Today’s Arizona Daily Star editorial page has an item called “Civics Quick Quiz“ 

In it they have 10 questions regarding the history of the national holiday celebrated on July 4th.  The holiday is persistenly referred to at “Fourth of July” in the editorial.  Their tenth question, “What year was the Fourth of July declared a legal holiday?”–and its supposed answer–1941–is worthy of some discussion.  Read on if interested.

The actual federal holiday is “Independence Day.”  Here is a link to the federal holiday listing.  The date from a federal holiday standpoint can vary if July 4th falls on a Saturday or Sunday but the title of the holiday is “Independence Day.”

Wikipedia lists it as “Independence Day” for whatever that is worth. 

USA.gov has a page called “Fourth of July is Independence Day” (caps as on the page title) followed by:

“Independence Day honors the birthday of the United States of America and the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. It’s a day of picnics and patriotic parades, a night of concerts and fireworks, and a reason to fly the American flag.”

The Library of Congress states that Congress established a holiday called ”Independence Day.”

Congress may have declared (keep reading) ”Fourth of July” as a holiday but the US government calls it “Independence Day”.  The conflict in usage is curious if nothing else.

The Daily Star says that the correct answer to it’s tenth question “What year was the Fourth of July declared a legal holiday” is 1941.  This brings up a more interesting discussion.  It depends which congressional action you wish to recognize.  However, it was first declared a federal holiday in 1870. 

On an outstanding website on the subject researched by James R. Heintze called the “Fourth of July Celebrations Database” www1.american.edu/heintze/fourth.htm he has a page on federal legislation establishing the Fouth of July (Heintze consistently calls it the “Fourth of July” thoughout his website, by the way).  He shows documentation that in 1870 Congress established “the fourth day of July”–note that non-use of capitalization in the congressional record–as an unpaid federal holiday.  This record can also be viewed here.  In 1938 Congress established “Fourth of July” as a paid federal holiday.  Congress’ action in 1941 simply restated that the paid federal holiday was also a paid holiday for employees of the Government of the District of Columbia.  It’s interesting to note that the 1938 and 1941 congressional actions quoted by Heintze refer to it as “Fourth of July” yet other government websites I’ve listed in the post clearly call the holiday “Indpendence Day.” 

So I’d have to call into question the Star’s listing of 1941 as the correct answer.  It’s certainly worthy of some discussion.  1941 appears to have only clarified which employees got paid.

The points of all this are:

Call it what you wish but never forget the reason for the holiday on July 4th.  It’s not a celebration of a day on the calendar, it’s a celebration of our nation’s Declaration of Independence.  Independence Day was never even mentioned in the editorial.

Remember the old proverb “believe none of what you hear and half of what you see.”  An opinion page might only be a part of the story. 

Take the time to research things yourself…if for no other reason because one day you might run into Jay Leno with a camera crew.