Happy HALF Birthday George Washington
It’s August 22 and that can only mean one thing: Six more months until George Washington’s REAL birthday. In the meantime, allow these birthday facts, courtesy of the University of Virginia’s The Papers of George Washington website, to hold you over until that joyous day in February.
“The first public celebration [of Washington’s birthday], of which there is record, was at Valley Forge, February 22, 1778, when Proctor’s Continental Artillery band serenaded Washington. The first public celebration as a holiday was by order of Comte Rochambeau, February 12, 1781, when the French Army in Rhode Island was granted a holiday on that day, Monday. February 11th, 1781, Washington’s birthday by the Julian Calendar, happened to fall on Sunday.”
