Here’s your daily lesson in U.S. history: On June 19th, 1865, Union soldiers in Galveston, Texas declared an end to the Civil War and read aloud a general order freeing the quarter-million slaves residing in the state. “Juneteenth” has come to be celebrated as the day slavery ended in the United States, though it’s not a legal holiday in every state. But it’s kinda cooler than July 4th if you ask me…
Time Magazine article about Juneteenth
The who-knows-how-reliable Wikipedia article