Since 1968, this holiday is traditionally celebrated on the third Monday of February.
On the third Monday in February, Americans honor their presidents. For almost 100 years, the United States has celebrated the birthday of the country’s first President, George Washington, on February 22. However, it was not until 1968 that this traditional celebration became an official national holiday.
It was then that Congress decided that a number of public holidays would be celebrated on Mondays. And today, Americans are honoring the country’s first President not on February 22, but on the third Monday of this month.
The holiday is popularly called Presidents’ Day. Many associate it with the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, who was born on February 12.
However, the Federal government still calls the holiday Washington’s birthday.
In January 2017, President Donald Trump became the 45th President of the United States. Taking office at the age of 70, he became the oldest elected President in history. Previously, the record for the most recent entry into office belonged to Ronald Reagan, who was 69 years old at the time of his inauguration in 1981.
After becoming the first billionaire President, Trump also pushed 35th President John F. Kennedy from the position of the richest President in the country’s history.
Kennedy still holds the title of the youngest elected President: he took office at 43. Kennedy also became the youngest President to die: he was assassinated in 1963 in Dallas at the age of 46.
In connection with the assassination of another President, Theodore Roosevelt became the youngest person to hold the post of head of state: in 1901, the 42-year-old Roosevelt, who served as Vice President, succeeded the 25th President, William McKinley, who was assassinated in Buffalo, New York.
The first President to die in office was William Henry Harrison – the ninth President of the United States was in office for only 32 days.
The record for the longest presidency belongs to another Roosevelt: the 32nd President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, held office for 4,422 days. After his death, the 22nd amendment was passed, limiting the presidency to two four-year terms.
Most Americans know about the relationship between the two Roosevelts, but not everyone knows exactly who they are to each other.
Franklin Roosevelt’s wife, Eleanor, was his sixth cousin, and Theodore Roosevelt was her uncle. Thus, the two presidents were distant relatives.
However, they were not the first presidents to be related-this record belongs to the Addams. John Adams was the second President of the United States, and his son John Quincy Adams was the sixth.
Another case where both father and son became presidents: George Herbert Walker Bush, the 41st President, and his son George W. Bush, the 43rd President.
Not everyone has the right to run for President.
Following the Constitution, people over the age of 35 who have lived in the United States for at least 14 years and are citizens of the country by birth can run for President.
There is some confusion about the last point: people interpret it differently.
The first President who was a US citizen by birth was not George Washington or John Adams, but the eighth President, Martin van Buren, who was born in 1782, six years after the signing of the Declaration of independence.
All seven previous presidents and the ninth President, William Henry Harrison, were not citizens by birth, having been born before 1776 when the American States were still a colony of Great Britain.