(CNN) It's probably been a long time since you put pen to paper to compose a letter, take notes, make a list or sign a check.

For old times' sake, why not give it a try in honor of the original John Hancock

National Handwriting Day falls each year on January 23, the birthday (according to the Gregorian calendar) of the American Revolutionary leader and first signer of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. (While the U.S. government recognizes Hancock's birthday as January 12, others recognize his birthday as January 23 based on our modern-day calendar.)

The Writing Instrument Manufacturers Association started this holiday in 1977 to acknowledge the history and influence of penmanship. Its reason for being grows more urgent each year as pens, pencils and paper lose ground to the QWERTY keyboard.

The earliest forms of writing date approximately 5,000 years ago. Once upon a time, children learned how to write in cursive as part of handwriting lessons in school. Those lessons are falling by the wayside as states adopt Common Core standards , which only require manuscript handwriting instruction until the first grade and cursive instruction is not mandated at all.

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