Why George Washington has two birthdays: Feb 11 and 22

George Washington was born at about 10 a.m. on 22 February 1732 at Popes Creek plantation in Westmoreland County, Virginia — a birth his family Bible records as the “11th Day of February 1731/2”.

Why does Washington have two birth dates?

Because Britain changed calendars while he was alive. When he was born, Britain and its colonies still ran on the Julian calendar (the “Old Style”), which by then lagged the Gregorian calendar used in most of Europe by 11 days. The Old Style legal year also began on 25 March, not 1 January, so a February birth belonged to 1731 by official reckoning and to 1732 by the modern count — hence the clumsy “1731/2” in the Bible entry.

Britain finally adopted the Gregorian calendar in September 1752. Washington was 20, and had grown up with 11 February as his birthday; converted to the new style, it became 22 February 1732, the date historians now use.

The same entry adds that he was baptised on 5 April, with a Mr. Beverley Whiting and a Capt. Christopher Brookes as godfathers — though the National Park Service notes there is no evidence they were the men of those names known from Virginia records.

Is Presidents’ Day really his birthday?

No, on two counts. Congress first made 22 February a holiday for federal workers in the District of Columbia on 31 January 1879. Then the 1968 Monday Holiday Law moved the observance to the third Monday in February, which can fall no later than 21 February — so the federal holiday now never lands on either of his birthdays.

And the name never officially changed. Federal law, and the Office of Personnel Management, still call the day “Washington’s Birthday”; the National Archives notes that neither Congress nor any president has ever renamed it “Presidents’ Day”. The boy born on the Popes Creek tobacco farm went on to be sworn in as the first US president in 1789, and the holiday still honours him alone.