President’s Day – Fun Facts

This holiday is most commonly called President’s Day, but the federal holiday is officially called Washington’s Birthday. The day honors all of the previous presidents of the United States.

• It became a federal holiday in 1879.
• There were four presidents born in February including George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, William Harrison and Ronald Reagan.
  
• John Adams died on the same day as Thomas Jefferson, July 4th, 1826. This day was also the 50th anniversary of the approval of the Declaration of Independence!
• Andrew Jackson was shot in the chest during a gun dual, but managed to stay standing and shoot and kill his opponent. The bullet could not be safely removed and remained in his chest for the next 40 years.
• John Tyler had 15 children
• William Henry Harrison died just 32 days after becoming president. He died from a cold he got while standing in the rain giving his inauguration speech.
• Barack Obama won a Grammy Award in 2006 for his voice on the audio book Dreams From My Father.
  
• Theodore Roosevelt killed 17 lion, 3 leopard, 7 cheetah, 9 hyena, 11 elephant, 10 buffalo, 11 (now very rare) black rhino and 9 white rhino.

Books:
President’s Day by Anne Rockwell

The Forgotten Presidents: Their Untold Constitutional Legacy by Michael J. Gerhardt