On Presidents Day, We Honor ... Someone
Answer: Not Ronald Reagan. Or Franklin D. Roosevelt. Or Grover Cleveland or Martin Van Buren.
FoxNews.com conducted an informal and very unscientific poll in midtown Manhattan on Monday and found there are a lot of people who think Presidents Day honors a lot of presidents — with responses ranging from George Washington (No. 1) to Barack Obama (No. 44), with many others in between.
In 1971, Congress passed a bill to rename Washington's birthday Presidents Day, and to celebrate it on the third Monday of February instead of the actual date of Washington's birth — Feb. 22. The holiday also was designated to honor Abraham Lincoln, whose Feb. 12 birthday was celebrated in many states but was not an official federal holiday.
But that was nearly 40 years ago. Now, it seems, many Americans are unsure exactly why their schools and banks and post offices are closed on Monday. Asked which presidents were being honored, people on the street provided many answers: