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Biden to Approve Creation of Juneteenth Holiday

VOA News

   U.S. President Joe Biden is set to sign into a law Thursday the
   creation of a new federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in
   the United States.

   Juneteenth National Independence Day will be observed each year on June
   19.
   WATCH LIVE at 3:30pm EST

   The holiday marks the day in 1865 when Union soldiers informed a group
   of enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, of their freedom, 2½
   years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation
   Proclamation.

   Many U.S. states already have Juneteenth as a holiday.

   It joins 10 other federal holidays and is the first added since Martin
   Luther King Jr. Day became a holiday in 1983.

   The legislation to create the holiday arrives at Biden's desk after
   receiving approval through unanimous consent in the Senate on Tuesday
   and passing the House of Representatives in a 415-14 vote on Wednesday.

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