3rd Monday in January – Martin Luther King Jr. Day

On the third Monday of each January, the nation remembers a civil rights hero.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was designed to honor the activist and minister assassinated in 1968, whose accomplishments have continued to inspire generations of Americans. The first push for a holiday honoring King took place just four days after his assassination in 1968. Though the MLK federal holiday was first celebrated in 1986, it took years for observance to filter through to every state. It wasn’t until 2000 that every state in the Union finally observed Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

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