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Monday, February 20, 2006
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GEORGE WASHINGTON
George Washington's Birthday (Observed): Contrary to popular belief, today has never been designated "President's Day" by the Federal Government. Today is, rightly, the observation of the February 22nd birthday of George Washington.
8 Lincoln's birthday has passed.
Gone are the days in grade school when we celebrated the birthdays of Lincoln and Washington by cutting out their silhouettes.
OVAL OFFICE ODDITIES
PRESIDENTS Day may not get much respect - but that hasn't stopped intrepid Webster Hall curator Baird Jones from compiling a roundup of fun facts marking today's holiday. We're told that Gerald Ford allegedly had a flatulence problem, often blaming the Secret Service men surrounding him. President Grover Cleveland was a draft dodger. He hired someone to enter the service in his place, for which he was ridiculed by his opponent, James G. Blaine. It was soon discovered, however, that Blaine had done the same thing himself. Franklin Pierce had a violent temper and was arrested after angrily running over an old woman with a horse in 1853. But the case was dropped so as not to expose the president to international embarrassment. Grover Cleveland is the only U.S. president to have personally hanged someone: He threw a noose over two criminals' necks while working as a sheriff of Erie County, N.Y., an experience he de scribed as "nightmarish." Finally, John F. Kennedy was supposedly plagued by the venereal disease chlamydia and spent the first moments of the Bay of Pigs invasion getting a giant shot of penicillin.
8 An Oval Office tour with President George Bush.
8 20 Interesting tidbits about the presidents.
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