Posted on February 22, 2016 at 8:50 AM by Victoria Mulherin
Today is George Washington’s 284th Birthday!
George Washington's Birthday is celebrated as a federal holiday on the third Monday in February. It is one of eleven permanent holidays established by Congress.
George Washington was born in Virginia on February 11, 1731, according to the then-used Julian calendar. In 1752, however, Britain and all its colonies adopted the Gregorian calendar which moved Washington's Birthday a year and 11 days to February 22, 1732.
Americans celebrated Washington's Birthday long before Congress declared it a federal holiday. The centennial of his birth prompted festivities nationally and Congress established a Joint Committee to arrange for the occasion.
Some facts to remember our Nation’s First President:
- George Washington started school when he was six years old. He left school at 15 to become a surveyor because his mother couldn't afford to send him to college.
- At 26, he married Martha Dandridge Custis, a widow who already had two children, Jackie and Patsy. Washington never had any children of his own.
- At six feet, two inches tall and 200 pounds, he was one of our biggest presidents.
- Some of his favorite dishes were cream of peanut soup, mashed sweet potatoes with coconut, and string beans with mushrooms.
- He bred hound dogs that he treated like members of the family. He gave some of them unusual names: Tarter, True Love, and Sweet Lips.
- Toothaches bothered him for years. When he was 57, he had all his teeth pulled. From then on, he wore ivory false teeth set in a silver plate.
- Although he helped plan the nation's new capital city that was named for him, he never lived there. New York City and, later, Philadelphia were the nation's capitals while he was president.