Do you know what date Presidents Day fell on in 1954?

That’s a trick question. It didn’t.

In 1954, there was no Presidents Day. There was a holiday on Friday, February 12 to commemorate Abraham Lincoln’s birthday and a holiday on Monday, February 22 to commemorate George Washington’s.

No matter what day of the week those dates fell in a year, that was the holiday. If February 12 was a Wednesday, that was the day off.

What made that problematic is the idea that it’s hard to go away to celebrate a holiday in the middle of the week. Especially for the mammoth federal workforce.

Now, three-day weekends, that’s cool. If holidays always fall on Monday, you can plan a weekend around leaving Friday night and coming back Monday afternoon. That’s three nights of frolic, or whatever.

So, in 1968, Congress passed and President Lyndon Johnson signed a measure moving certain federal holidays to Monday. In the case of the two presidents’ birthdays in February, they were combined into one holiday on the third Monday of the month. It was called…

Washington’s Birthday.

That’s right. Today’s official holiday is not, according to the federal government, Presidents Day, It’s just named for Washington.

Some states and a lot of people thought that gave short shrift to the man generally regarded as the nation’s greatest president, Lincoln. Hence, the name “Presidents Day,” which is generally how the wall calendar you got for the holidays refers to it.

Strangely, Presidents Day never falls on either Lincoln’s or Washington’s actual birthday.

The act also initially affected three other holidays:

— Memorial Day. It was traditionally May 31 every year. But the 1968 law switched that to the final Monday of May – which could be the 31st, but could also be as early as May 25. (This year, it’s May 28.)

— Columbus Day, which had only been a state holiday, got promoted to federal status. It would always be the second Monday in October – which could be the traditional date of the 12th, when Columbus landed in this hemisphere, but can range from the 8th to the 14th. 

(It also could lose its name if the movement to change the day’s name to Indigenous People’s Day, instead of naming it for a man who oppressed them, gains steam.)

— Veterans Day, traditionally November 11, was moved to the fourth Monday in October, between the 22nd and 28th. 

But that didn’t last long – after only a few years, the holiday reverted to November 11 to sync with the celebration of veterans in other nations who fought together in World War I.

When the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday went into effect in 1986, it was celebrated on the third Monday in January. That meant between January 15 – Dr. King’s actual birthday – and the 21st.

Labor Day was always the first Monday in September and remained so. The proponents of the legislation dared not legislate Independence Day, Thanksgiving (the fourth Thursday of November), Christmas and New Year’s. 

Have a nice holiday!