President Joe Biden signed a bill into law today that makes Juneteenth an official holiday.

President Biden has signed the bill that officially designates June 19 as Juneteenth National Independence Day pic.twitter.com/QHXRWdT5PP

— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) June 17, 2021

This means most federal workers will have an off-day tomorrow, according to The Office of Personnel Management.

President Biden signs #Juneteenth National Independence Day Act: "I've only been president for several months, but I think this will go down for me as one of the greatest honors I will have had as president. Not because I did it. You did it, Democrats and Republicans." pic.twitter.com/ta4nafKG6C

— CSPAN (@cspan) June 17, 2021

Vice President Kamala Harris joined Biden for the ceremony. She introduced the legislation proposing Juneteenth as the 12th federal holiday when she was a senator last June.

"We must learn from our history and we must teach our children our history because it is part of our history as a nation, it is part of American history," VP Harris says before Pres. Biden signs bill making Juneteenth the country's 11th federal holiday. pic.twitter.com/TPZSY92GKh

— MSNBC (@MSNBC) June 17, 2021

Juneteenth – which commemorates the day in 1865 when the last slaves in America were notified about their emancipation – is celebrated on June 19th. Since that falls on a Saturday this year, federal workers will have Friday off instead.

Forty-nine states and the District of Columbia already recognize Juneteenth; now it becomes the first new federal holiday since 1983.

Following unanimous approval in the Senate earlier this week, the House voted 415-14 to send the bill to Biden’s desk. The 14 no votes were all Republicans.