Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Honorary Winston


Today is Winston Churchill Day. On this date in 1963, President John F. Kennedy declared Winston Churchill to be an Honorary Citizen of the United States. Kennedy's remarks and Churchill's response is on this page.

Honorary Citizen? What does this mean? How does someone get to be an Honorary Citizen? It takes a Congressional proclamation and a Presidential signature to get this done. Apparently there are no special privileges that go along with the title. It is strictly honorary, but it is quite an honor, and not given too freely.

Churchill was the first to be so honored. A total of only six people have been named Honorary Citizens, three of them posthumously. A seventh name was approved in the Senate in March, 2007, but is still being considered in the House. Clearly this honor is not taken lightly.

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1 comment:

Diane J Standiford said...

Nice we can do this. We have had good fiends over the years.