People all across the globe today will be gathering to participate in the infamous 420 excitement. April 20 has become widely known as the holiday for “stoners.”

What does it mean to you? A date? A time? Hitler’s Birthday? The code for marijuana? Bob Dylan? A group of boys known as the “Waldos” and a treasure map?

There are a lot of misconceptions out there as to how 420 actually came to be. Most connect it to getting stoned, which is mostly true.

The story begins in 1971 with a group of five high school students from California known as the “Waldos” and a treasure map. This has led to the worldwide cannabis celebration.

Steve Capper, Dave Reddix, Jeffery Noel, Larry Schwartz, and Mark Gravitch were known as “The Waldos”. They attended San Rafael High School and would meet out by a wall (hence their name) at 4:20 p.m. and smoke pot. The group of boys received a tip of a “Coast Guard member who had planted a cannabis plant and could no longer tend to the crop.” They were given a treasure map that was to lead them to the free herb.

At 4:20 p.m. the Waldos planned to meet up. They were all athletes and this time fit into all of their schedules.

Steve Capper told Huffington Post, “We would remind each other in the hallways we were supposed to meet up at 4:20. It originally started out 4:20-Louis, and we eventually dropped the Louis.”

The group of boys would meet at the statue of chemist Louis Pasteur for weeks. They would hop into Capper’s 1966 Chevy Impala and set off on their scavenge for this plant.

“We’d smoke instantly and smoke all the way out to Pt. Reyes and smoke the entire time we were out there. We did it week after week,” Capper told Huffington Post. “We never actually found the patch.”

Shockingly enough the group of five men never did find the free marijuana but they did make history.

Other students soon caught on to the term 420. This was known to mean many different things among the stoners. Such as: “Hey, do you wanna go smoke some?” “Do you have any.” “Are you stoned right now?”

The “Waldos” had created a way for people to say that they needed to smoke some pot without actually saying it around adults or parents.

They would go on what they called to be their “safaris.” These would consist of dares for each other to do “ever-more-interesting” things while under the influence.

Although the term 420 was spreading among their community how did it become globally known? Society can thank the Grateful Dead for the international spread of 420.

The “Waldos” had many connections to the band Grateful Dead. Gravitch’s dad was the manager to the bands real estate. Reddix’s older brother was friends with lead bassist Phil Lesh. His brother helped him become a roadie with Lesh. The group of boys came to know the band pretty well.

In this high time of hippies and drugs The Waldos would smoke pot around the band and often times the band members would join in. When they would pass around the herb the term 420 was commonly used amongst them. This is how the Dead became familiar with the term 4 20.

420 spread throughout the Dead’s community and while they were on tour around the world it spread even further among people.

On Dec. 28, 1990, some deadheads in Oakland handed out some flyers “inviting people to smoke “420” on April 20 at 4:20 p.m.” A former reporter for High Times Magazine, Steve Bloom caught a glimpse of one of these flyer, and he helped take the term global when it was printed in 1991.

April 20 has become known worldwide as a holiday for people to come together and smoke some pot.

Students of Powell High School have expressed what they thought 420 was and what it meant to them.

“420, it’s just like a holiday for stoners. All the other people will get together and they’ll smoke on 420,” Senior Hauk Tuttle said.

“What is that?” freshman Addison Moretti questioned.

“I think of Snoop Dog,” sophomore Nate Belmont said.

“The worst thing that can happen when driving around high is stopping at a stop sign waiting for it to turn green,” sophomore Alex Hansen said.

420 has become a tradition among the world today. The Waldos never planned on making history but they did. And because of that we have the famous 420.