Is National Nebraska Day the same as Nebraska Statehood Day?

No. Statehood Day falls on March 1, the anniversary of Nebraska's admission to the Union. National Nebraska Day is a separate observance on April 5.

Why is National Nebraska Day on April 5?

Because the fifty states were given dates in the order they entered the Union, one a week from early July, and Nebraska was the 37th state admitted. Its date reflects that ranking rather than any event in the state's history.

National Nebraska Day

Next celebratedMonday, April 5, 2027

April 5 is not an anniversary of anything in Nebraska's past. The state's day sits there because a run through all fifty, in the order they joined the Union, arrived at Nebraska's turn.

See how to celebrate

Countdown to the day

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Last updated September 3, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?

YEARLY DATEApril 5

OBSERVED INUnited States

CATEGORYCulture

SUBCATEGORYRegional

ORIGIN

Corporate Initiative

FOUNDING ENTITY

National Day Calendar

FIRST OBSERVED

2017

HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

A private calendar company handed out the states, one a week.

National Day Calendar, a private company in Mandan, North Dakota, set April 5 aside for National Nebraska Day. The observance began as part of a fifty-state series the company started in 2017.

Read the Omaha coveragevia WOWT 6 News, Omaha

INTRO

The one state Congress had to force into the Union

Every other state walked in. Nebraska was pushed.

Congressional Republicans passed a statehood bill in 1866 and President Andrew Johnson vetoed it. They tried again in February 1867 and overrode him. That made Nebraska the only state admitted to the Union over a presidential veto.

The state that came in the hard way then spent its first year writing its own terms. The act approved that June told the Secretary of State exactly what to put on the Great Seal, down to the lettering: the motto EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW in capitals, around a circle inscribed with the date the fight ended, March 1st, 1867.

National Nebraska Day is not on March 1. It falls on April 5, five weeks after the date the state cut into its own seal.

ORIGINS

Nebraska Day history

INTRODUCTION

Nobody in Nebraska asked for this day. It was assigned, from an office in Mandan, North Dakota, by a company whose business is deciding which days exist.

It is a real day with no paperwork behind it. Nebraska's statute book enumerates the state's legal holidays, and this is not one of them.

CHAPTER 01

The man who counts the days

National Day Calendar has belonged to Marlo Anderson since 2013. He got there by accident: in 2012 he went looking for where National Popcorn Day had come from, found no single place that answered the question, and started building one.

What he built is not a government office. Slate's 2025 profile describes an annual wall calendar as the backbone of the business, alongside branded merchandise and a television show. The company also invents holidays outright for paying clients, which it discloses.

The awkwardness sits at the center of the model and Slate names it: the days Anderson announces are not his property. Nobody owns National Selfie Day, in the same way nobody owns Thanksgiving. What the company has instead is the habit of being cited, which the piece describes as the media letting it become the de facto administrator of days like these.

CHAPTER 02

Fifty states, one a week

In 2017 the company turned that habit on the map. It began working through the states in the order they entered the Union, one a week, starting the week of Independence Day and ending with Hawaii.

Nebraska was the 37th state through the door, and its turn came on April 5. No proclamation set that date and no vote confirmed it. The queue did.

CHAPTER 03

What April 5 actually looks like

An assigned date can still become a real one. On April 5, 2026, the Omaha station WOWT ran the day in its This Day in History segment and sent a crew to Riverfront Park to ask people what makes the state worth living in.

Gretchen Thomas told them it is great for raising families, and useless if you want to ski or surf. Philip Mancilla said the place is simply less crowded than the big cities, and more comfortable for it. Neither was talking about a calendar company.

TIMELINE

Timeline

The territory opens

The Kansas-Nebraska Act repealed the Missouri Compromise and opened the Nebraska Territory to settlement.

Statehood, on the second try

Nebraska entered the Union as the 37th state on March 1, at the second attempt, a year after the first statehood bill failed.

The first Arbor Day

Nebraska set April 10 for a tree-planting holiday and offered prizes, and more than a million trees were estimated planted that day.

Kool-Aid leaves the bottle

Edwin Perkins of Hastings worked out how to take the liquid out of his leak-prone Fruit Smack and sell the powder instead.

The states get their turns

A calendar company began working through all fifty states in order of admission, the series that gave Nebraska April 5.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why We Love National Nebraska Day

GOVERNMENT

Twenty-one states tried it the same year. All twenty-one failed.

Nebraskans voted in 1934 to abolish their second house and to strike party labels from the ballot, so the top two primary finishers now meet in the general election regardless of party. The same year the new chamber first sat, attempts in 21 other states to do the same thing failed, and Nebraska is still the only state with a unicameral legislature.

POWER

No retail customer buys from a shareholder-owned utility

The Nebraska Power Review Board, the state agency created in 1963 to regulate the industry, says Nebraska is the only state in the country served at retail entirely by consumer-owned electric utilities. Every customer is supplied by a public power district, a cooperative or a municipality.

JUSTICE

An Omaha court answered a question no federal court had

In 1879 the Ponca leader Standing Bear sued the federal government that was holding him, which History Nebraska records as the first time a Native American had done so. Judge Elmer S. Dundy concluded that an Indian is a person within the meaning of the laws of the United States, and ordered the prisoners released.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Nebraska Day by the Numbers

286,086 to 193,152: Nebraska's 1934 vote for one house
133 to 43: Nebraska legislators, before and after 1937
61 to 18: Nebraska legislative committees, before and after 1937
$202,593 to $103,445: Cost of Nebraska's 1935 and 1937 sessions

There is no aristocracy in trees. They are not haughty. They will thrive near the humblest cabin, on our fertile prairies, just as well, and become just as refreshing to the eye and as fruitful as they will in the shadow of a king's palace.

J. Sterling MortonWriting to the Omaha Herald for the first Arbor Day, 1872

GET INVOLVED

How to Celebrate National Nebraska Day

Read the ruling that came out of an Omaha courtroom

Judge Dundy set out his reasoning in numbered conclusions, and the first of them is the line the case is remembered for. The Federal Cases report carries the opinion in full.

VISIT

Visit the Nebraska History Museum in Lincoln

The museum sits at 131 Centennial Mall North and is run by History Nebraska, the state's own historical agency. Go on March 1 and admission is free, because the building spends that day marking the anniversary of statehood.

PLANT

Plant a tree, an idea that started here

Nebraska City is the official birthplace of Arbor Day, and Nebraska made it a legal state holiday in 1885. It is still on the books, on the last Friday in April.

MIX

Mix a pitcher of the state's official soft drink

Kool-Aid was worked out in Hastings and sold in six flavors: grape, lemon-lime, cherry, orange, raspberry and strawberry. A packet cost ten cents.

DRIVE

Drive somewhere in the state you have not been

Exploring Nebraska's people and history firsthand is the suggestion the day's own creator makes. It costs about a tank of fuel.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Nebraska Day?

1 / 9

What decides which calendar date each state gets in the series?

Answer

No. It is an unofficial observance with no legal standing, and it does not appear in Nebraska's statutory holiday list, so April 5 is a normal working day.