April 15, 2020

Today, April 15, is an important day on the calendar, and it is known for some momentous events in history. To many people in the United States, April 15 brings to mind taxes, as it is generally the final day income taxes can be filed with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Two other April 15 events do not brighten the mood: the U.S. President Abraham Lincoln died on that day in 1865; and the ocean liner Titanic sank on April 15, 1912. But a number of other events, including the births of the artists Henry James and Leonardo da Vinci and Jackie Robinson’s breaking the racial barrier in Major League Baseball (MLB), make April 15 a not altogether gloomy day.

The U.S. President Abraham Lincoln died on April 15, 1865, after being shot by an assassin the night before. Credit: Library of Congress

On the evening of April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln attended a performance of the comedy Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. At 10:22 p.m., a shot rang through the crowded house. John Wilkes Booth, a Southern sympathizer and well-known actor, had shot the president in the head from the rear of the presidential box. Lincoln was carried unconscious to a boarding house across the street. The president died there at 7:22 a.m. on April 15.

The “unsinkable” ocean liner Titanic was believed to be the safest ship afloat. But on April 15, 1912, Titanic sank after striking an iceberg. Credit: © AP/Wide World

Just before midnight on April 14, 1912, the British ocean liner RMS (Royal Mail Ship) Titanic struck an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean. The disaster occurred on the ship’s maiden (first) voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City. The ship struck the iceberg at about 11:40 p.m. and sank bout two and a half hours later, on April 15. The huge ocean liner broke in half and sank into the icy water, killing more than 1,500 people.

On Feb. 3, 1913, the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States authorized Congress to levy a federal income tax. The amendment allows Congress to levy an income tax on individuals and businesses without dividing it equally among the states or basing it on the U.S. census. The deadline for paying taxes from the previous year was originally March 1, and then March 15. In 1954, to give people a little more time to deal with the often complicated burden, the tax deadline settled on April 15.

Jackie Robinson beame the first African American to play modern Major League Baseball when he debuted for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947. Credit: © MLB Photos/Getty Images

On April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson played his first game for the Brooklyn Dodgers, becoming the first African American to play in the major leagues since the 1880’s. Robinson’s impact on segregation in sports went far beyond the Dodgers. After baseball desegregated, other professional sports quickly followed, and a number of previously segregated hotels and restaurants began to admit blacks.

Aside from Leonardo da Vinci (1452) and Henry James (1843), notable April 15 birthdays include the U.S. painter Charles Willson Peale (1741); the U.S. Blues singer Bessie Smith (1894); the first African American mayor of Chicago, Harold Washington (1922); the Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi (1978); the Canadian-American actor Seth Rogan (1982); and the British actress Emma Watson (1990).

February 18, 2019

Today, February 18, is Presidents’ Day in the United States. The annual holiday honors the nation’s presidents, especially George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. It is celebrated on the third Monday in February. The birthdays of Washington and Lincoln fall near the holiday. Washington, the nation’s first president, was born on Feb. 22, 1732. Lincoln, who served as president during the American Civil War (1861-1865), was born on Feb. 12, 1809. Ironically, because the holiday is on the third Monday of the month, it can never fall precisely on February 12 or February 22.

George Washington was born on Feb. 22, 1732, and served as the first president of the United States. Credit: Oil painting on canvas (1796) by Gilbert Stuart; © World History Archive/Alamy Images

A federal holiday called Washington’s Birthday also occurs on the third Monday in February. It became a legal public holiday in 1971. Later, many states adopted Presidents’ Day instead, to honor not only Washington, but other presidents as well, especially Lincoln. Presidents’ Day is sometimes called Washington-Lincoln Day. Banks, government offices, libraries, and schools close on the holiday, but most private businesses remain open.

Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was born on Feb. 12, 1809. Credit: Library of Congress

In the late 1870′s, Arkansas Senator Stephen Wallace Dorsey suggested adding Washington’s birth date to the four bank holidays previously approved in 1870. Signed into law on Jan. 31, 1879, by President Rutherford B. Hayes, the law was implemented in 1880 and applied only to District of Columbia federal workers. Washington’s Birthday was the first federal holiday to single out an individual’s birth date. (In 1986, the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., became a holiday celebrated on the third Monday in January.)

In 1968 Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Bill which moved a number of federal holidays to Mondays. With the implementation of the new federal law in 1971, Washington’s Birthday became a national holiday celebrated on the third Monday in February.

February 1, 2019

Today, February 1, is National Freedom Day in the United States. The observance commemorates the day in 1865 when President Abraham Lincoln signed a resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution to outlaw slavery. The resolution became the Thirteenth Amendment, and it was ratified by the states on Dec. 6, 1865. The amendment ended slavery in all parts of the United States. Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of Jan. 1, 1863, had freed only the slaves in the Confederate States that were still in rebellion against the Union.

On Feb. 1, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln signed the resolution proposing an amendment to outlaw slavery in the United States. February 1 is now an observance known as National Freedom Day. Credit: © Alan Freed, Shutterstock

In 1941, Richard R. Wright, Sr., an 86-year-old retired U.S. Army officer who was born a slave in 1855, created the National Freedom Day Association and led the push to have an observance formally recognized. His hard work paid off, but unfortunately he died in July 1947 before the observance was signed into law. On June 30, 1948, Congress authorized the president to proclaim the first day of February in each year as National Freedom Day. President Harry S. Truman made Feb. 1, 1949, the first such day. The purpose of the annual observance is to “promote goodwill, harmony, and equal opportunity among all citizens, and to rededicate the nation to the ideal of freedom.”

In the 1940′s, Richard R. Wright, Sr., led the push to create National Freedom Day. Credit: University of Pennsylvania Archives

Wright was born in Georgia and worked in education and local politics before serving as a paymaster in the Army. He later served as the first president of Georgia State Industrial College for Colored Youth, a historically black school that is now Savannah State University.

November 19, 2018

On Nov. 19, 1863, 155 years ago today, United States  President  Abraham Lincoln gave a short speech during the American Civil War (1861-1865) at the site of the Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. He delivered the address at ceremonies to dedicate a part of the battlefield as a cemetery for those who had lost their lives in the battle. Lincoln wrote the address to help ensure that the battle would be seen as a great Union triumph and to define for the people of the Northern States the purpose in fighting the war. Some historians think his simple and inspired words, which are among the best remembered in American history, reshaped the nation by defining it as one people dedicated to one principle—that of equality.

U.S. President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address on Nov. 19, 1863, 155 years ago today, at the site of the Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. Credit: Library of Congress

Lincoln wrote five different versions of the speech. He wrote most of the first version in Washington, D.C., and probably completed it at Gettysburg. He probably wrote the second version at Gettysburg on the evening before he delivered his address. He held this second version in his hand during the address. But he made several changes as he spoke. The most important change was to add the phrase “under God” after the word “nation” in the last sentence. Lincoln also added that phrase to the three versions of the address that he wrote after the ceremonies at Gettysburg.

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This first page of a draft of the Gettysburg Address is part of an exhibit at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Credit: Library of Congress, Manuscript Division/National Archives

Lincoln wrote the final version of the address—the fifth written version—in 1864. This version also differed somewhat from the speech he actually gave, but it was the only copy he signed. It is carved on a stone plaque in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

August 16, 2018

In 2018, the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its founding in 1968. The National Portrait Gallery exhibits likenesses of people who have contributed significantly to the history, development, and culture of the United States. As part of its 50th anniversary program, the museum updated and relaunched its celebrated collection of presidential portraits in late 2017. The collection kicked off 2018 with the February unveiling of its two newest works: portraits of former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama.

The National Portrait Gallery unveiled its new painting of President Barack Obama on Feb. 12, 2018. Credit: Barack Obama (2018), oil on canvas by Kehinde Wiley; Smithsonian Institution

The National Portrait Gallery has the only complete collection of U.S. presidential portraits outside the White House. The gallery’s revamped collection, called “America’s Presidents,” differs from the White House’s, offering alternate versions of portraits and presenting them in a much grander style. It is not all just paintings, either. Bas-reliefs, busts, coins, death masks, hand casts, photographs, sketches, videos, and newspaper articles accompany the portraits, offering multiple and sometimes tactile bridges between art, history, and reality. The presidential exhibition’s thorough modernization includes improved lighting, new labels and wall texts, and the addition of interactive touch screens allowing visitors to explore the context of each president’s time in office.

Gilbert Stuart’s full-length portrait of George Washington welcomes visitors to the America’s Presidents exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. Credit: George Washington (Lansdowne portrait) (1796), oil on canvas by Gilbert Stuart; Smithsonian Institution

America’s Presidents showcases the first 44 presidents, starting with Gilbert Stuart’s full-length “Lansdowne” portrait of George Washington. Recently restored for the exhibition’s relaunch, Washington’s portrait stands tall at the entrance, beckoning people within. Stuart’s famous unfinished “Atheneum” portraits of Washington and his wife, the first First Lady Martha Custis Washington, flank the Lansdowne painting to each side. 

This portrait of Abraham Lincoln shows him as he looked in 1860. Credit: Abraham Lincoln (1887), oil on canvas by George Peter Alexander Healy; Smithsonian Institution

Inside, visitors experience a walking timeline of U.S. history, passing from president to president as if they were there to shake your hand and personally tell you the glories and trials of their administrations. The exhibition is divided into chronological sections: 1789-1827: Building the Presidency; 1828-1860: Democracy and Expansion; 1861-1900: The Crisis of the Union; 1901-1932: Social Reform; 1933-1989: Negotiating World Peace; and 1990-2017: Contemporary Presidency.

This unique portrait of Franklin Delano Roosevelt is part of the “1933-1989: Negotiating World Peace” section of the America’s Presidents exhibition. Credit: Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1945), oil on canvas by Douglas Chandor; Smithsonian Institution

Not every president gets equal time, however. Six presidents are given extra attention because of their significant impact on the office: George Washington, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Ronald Reagan.

This portrait is one of three of President Ronald Reagan included in America’s Presidents. Credit: Ronald Reagan (1991), oil on canvas by Everett Raymond Kinstler; Smithsonian Institution

April 14, 2015

Today, the 150^th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s assassination is being observed throughout the United States. Ford’s Theatre, where Lincoln was shot, is having an around-the-clock vigil today and tomorrow, marking the events of Lincoln’s assassination. The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, which owns the chair that Lincoln was sitting in when he was shot, will remove the chair from its glass-enclosed case and allow visitors a closer view. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois, will have a special ceremony tomorrow to commemorate Lincoln’s life and death.

A late portrait of Abraham Lincoln, taken in February 1865. (The line running across the top is a scratch in the negative.) Meserve Collection, Library of Congress

Lincoln, who was president of the United States from 1861 to 1865, led the United States during the American Civil War. He helped end slavery in the nation and helped keep the Union states together during the war. The Civil War, which began in April 1861, was a conflict between the United States government and a group of Southern States that had seceded (withdrawn) from the union to form the Confederate States of America. After four years of bitter war, on April 9, 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered his army at Appomattox Court House, Virginia. With Lee’s army gone, the end of the war was near.

The president’s box at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C., where Abraham Lincoln was sitting when John Wilkes Booth shot him on the evening of April 14, 1865. Lincoln died the next day. Library of Congress

Five days after Lee’s surrender, Lincoln attended a performance of the comedy Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theatre in Washington. At 10:22 p.m., John Wilkes Booth, one of the best-known actors of the day and a Confederate sympathizer, shot Lincoln in the head. Lincoln was carried unconscious to a boarding house across the street. Lincoln’s family and a number of high government officials surrounded him. Lincoln died at 7:22 a.m. on April 15. As president, Lincoln had been bitterly criticized. After his death, however, even his enemies praised his kindly spirit and selflessness. The train carrying Lincoln’s body traveled from Washington, D.C., to Springfield, Illinois. Mourners lined the tracks as it moved across the country. On May 4, Lincoln was buried in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield.

After shooting Lincoln, Booth jumped to the stage, caught his spur in a flag draped in front of the box, and fell and broke his leg. But he limped across the stage brandishing a dagger and crying: Sic Semper Tyrannis (Thus Always to Tyrants), the motto of Virginia. Booth fled to Maryland and later escaped to Virginia. On April 26, 1865, federal troops trapped Booth in a barn near Port Royal, Virginia, and shot and killed him. Booth’s shooting of Lincoln was part of a larger plot to not only assassinate the president, but to also kill Vice President Andrew Johnson and Secretary of State William H. Seward. (Johnson was not attacked and Seward survived the attempt on his life.) Eight people were charged with conspiracy to assassinate federal officials and put on trial. A military commission convicted all eight defendants and sentenced four of them to be hanged.

Other links and articles:

• Mary Surratt

• When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d (Poem by American poet Walt Whitman about Lincoln’s assassination and funeral procession—Poetry Foundation)

Let’s start at the beginning. The first federal holiday honoring an individual–the father of the country and first U.S. president, George Washington–was enacted by Congress in 1879. It gave federal employees in the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C., the day off on Washington’s birthday, February 22. In 1885, the holiday was extended to all federal employees, including postal employees. Businesses highly dependent on the mail followed suit, closing on February 22 as well.

                George Washington           (Oil painting on canvas (1796) by Gilbert Stuart; The Granger Collection))

                Abraham Lincoln                  (Portrait of Abraham Lincoln (1908), oil on canvas by Douglas Volk (Granger Collection))

A Buffalo, New York, druggist named Julius Francis made it his life’s mission to honor Abraham Lincoln, the martyred 16th president who had led the nation through the Civil War (1861-1865). Francis repeatedly petitioned Congress to establish a national holiday on Lincoln’s birthday–February 12. He also organized the first known observance of the day, which took place in Buffalo in 1874. Congress never established Lincoln’s birthday as a national holiday. However, several northern states, including Lincoln’s home state of Illinois, did enact legislation giving school children a holiday on February 12. The observance was usually reinforced by special lessons on Lincoln’s achievements and place in history.

Celebrations surrounding February 12 and February 22 remained unchanged until 1971. About this time, Congress moved around some federal holidays, including Washington’s Birthday, to create three-day weekends. Instead of celebrating the holiday on Washington’s actual birthday, the holiday was shifted to the third Monday in February. At the same time, Illinois’ congressional delegation proposed honoring Lincoln by calling the holiday “presidents’ day.” However, representatives from Virginia blocked the move “to protect the prerogatives of ‘The Father of Our Country’.” The passage of 106 years had failed to soften the attitude of some toward “the great emancipator.”

Led by Illinois, some states did adopt the term “Presidents’ Day” for the third Monday in February. Although people of certain age seem to recall that President Richard Nixon issued a proclamation turning Washington’s Birthday into a holiday honoring all presidents–including himself–this never happened. His proclamation clearly referred only to Washington.

So, the third Monday of February is, officially, Washington’s Birthday.

November 27, 2013

Tomorrow’s Thanksgiving Day will be the 150th year the holiday has been officially celebrated in the United States. In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln declared the fourth Thursday in November to be day of thanksgiving. Credit for the official, national holiday should go to magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale, who had stumped for the holiday for years and finally persuaded Lincoln to act on her idea.

The "first" Thanksgiving was celebrated in Plymouth, in 1621. (An oil painting on canvas from about 1919, by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris; Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.—Corbis/Bettmann)

Although the 1863 Thanksgiving was the first official celebration of the national holiday,  it honored the Thanksgiving the Pilgrims of Plymouth Colony shared with friendly Indians in 1621.

The Pilgrims–English people who immigrated to the new world in 1620 in search of religious freedom–barely survived their first winter in what would come to be called New England. The winter was very harsh, and nearly half of them died. The next spring, the surviving Pilgrims learned–with the help of the an Indian named Tisquantum (Squanto)–how to plant such native crops as corn and pumpkin. (They also planted seeds they brought from England for such crops as wheat and barley.) In the autumn of 1621, the governor of Plymouth, William Bradford, organized a festival to give thanks for the survival of the colony and its first harvest. But, the holiday’s roots go even deeper.

The Pilgrims’ Thanksgiving feast stemmed from a tradition of harvest festivals held by English country folk. On Michaelmas Day (the feast day of St. Michael, September 29), country people would hold a large, communal harvest supper, giving thanks for the crops that would sustain them over the winter. And that tradition, most likely, dates back to at least the Middle Ages, if not even farther.

Additional World Book articles:

• Thanksgiving Day
• Wampanoag Indians