CHICAGO (AP) – Illinois’ largest county is recognizing Juneteenth as an official holiday and a paid day off for county workers. Juneteenth will be one of 14 government holidays granted to all Cook County employees next year. Juneteenth marks the June day in 1865 that Union soldiers told enslaved African Americans in Texas that the Civil War had ended and they were free. Juneteenth is not a federal holiday. Gov. J.B Pritzker has said he wants to make it a state holiday.