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Whatever Became of Washington's Birthday?

Jason Bezis, a law student at the University of California at Berkeley, has always harbored a special appreciation for our first president. He wants the nation to refer to our annual Februrary federal holiday by its given name: Washington's Birthday.

Update: This story aired in 2001, but Bezis has continued his campaign. And in February 2005, U.S. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD), renewed his own bid to restore the name of the holiday, offering his proposed Washington-Lincoln Recognition Act to Congress. He first pushed the legislation forward in 1999.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Linda Wertheimer joined NPR at the network's inception, and served as the first broadcast director of All Things Considered starting with its debut on May 3, 1971.