Katie Couric's Notebook: Washington's Birthday

Poor George Washington. He doesn't have much luck with birthdays. He was born on February Eleventh.

But that was using the old Julian calendar. When the Gregorian calendar was adopted, his birthday was moved to February 22nd. In 1885, the date was made a federal holiday.

Everything was fine until 1971, when his birthday, or at least the holiday, was moved to the third Monday in February - which - do the math -- means the celebration never falls on the 22nd.

If that's not enough of a slight, even though the federal holiday is still officially called Washington's Birthday, most people refer to it as "Presidents Day" -- though no one knows where to put the apostrophe.

And the Father of Our Country is forced to share the day with 42 other presidents and countless car, furniture and department store sales.

Maybe we should honor George Washington on Father's Day. Whenever that is.

That's a page from my notebook.
I'm Katie Couric, CBS News.

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