The American Thanksgiving holiday began as a feast of thanksgiving in the early days of the American colonies almost four hundred years ago. After the United States became an independent country, Congress recommended one yearly day of thanksgiving for the whole nation to celebrate. George Washington suggested the date November 26 as Thanksgiving Day. Then in 1863, at the end of a long and bloody civil war, Abraham Lincoln asked all Americans to set aside the last Thursday in November as a day of thanksgiving. Later, during the Great Depression in 1939, President Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed that Thanksgiving should be celebrated on the next to last Thursday of the month to encourage earlier holiday shopping, never on the occasional fifth Thursday. However, it was not mandatory and not all states complied.
Finally, Congress ruled that after 1941 the 4th Thursday in November would be a federal holiday proclaimed by the President each year. (Source: usinfo.state.gov, census.gov)
Below are resources links for more information about the history and celebration of Thanksgiving Day:
Scholastic - This First Thanksgiving Wikipedia- Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving.org
Encarta - Thanksgiving
Plymouth Plantation
First Thanksgiving Proclamation
Pilgram Hall Museum
USAthanksgiving.com
Smithsonian Institution
Library Of Congress
State Department
National Archives
Thanksgiving Timeline
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