In 1897, in LeRoy, New York, carpenter and cough syrup
manufacturer Pearle Bixby Wait trademarked a gelatin
dessert called "Jell-O". Wait and his wife, May, added
strawberry, raspberry, orange, and lemon flavoring to
granulated gelatin and sugar.

Pearle Bixby Wait (1873 – 1915)

(between 25 August and 31 October 1451 – 20 May 1506)

The first Columbus Day celebration took place on October
12, 1792, when the Columbian Order of New York, better
known as Tammany Hall, held an event to commemorate
the 300th anniversary of the historic landing.
 

In 1966, Mariano A. Lucca, from Buffalo, New York, founded
the National Columbus Day Committee, which lobbied to
make Columbus Day a federal holiday.      

These efforts were successful and legislation to create
Columbus Day as a federal holiday was signed by then
President Lyndon Johnson (below) on June 28, 1968,
to be effective beginning in 1971.       

Grandparents’ Day falls on the first Sunday of September
following Labor Day. Thus, the date changes from year to
year, but the informal holiday always falls in early to mid-
September.  

In the United States, Russell Capper (age 9 in 1969) sent
a letter to President Nixon suggesting a special day be
set aside as Grandparents’ Day.

Since the aforementioned letter, Marian McQuade, a West
Virginia housewife, was recognized nationally by the United
States Senate – in particular by Senators Jennings Randolph
and Robert Byrd – and by President Jimmy Carter, as the
founder of National Grandparents Day.

In 1973, then-Senator Jennings Randolph, D-WV, introduced
a  resolution to the senate to make Grandparents’ Day a
national holiday.

The flower of the U.S. National Grandparents Day is the
forget-me-not which blooms in the spring. As a result,
seasonal flowers are given in appreciation to grandparents
on this day.