What Mondays Have to Do with Presidents' Day

Originally an unofficial holiday, after George Washington passed away in 1799, his birthday became known as Washington Day. On this day, people in the U.S. thought about the life and legacy of a man who had a big impact on the country in the 1800s. By 1832, a law said that Washington's body could be moved from Mount Vernon and buried under the Capitol in Washington, D.C. Parties were held all over the United States after completing the Washington Monument in 1848.

How did it start?

Steven Wallace Dorsey proposed to declare Washington's birthday a national holiday in the late 1870s. Then President, Rutherford B. Hayes, signed it into law in 1879, adding to the four bank holidays that were already in place. Because of Abraham Lincoln's legacy and the proximity of his birthday on February 12, Congress rejected the idea of renaming Washington Day to Presidents' Day to honor both men.

Why was the date changed to Monday?

Illinois Senator Robert McClory came up with a plan to give more Americans the opportunity to take three-day weekends by making major bank holidays fall on Mondays. This plan is known as the Uniform Monday's Act. It was hoped that this would lead to fewer sick days taken by employees and greater output overall. Workers' groups and businesses alike appeared to agree on this strategy.

Washington's birthday, Columbus Day, Memorial Day, and Veterans Day were all moved to Monday by the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which was signed into law by President Richard M. Nixon in 1971. The date was chosen because it was midway between Lincoln's and Washington's birthdates, hence the name "Presidents' Day." The term "Presidents Day" was first used around the middle of the 1980s and has stuck ever since.