Proclamation 5461

By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation

Since the time of its beginnings in Egypt and Mesopotamia some 5,000 years ago, progress in mathematical understanding has been a key ingredient of progress in science, commerce, and the arts. We have made astounding strides since from the theorems of Pythagoras to the set theory of Georg Cantor. In the era of the computer, more than ever before, mathematical knowledge and reasoning are essential to our increasingly technological world.

Despite the increasing importance of mathematics to the progress of our economy and society, enrollment in mathematics programs has been declining at all levels of the American educational system. Yet the application of mathematics is indispensable in such diverse fields as medicine, computer sciences, space exploration, the skilled trades, business, defense, and government. To help encourage the study and utilization of mathematics, it is appropriate that all Americans be reminded of the importance of this basic branch of science to our daily lives.

The Congress, by Senate Joint Resolution 261, has designated the week of April 14 through April 20, 1986, as "National Mathematics Awareness Week" and authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation in observance of this event.

Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the week of April 14 through April 20, 1986, as National Mathematics Awareness Week, and I urge all Americans to participate in appropriate ceremonies and activities that demonstrate the importance of mathematics and mathematical education to the United States.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this seventeenth day of April, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and tenth.

RONALD REAGAN

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 10:43 a.m., April 18, 1986]