George washington birthday
Presidents day controversy.
Presidents Day has long been associated with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, yet it never falls on either's actual birthday. In fact, two other presidents were also born in February—William Henry Harrison and Ronald Reagan—and their birthdays never fall on the holiday either.
Why do we celebrate presidents' day
That's because Presidents Day is celebrated the third Monday of every February, which is either too early or too late to ever line up with any actual presidents' birthday. But it wasn't always this way.
Presidents Day began life as Washington's Birthday in honor of our first commander-in-chief and was celebrated on his actual birthday of February 22.
Though his birthday was already a day of remembrance following his 1799 death, it was first recognized in a holiday capacity in 1879 for government offices in Washington, D.C. before all federal offices began marking the occasion in 1885.
Washington's Birthday then became the country's fifth nationally recognized federal bank holiday after New Y