1. Martin luther king day (third monday in january)

Martin Luther King was a black clergyman who is ranked among the greatest of black Americans because of his crusade during the 1950s and 1960s to win full civil rights for his people. Preaching nonviolence, much in the same way as had Mohandes K.(Mahatma) Gandhi of India, Martin Luther King spoke out and campaigned tirelessly to rid the United States of traditions and laws that forces on black Americans the status of second-class citizens. Among these laws were those in some states which required black people to take back seats in buses or which obstructed voting by blacks.

In 1968, Martin Luther King was assassinated while he was leading a workers' strike in Memphis, Tennessee. White people and black people who had worked so hard for peace and civil rights were shocked and angry. The world grieved the loss of this man of peace.

Martin Luther King’s death did not slow the Civil Rights Movement. Black and white people continued to fight for freedom and equality.

On Monday, January 20, 1986, in cities and towns across the country people celebrated the first official Martin Luther King Day, the only federal holiday commemorating an African- American. A ceremony which took place at an old railroad depot in Atlanta, Georgia was especially emotional. Hundreds had gathered to sign and to march. Many were the same people who, in 1965, had marched for fifty miles between two cities in the state of Alabama to protest segregation and discrimination of black Americans.

All through the 1980s, controversy surrounded the idea of a Martin Luther King Day. Congressmen and citizens has petitioned the President to make January 15, Martin Luther King’s birthday, a federal legal holiday. Others wanted to make the holiday on the day he died, while some people did not want to have any holiday at all.

Finally, in 1986, President Ronald Reagan declared the third Monday in January a federal legal holiday commemorating Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday. Schools, offices and federal agencies are closed for the holiday. On Monday there are quiet memorial services as well as elaborate ceremonies in honor of Dr. King. All weekend, popular radio stations play songs and speeches that tell the history of the Civil Rights Movement.

Television channels broadcast special programs with filmed highlights of Dr. King’s life and times.

Presidents’ day (third monday in february)

Until the mid-1970s, the birthday of George Washington, first president of the United States (February 22) was observed as a federal holiday. In addition, the birthday of Abraham Lincoln (February 12), president during the Civil War (1861-1865), was observed as a holiday in most states.

In the 1970s, Congress declared that in order to honor all past presidents of the United States, a single holiday, to be called Presidents’ Day, would be observed on the third Monday in February. In many states, however, the holiday continues to be known as George Washington’s birthday.