Lincoln's Birthday

Above, a display of Abraham Lincoln studying at the Abraham Lincoln
 Presidential Museum in Springfield, Illinois. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Unless you're as old as I am, you probably are unaware that today is President Abraham Lincoln's birthday.

Since 1971, Lincoln's Birthday and Washington's Birthday holidays were combined into one holiday on the third Monday in February called Presidents Day (or President's Day) by the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. That was 51 years ago. I still remember when we had two school holidays in February before the Act.

As today is Lincoln's Birthday, here's what Wikipedia has to say about it:

Lincoln's Birthday is a legal, public holiday in some U.S. states, observed on the anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth on February 12, 1809 in Hodgenville (Hodgensville, Hodgen's Mill), Kentucky. Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Texas, California, Missouri, and New York observe the holiday.

In many other states, Lincoln's birthday is not celebrated separately, as a stand-alone holiday. Instead Lincoln's Birthday is combined with a celebration of President George Washington's birthday (also in February) and celebrated either as Washington's Birthday or as Presidents' Day on the third Monday in February, concurrent with the federal holiday.

To read more about Lincoln's Birthday, go here.