U.S. Senate Votes To Make Juneteenth National Holiday

The U.S. Senate unanimously passed a bill Tuesday to make Juneteenth a federal holiday. The holiday celebrated on June 19 commemorates the end of slavery in the United States. President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. It took two and a half years for the news to reach slaves in Galveston on June 19, 1865.