Celebrate National Metric Week
October 4-10, 2009

Break out your rulers. It's time to celebrate National Metric Week. This fall the week of October 4–10 (the 10th month of the year and the week containing the 10th day) will be set aside to celebrate the metric system. Americans will have an opportunity to focus on the importance and convenience of the measurement system based on 10s. It's time to celebrate National Metric Week.

Americans will have an opportunity to focus on the importance and convenience of the measurement system based on 10s.

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) started the National Metric Week tradition, with the first one during the week of 10 May 1976, the year after the Metric Conversion Act of 1975 was enacted.

National Metric Week proclamations

Many states have issued official proclamations in support of National Metric Week. The peak appears to have been in 1984, as reported in the January-February 1985 USMA Newsletter (predecessor to Metric Today):
Oregon proclamation

Governor Victor Atiyeh signing Oregon's Metric Week proclamation with Ernest John Rubin, CAMS, on his right and Detlef Goepfert, CAMS, on his left. Rubin and Goepfert are Portland members of USMA who were instrumental in getting the Oregon Metric Proclamation issued.

The National Metric Week celebration for 1984 (October 7–13) was enhanced by the issuing of state Metric Week proclamations by the governors of 33 states this year. Issue of the state proclamations can be traced to the efforts of a number of USMA members who started early to urge their Governors to support National Metric Week, which was originally established by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. [Many] USMA members succeeded in persuading their governors to proclaim state metric week, making this year's 33 proclamations the largest number issued since National Metric Week was set, several years ago.

States that issued proclamations include Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Some of the metric proclamations were signed during formal ceremonies. For example, Oregon's Governor Vic Atiyeh's signing was observed by some USMA members and officials of the Oregon Department of Agriculture

source: http://www.nctm.org/metric-week.aspx
source: http://lamar.colostate.edu/~hillger/metric-week.html#history