It’s President’s Day. All of them. Reagan, Obama, Lincoln, Washington, even Fillmore

By STEVEN HERBERT
City News Service
LOS ANGELES (CNS) – Admission will be free at the Richard Nixon
Presidential Library & Museum in Yorba Linda today 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
250 guests receiving a free slice of cherry pie.
Actors portraying three of the presidents depicted on Mount Rushmore —
Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln,  and George Washington — will be available
for pictures throughout the day and will speak in the museum’s full-scale
replica of the White House’s East Room at 11:30 a.m.
The museum’s galleries are closed to the public as they undergo a major
renovation. Visitors are able to tour Nixon’s birthplace, built by his father
Francis from a catalogue’s mail order home building kit, the graves of Nixon
and his wife Pat, a helicopter used by presidents from John F. Kennedy to
Gerald R. Ford, the grounds’ gardens and East Room.
Influential Democratic campaign consultant Douglas E. Schoen, who is
also a Fox News Channel contributor, will discuss and sign copies of his new
book, “The Nixon Effect: How Richard Nixon’s Presidency Fundamentally Changed
American Politics” in the East Room at 2 p.m.
“The Nixon Effect” argues that Nixon is the key political figure in
post-World War II America in multiple ways, with a legacy including a
generational shift in the ideological orientations of both the Republican and
Democratic parties; hardening partisan polarization in Washington; the
evolution of politics as war, where ideological opponents are seen as evil or
unpatriotic; and various tactics that have shaped political communications and
strategy ever since.
More information on the Nixon Library is available by calling (714) 993-
5075 or online at nixonfoundation.org or nixonlibrary.gov.
The Reagan Library will conduct its 23rd annual Presidents Day
Celebration from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., including crafts, musical entertainment,
storytelling and presidential and first lady lookalikes.
Admission is free to the celebration, with food available for purchase.
The library will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with its regular
admission prices — $16 for adults, $9 for children ages 11 to 17 years old, $6
for children ages 3 to 10, and $13 for ages 62 and older. Children 2 and under
are admitted free.
More information on the Reagan Library is available by calling (805) 522-
2977 or online at reaganfoundation.org.
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.
Lincoln’s birthday has never been a federal holiday.