Showing posts with label Emancipation Day. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Emancipation Day. Show all posts

Monday, April 15, 2013

Every day above ground is a good day

Tax Day falls on Tax Day again this year.

On some years it does not. More on this below.

When I was very young, the deadline each year for paying one’s individual income taxes to the federal government in the United States was March 15th. In 1955, for reasons unknown to me, the date was changed to April 15th, where it has remained ever since. An exception is made for tax filers who live outside the United States: they are granted an automatic two-month extension and do not have to file until June 15th.

Last year, however, the tax deadline was moved to Tuesday, April 17th, because April 15th fell on a Sunday and all of Washington, D.C., observed a holiday known as Emancipation Day on Monday, April 16th. I knew from my treasure-trove of trivial information that President Lincoln signed the famous Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, and I wondered why Emancipation Day in Washington, D.C., is April 16th. So I looked it up.

On April 16, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Compensated Emancipation Act for the release of certain persons held to service or labor in the District of Columbia. The Act freed about 3,100 enslaved persons in the District of Columbia nine months before President Lincoln issued his famous Emancipation Proclamation.

So now you know.



As Pat (an Arkansas stamper) might say, tomorrow is also a day.

<b> Don’t blame me, I saw it on Facebook</b>

...and I didn't laugh out loud but my eyes twinkled and I smiled for a long time; it was the sort of low-key humor ( British, humour) I...