Monday, February 16, 2015

Why the NYSE Recognizes Today as Washington's Birthday Holiday and Not Presidents' Day

Washington's Birthday was first declared a federal holiday by an 1879 act of Congress. The Monday Holiday Law, enacted in 1968, shifted the date of the commemoration of Washington's Birthday from February 22 to the third Monday in February, but neither that law nor any subsequent law changed the name of the holiday from Washington's Birthday to Presidents' Day. Although the third Monday in February has become popularly known as President's Day, the New York Stock Exchange's designation of Washington's Birthday as an Exchange holiday (Rule 51) follows the form of the federal holiday outlined above (section 6103(a) of title 5 of the United States Code).

-RW

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