Known as Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, Liberation Day and Emancipation Day, Juneteenth is an annual celebration that commemorates the emancipation of slavery in the United States. On June 19, 1865 - two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation had been enacted - Union soldiers rode into Galveston, Texas and General Gordon Granger announced the news that the slaves in Texas were free. Juneteenth dates to 1866 in Galveston and is now celebrated across the country.