Presidents’ Day, officially Washington’s Birthday, in the United States,
holiday (third Monday in February) popularly recognized as honoring
George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. The day is sometimes
understood as a celebration of the birthdays and lives of all U.S.
presidents.

The origin of Presidents’ Day lies in the 1880s, when the birthday
of Washington—commander of the Continental Army during the
American Revolution and the first president of the United States
was first celebrated as a federal holiday.

In 1968 Congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Bill, which  
moved a number of federal holidays to Mondays. The change was
designed to  schedule certain holidays so that workers had a number
of long weekends throughout the year, but it has been opposed by
those who believe that those holidays should be celebrated on the
dates they actually commemorate.  (Encyclopedia Britannica)
 

JOHN BELMONT

Ralph Dale Earnhardt Sr. (April 29, 1951 – February 18, 2001)

NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt, Sr., was killed in a crash during the final lap
of the Daytona 500 race on this day in 2001. Earnhardt was inducted into
numerous halls of fame, including the NASCAR Hall of Fame inaugural
class in 2010.

John Joseph Travolta is 65 years old today.

Actor John Travolta starred in the 1970s hit films Saturday Night Fever 
and Grease. He went on to play Vincent Vega in the critically acclaimed
1994 film Pulp Fiction. Travolta  also starred in the action thriller Face/Off
(1997) with Nicolas Cage.  

1998

 
1996

BRIAN THOMAS

In Milwaukee on this day in 1992, serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was sentenced to life in prison. He was later sentenced to a 16th term
of life imprisonment for an additional homicide committed in Ohio
in 1978. On November 28 of 1994, he was beaten to death in prison
by Christopher Scarver (below), a fellow inmate at the Columbia Correctional Institution.

Michael Jeffrey Jordan is 56 years old today.

Former high-flying Chicago Bulls shooting guard is considered by many to
be the greatest basketball player of all-time. He was a 6-time NBA champion,
6-time NBA Finals MVP, and 5-time NBA MVP. He didn’t make the varsity
squad as a sophomore at Emsley A. Laney High School in Wilmington, North Carolina because he was only 5’11".  MJ is currently the principal owner and chairman of the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets.

Here’s “Air Jordan” in Portland, Oregon.

MIKE GRACIA

(February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865)

Abraham Lincoln was a lawyer and politician. He served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in
April 1865. Lincoln led the nation through the Civil War, its bloodiest
war and its greatest moral, constitutional, and political crisis. He preserved the Union, abolished slavery, strengthened the government, 
and modernized the economy.

On this day in 1999, the U.S. Senate voted on whether to remove President Bill Clinton from office following an impeachment trial
which lasted five-weeks. Clinton was acquitted on both articles
of impeachment. On the first charge of perjury, 45 Democrats
and 10 Republicans voted “not guilty”and on the charge of
obstruction of justice the Senate was split 50-50.
.  

After the trial concluded, President Clinton said he was “profoundly sorry” for the burden his behavior imposed on Congress and the American people.

President Clinton heads back to the Oval Office after making his statement to the press.

George Washington
(February 22, 1732 – December 14, 1799)

(Fox News) – A letter on God and the Constitution written by George Washington
is up for sale after spending decades in a private collection.

The letter to Richard Peters, speaker of the Pennsylvania Constitution, is signed Sept. 7, 1788, and praises God for the ratification of the U.S. Constitution.

Written a week after Washington told Alexander Hamilton that he would likely accept calls to assume the presidency, the letter came at a time when the Constitution was under attack. Some states wanted to hold a second
Convention that may have undermined the Constitution.

The letter, which is priced at $140,000, is up for sale at Ardmore, Pa.-based historical document dealer The Raab Collection.