The fourth Thursday of November
Why Thursday? Because President Washington wanted it that way. Back in 1789, President George Washington declared Thursday, November 26, to be a national holiday of Thanksgiving. This was the first official American Thanksgiving to be held as a holiday. Thanksgiving was then held every year on the last Thursday of November. (Before that, different colonies, then states, held thanksgiving when they wanted.) In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared that Thanksgiving would be the second-to-last Thursday of November rather than the last. Why? Because that gave more shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
FDR made the 4th thursday of november.
Thanksgiving in 1992 was on Thursday, November 26. Thanksgiving is always the fourth Thursday in November. The following day in the United States is designated as Black Friday, the official start of the holiday shopping season.
President Franklin Roosevelt made the fourth Thursday in November the official day for Thanksgiving because he thought it would give the economy a boost. He signed it in to law officially in 1941.
President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day during the Civil War, on October 3, 1863. He asked that the nation give thanks for the Union on the last Thursday of November. That made the first true national autumn Thanksgiving on Thursday, November 26, 1863, recognizing a long-standing New England tradition of placing the holiday on the fourth Thursday in November. He did it partially to help soothe the national mood, which was weary of the Civil War. He declared Thanksgiving again for November 23, 1864. In 1865, his successor, Andrew Johnson, declared a Thanksgiving for December 7, 1865, and presidents traditionally declared a Thanksgiving for every autumn since. (Andrew Johnson was the first to give government employees the day off, making it a legal holiday.) In 1941, Congress passed a bill, and FDR signed it, that fixed the date as the fourth Thursday in November. FDR attempted to move the holiday to the third Thursday in November, but Congress enacted a law to fix the date at the fourth Thursday in November, thus making it an "official" holiday. On November 26, 1941, FDR signed the bill. See the Related Link for a complete time line of the history of Thanksgiving. George Washington was the first President to declare a national day of Thanksgiving.
The actual data of the Thanksgiving holiday is determined by the United States federal government. The date is set by an official proclamation from the President, in consultation with Congress, declaring the fourth Thursday in November as the day to celebrate Thanksgiving. This proclamation is typically issued in late October or early November.
Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving an official holiday.
The weather may not feel like it, but Thanksgiving (4th Thursday of November) is the start of the winter season.
In 1941, Congress passed a bill, and Franklin D. Roosevelt signed it, that fixed the date of Thanksgiving as the fourth Thursday in November. FDR attempted to move the holiday to the third Thursday in November, but Congress enacted a law to fix the date at the fourth Thursday in November, thus making it an "official" holiday. On November 26, 1941, FDR signed the bill.
Thanksgiving became an official Federal holiday on 26 November 1863. President Abraham Lincoln established that it would be celebrated on the last Thursday of every November.
President George Washington proclaimed Thursday, November 26, 1789 to be "a day of public thanksgiving and prayer". He proclaimed a second Thanksgiving Day on Thursday, February 19, 1795. It wasn't until 1863 that President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday of November of every year to be "a day of Thanksgiving". In June 1870 it legally became a paid holiday for federal employees working within the District of Columbia. In 1885 the law was expanded to apply to federal employees nationwide. In 1939 and 1940, in order to help retail businesses by making the Christmas shopping season longer, President Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed Thanksgiving Day to be the third Thursday of November. So many people protested the change in the Thanksgiving tradition that, as a compromise, Congress passed a bill making the fourth Thursday of November Thanksgiving Day. President Roosevelt signed the bill into law on December 26, 1941, and it remains in effect to this day.