Local Libraries, Museums Honor Presidents Day
LOS ANGELES (CBS/AP) — All but essential government agencies will be closed Monday for Presidents Day, but you can enjoy plenty of free activities at local libraries and museums.
Admission will be free at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library & Museum in Yorba Linda Monday for Presidents Day, while the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley will mark the holiday with a free set of family-oriented activities.
The Nixon Library will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with the first 100 guests receiving a free slice of cherry pie.
Actors portraying the presidents depicted on Mount Rushmore -- Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and George Washington -- will be available for pictures throughout the day and participate in a roundtable discussion at 2 p.m. about America's role in the world when the men they are portraying were president.
James Humes, an author and presidential speechwriter during the Nixon administration, will perform "Abe Please Don't Go to Gettysburg: The Inside Story of the Gettysburg Address" at 11:30 a.m.
More information on the Nixon Library is available by calling (714) 993-5075 or on its Web site, www.nixonlibrary.gov.
The Reagan Library will conduct its 19th annual Presidents Day Celebration from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., with presidential and first lady lookalikes, music and storytelling. Admission is free, with food available for purchase.
The library will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with its regular admission rates -- $12 for adults, $6 for children 11-17 years old and $9 for ages 62 and older. Children under 10 years old are admitted free.
More information on the Reagan Library is available by calling (800) 410-8354 or on its Web site, www.reaganlibrary.com.
On Monday morning, Caroline Kennedy was set to unveil a new online feature, The President's Desk, at the Museum at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston.
The interactive desktop has numerous objects Web visitors can click -- a telephone, a campaign button, a secret recording button -- and get video, audio and text from JFK's era, she said.
The President's Desk can be found at
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Although commonly known as Presidents Day, the Monday holiday is still legally Washington's Birthday.
The holiday was shifted from Feb. 22 to the third Monday in February 1971 under the terms of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1968. Because the holiday falls between Feb. 15 and 21, it can never fall on the actual anniversary of Washington's birth in 1732.
The term Presidents Day began being popularized in the 1980s, when retailers combined sales formerly held in conjunction with Washington and Lincoln's birthdays.
Police and firefighters will be on the job, but all other government offices will be closed for the holiday. In Los Angeles, trash pickup days are typically pushed back one day.
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