National Veep Day Date in the current year: August 9, 2024

The vice president of the United States (shortened to VP, informally referred to as veep) is the second-highest post in the executive branch of the federal government. They are expected to succeed the elected president in case he or she dies, resigns, is removed from office or becomes incapacitated.

The first two vice presidents of the United States, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, assumed the post by virtue of being runners-up in their respective presidential elections. After the ratification of the Twelfth Amendment in 1804, the vice president became an indirectly elected position.

Nine vice presidents have ascended to the presidency in the history of the United States (as of 2023). John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Chester Arthur, Theodore Roosevelt, Calvin Coolidge, Harry S. Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson succeeded to the presidency due to the president’s death, and Gerald Ford succeeded due to the president’s resignation from office. Additionally, George H. W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Kamala Harris temporarily served as acting president due to the president undergoing a medical procedure that required general anesthesia.

National Veep Day is not an official holiday and its origins are unclear, but the choice of the date makes sense: on August 9, 1974, Gerald Ford succeeded Richard Nixon as the president of the United States after the latter’s resignation amid the Watergate scandal. But why single out Ford among all vice presidents who became president?

The thing is, Gerald Ford was the only president of the United States to have never been elected as president or vice president. His political career began in 1949, when he was elected as a member of the House of Representatives. Ford held the seat for nearly 25 years and was the leader of the Republican Party for the final nine of them.

During most of Richard Nixon’s presidency, the post of vice president was held by Spiro Agnew. Agnew resigned from office in 1973 due to being investigated on suspicion of tax fraud, criminal conspiracy, extortion and bribery, and was replaced by Gerald Ford. Ford became vice president during the Watergate scandal; Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974, and Ford automatically assumed the presidency. He was defeated in the 1976 presidential election and stepped down when his term ended on January 20, 1977.

You can celebrate National Veep Day by learning more about famous and not so famous vice presidents of the United States, reading a biography or autobiography of a vice president, watching a documentary about US vice president, binge-watching Veep, hosting a veep-themed trivia night for your friends and family, and spreading the word about the holiday on social media with the hashtags #NationalVeepDay and #VeepDay.