A
US holiday. Sort of. Try convincing your boss. It commemorates the freeing (on June 19, 1865, hence the name) of the last
slaves on
American soil, those in
Texas - nearly three years after
Abraham Lincoln's
Emancipation Proclamation. A Union general, Gordon Granger, once the state had been successfully invaded and occupied, issued an order (General Order #3) in
Galveston making the end of
slavery official. Again.
Editor's note: As of 2021, Juneteenth is a Federal holiday.