after also doing so in the mid-1930s?

Owner George A. Richards started the tradition to fill his stadium and get national radio attention. Dallas joined the Thanksgiving slate in 1966.

The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade has marched through New York every year since which year?

The first parade used live animals borrowed from the Central Park Zoo; the giant balloons arrived in 1927. It was suspended only for World War II, when the rubber and helium went to the war effort.

Which president made the annual turkey 'pardon' a permanent Thanksgiving tradition in 1989?

Turkeys had been presented to presidents since 1947, but most were eaten. From 2005 to 2009 the pardoned birds retired to Disneyland or Walt Disney World.

Which president first received an official National Turkey Federation Thanksgiving turkey, in 1947?

The presentation began as an industry promotion, not a pardon. John F. Kennedy spontaneously spared a 55-pound bird in 1963, three days before his assassination.

Police in which US city coined 'Black Friday' for the traffic chaos opening the Christmas shopping season?

Rochester police used it too. Retailers later pushed the friendlier story that it is the day their books go from red ink into the black.

'Cyber Monday' was invented in 2005 by a division of which organisation?

Shop.org coined it after noticing that online sales spiked when people returned to fast office connections after the holiday weekend. It has since outgrown Black Friday online.

Which Founding Father wrote to his wife that 'the second day of July' would be America's great anniversary?

Congress voted for independence on July 2 and adopted the Declaration on July 4, and the later date stuck. He and Jefferson both died on July 4, 1826, the Declaration's 50th anniversary.

Independence Day became an unpaid federal holiday in 1870. In which year did Congress make it a paid one?

The same 1938 change made the other federal holidays paid days off. Before that, a federal clerk taking the Fourth off simply lost the wages.

Which small town claims the country's oldest continuous Independence Day celebration, since 1785?

The town paints its main-street centre line in patriotic colours for the parade. It began as a 'Patriotic Exercise' organised by a Revolutionary War veteran and clergyman.

In which New York neighbourhood does Nathan's hold its July 4th hot dog eating contest?

The story that it began in 1916 with four immigrants was admitted to be a 1970s publicity invention. Joey Chestnut set the record of 76 hot dogs and buns.

Which competitive eater transformed the Nathan's contest in 2001 by eating 50 hot dogs?

The previous mark was 25.5. He won six straight years before losing to Chestnut in 2007, and the winner still takes home the bejeweled mustard-yellow belt.

Before 1971, Memorial Day was fixed on which date, and what was the holiday originally called?

The name came from the practice of decorating soldiers' graves with flowers. Flags fly at half-staff only until noon, then rise to full staff for the rest of the day.

General John A. Logan, whose 1868 order launched the grave-decorating holiday, led which organisation?

It was the fraternal organisation of Union Civil War veterans, and a powerful political lobby. Its members later objected to the Indianapolis 500 being scheduled on the holiday.

Which town did LBJ's 1966 proclamation name the official birthplace of Memorial Day?

More than two dozen towns claim to have started the tradition, and the other three options are all rival claimants. The proclamation marked the centennial of the town's 1866 observance.

The National Moment of Remembrance Act asks Americans to pause on Memorial Day at what time?

The idea came from a group of children who were asked what Memorial Day meant and answered 'that's the day the pool opens'. Amtrak trains sound their whistles at the moment.

Which state was the first to make Labor Day an official public holiday, in 1887?

Thirty states had followed by the time it went federal. The first big labor parade had been held in New York City in 1882 under the Central Labor Union.

Which president signed the 1894 law creating the Labor Day federal holiday, days after breaking the Pullman Strike?

The bill was rushed through Congress as a conciliatory gesture to workers. Descendants of two men with near-identical surnames, Maguire and McGuire, still argue over who fathered the holiday.

According to an old American fashion rule, Labor Day is the last day it is acceptable to wear what?

The convention paired the holiday with the 'unofficial end of summer'. Seersucker was governed by the same rule.

Veterans Day began under what name, marking the end of fighting in the First World War?

The guns fell silent at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. Congress swapped the name in 1954 so the day would honour veterans of all wars.

Raymond Weeks, who first proposed a holiday for all veterans in 1945, was from which city?

He led the first national celebration there in 1947 and organised the city's parade for decades. He was awarded the Presidential Citizenship Medal in 1982.

In which year did Veterans Day return to its fixed date of November 11 after the 1971 Monday shift?

Most states had simply ignored the Monday date. The official spelling has no apostrophe, because the day is for honouring veterans, not one that belongs to them.

Which state first made Columbus Day a statutory holiday, in 1907, after lobbying by Angelo Noce?

Its governor had proclaimed the day two years earlier. President Benjamin Harrison had declared a one-time national celebration for the 400th anniversary in 1892.

Which US city was first to replace Columbus Day with an Indigenous peoples' day, in 1992?

The council declared October 12 a 'Day of Solidarity with Indigenous People' on the 500th anniversary of Columbus's landing. Biden later became the first president to proclaim Indigenous Peoples' Day.

Which state has traditionally called the second Monday of October 'Discoverers' Day'?

The name honours Polynesian navigators as well. It is not a state holiday there at all; state offices stay open.

Groundhog Day, February 2, has been marked 'officially' at Gobbler's Knob in which town since 1887?

The custom descends from German-speaking settlers whose ancestors watched a badger on Candlemas. The 1993 Bill Murray film pushed the crowd from about 2,000 to about 10,000.

Anna Jarvis held the first official Mother's Day service in Grafton, in which state?

She chose the carnation, her mother's favourite flower, as the emblem. By 1948 she was so disgusted by commercialisation that she was arrested for disturbing the peace at a protest.

In which year did Congress designate the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day?

It is now the most popular day of the year to eat out in America. Julia Ward Howe had led a 'Mother's Day for Peace' anti-war observance in New York back in 1872.

Sonora Smart Dodd organised the first Father's Day celebration at a YMCA in 1910 in which city?

Her father, a Civil War veteran, had raised six children alone. A president recommended the day in the 1920s but it took until 1972, under Nixon, to become a permanent national holiday.

Which president signed the 1972 law making Father's Day a permanent national holiday?

Johnson had issued the first presidential proclamation honouring fathers in 1966. Wilson visited the day's founding city in 1916 hoping to make it official, but Congress resisted.

Flag Day, June 14, marks the Second Continental Congress adopting the Stars and Stripes in which year?

Wilson proclaimed the day in 1916 and Congress made it official in 1949, but it is not a federal day off. Only one state observes it as a state holiday.

Which state made Flag Day a state holiday in 1937 and remains the only one to observe it as one?

Observances began in the town of Rennerdale. Schoolteacher Bernard Cigrand of Waubeka, Wisconsin, is credited as the 'Father of Flag Day' for his decades of campaigning.

The first American Arbor Day, in 1872, saw an estimated one million trees planted in which state?

J. Sterling Morton of Nebraska City proposed it to the state board of agriculture. National Arbor Day is the last Friday in April and remains a civic holiday there.

Which US senator proposed the environmental teach-in that became the first Earth Day in 1970?

He hired 25-year-old activist Denis Hayes to coordinate it, and about 20 million Americans took part. Hayes took the day international in 1990 with events in 141 nations.

Which activist and professor created Kwanzaa in 1966?

The name comes from the Swahili phrase 'matunda ya kwanza', meaning first fruits. The seven candles of the kinara stand for the seven principles, and the first Kwanzaa stamp appeared in 1997.

Cinco de Mayo commemorates an 1862 Mexican victory over which country's army?

The Battle of Puebla is not Mexico's independence day, which falls on September 16. American celebrations began in California in 1863, and the day now rivals the Super Bowl for beer sales.

Which road race has been run on Patriots' Day every year since 1897, except during the pandemic?

The holiday replaced the old Puritan 'Fast Day' in 1894 and now sits on the third Monday in April. For nearly four decades until 2006 the Red Sox started their home game around 11 am so fans could catch the runners.

Chicago's St. Patrick's Day river dyeing, begun in 1962, came from workers using dye to check for what?

The Journeymen Plumbers Union Local 130 has sponsored the dyeing ever since. The day is a legal holiday only in Savannah, Georgia and Suffolk County, Massachusetts.

Which city held the earliest St. Patrick's Day parade on what is now U.S. soil, in 1601?

The Spanish colony's Irish vicar organised it. New York's parade has grown into the world's largest, while Hot Springs, Arkansas claims the shortest, on a 98-foot street.

The first Times Square ball drop welcomed which new year?

New York Times owner Adolph Ochs staged it after fireworks were banned; his chief electrician borrowed the idea from a maritime time ball on the Western Union building. It paused for wartime dimouts in 1942 and 1943.

The 1893 rule moving the Rose Parade off Sunday was made to avoid disturbing what?

The Valley Hunt Club began the parade in 1890 to show off California's winter blooms. The Rose Bowl game was added in 1902 to help pay for it.

Federal Election Day was set on Tuesday so rural voters could be home before which market day?

Sunday was for church, Monday for the ride to the county seat. Congress set the uniform date in 1845, and it can only fall between November 2 and 8.

Before pumpkins, immigrants who brought Halloween to North America carved lanterns from what?

Irish and Scottish arrivals in the 19th century switched to the larger native pumpkin. The phrase 'trick or treat' first appeared in print in Ontario in 1917 and in the U.S. in 1934.

Which Minnesota city, with one of the first Halloween parades in 1920, is the 'Halloween Capital of the World'?

The parade was reportedly organised to keep youngsters from Halloween pranks like tipping outhouses. It still stages several parades every October.

Esther Howland sold America's first mass-produced valentines in which Massachusetts city?

Her embossed paper-lace cards launched an industry. The Greeting Card Association has estimated that about 190 million valentines are sent in the U.S. each year.

Which constitutional amendment moved presidential inaugurations from March 4 to January 20?

When the 20th falls on a Sunday the public ceremony slides to Monday, as in 1957, 1985 and 2013. William Henry Harrison still holds the record for the longest address, 8,445 words in 1841.

Which senator's 2004 amendment requires federally funded schools to teach about the Constitution on September 17?

The observance was formerly 'I Am an American Day' and then Citizenship Day, held on the third Sunday in May. The senator famously carried a pocket copy of the Constitution.

Utah's Pioneer Day marks the 1847 arrival in the Salt Lake Valley of settlers led by whom?

Salt Lake City stages the Days of '47 Parade and a rodeo. Some celebrations spill into neighbouring states with large Latter-day Saint populations.

Nevada Day commemorates the state's admission to the Union on October 31 of which year?

Since 2000 it has been observed on the last Friday of October to make a long weekend, with a parade through Carson City. It shares its original date with Halloween.

Which state observes Casimir Pulaski Day on the first Monday of March?

The law dates from 1977, with the first celebrations the following year, and it is marked mainly in Chicago and other cities with big Polish communities. Sufjan Stevens named a song after it.

Which state declared Mardi Gras a legal holiday in 1875?

Mobile, Alabama claims the oldest organised Mardi Gras in America, dating to 1703, and six former Mobile residents founded New Orleans' first krewe, the Mistick Krewe of Comus, in 1856. Mobile and Baldwin counties also treat it as a holiday.

What national deadline can Washington, D.C.'s Emancipation Day, April 16, push back?

The city made it an official public holiday in 2005. Because IRS offices in the District close, when the holiday brushes April 15 the whole country's return date moves to the 17th or 18th.

Which president lit the first National Christmas Tree on the Ellipse in 1923?

The tree stayed dark for the war years 1942 to 1944, and Jimmy Carter left it unlit in 1979 until the hostages in Iran were freed. Christmas itself was among the first four federal holidays of 1870.

The June 11 state holiday first proclaimed in 1871 in Honolulu honours which monarch?

Kamehameha V created it to honour his grandfather, who first unified the islands. Since 1901 the statue in front of Aliiolani Hale has been draped in long strands of lei each year.

National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, when flags fly at half-staff until sunset, falls on which date?

Congress designated it in 1994. It is not a federal holiday, so government offices, schools and businesses stay open.

Since 1971, Memorial Day has been observed on which day each year?

The change took effect federally in 1971 and created the long weekend that opens the summer. Civil War veterans had long resisted the Indianapolis 500 encroaching on the day.

On which day did the Continental Congress adopt the Declaration of Independence?

The vote for independence itself came two days earlier, and most delegates did not sign until August 2. The 1783 date is the Treaty of Paris.