A little reason to celebrate
National Winston Churchill Day
History ยท April 9
A day for learning about Winston Churchill, the British prime minister, writer and speaker whose words and wartime leadership are still widely read.
National Winston Churchill Day falls on Friday, April 9, 2027. That is 164 days away.
Winston Churchill was a British statesman who served as prime minister of the United Kingdom, most famously during the Second World War. He was also a soldier, a journalist, a prolific author and an amateur painter. Americans take a particular interest in him, partly because his mother was American.
Most people meet Churchill through his speeches. Lines about fighting on the beaches, or about blood, toil, tears and sweat, turn up in history classes, films and quotation books. Hearing the recordings is different from reading them. His delivery was slow and deliberate, with long pauses that let a sentence land.
He wrote constantly. His books include histories of both world wars and a biography of his ancestor, the Duke of Marlborough, and he received the Nobel Prize in Literature. He also spent many hours at the easel, painting landscapes as a way to rest his mind. The cigar, the bow tie and the bulldog expression became so familiar that cartoonists could draw him in a few lines.
He was an honorary citizen of the United States, a rare distinction that Congress granted him late in his life. His record is also debated by historians, and many of the quotes attributed to him online were never actually said by him, so a good quotation collection checks its sources.
One way to mark the day is to choose a single speech and listen to the whole thing, start to finish, rather than the famous thirty seconds.
Ways to celebrate
- Listen to a full recording of one of Churchill's wartime speeches.
- Borrow a Churchill biography or one of his own books from the library.
- Look up a favorite Churchill quote and check whether he really said it.
- Look at reproductions of his landscape paintings online.
Dates
| Year | Date |
|---|---|
| 2026 | Thursday, April 9 |
| 2027 | Friday, April 9 |
| 2028 | Sunday, April 9 |
| 2029 | Monday, April 9 |
| 2030 | Tuesday, April 9 |
Also on April 9
- National Gin and Tonic Day
- National Chinese Almond Cookie Day
- National Unicorn Day
- National Name Yourself Day
- Appomattox Day
- National Cherish an Antique Day
- National Former Prisoner of War Recognition Day
Categories: History days