In the middle of the US Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln, prompted by a series of editorials written by Sarah Hale, proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day, to be celebrated on the final Thursday in November 1863. It has been celebrated anually since.
However President George Washington was the first President to issue a Proclamation that declared a National Day of Thanksgiving on October 3, 1789.
lincoln
Thanksgiving was declared a national holiday in America on October 3, 1863 by the then president Abraham Lincoln.
George Washington declared our first national Thanksgiving Day to express gratitude for the new Constitution. (If you are using this answer for the History Mystery Message Challenge, it is Thanksgiving-number 7)
President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Abraham Lincoln first declared a national day of thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November in 1862. (The date was changed to the 4th Thursday of November in 1941.)
Abraham Lincoln is the President who declared a day to give thanks to the Lord for all our blessings
NOPE, Canadian Thanksgiving was first though.
Thanksgiving was declared a national holiday in America on October 3, 1863 by president Abraham Lincoln.
George Washington declared Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1789. However, the Continental Congress (president John Hanson) made the first actual national proclamation on March 16, 1776. The following year, a national day of prayer and thanksgiving was observed on December 16, 1777. The date of Thursday, November 26, 1789 was the date used by Washington, following the precedent of Thursday, November 28, 1782. The annual observance was established by Abraham Lincoln in 1863, and observed each year since then.
The first Presidential Thanksgiving day proclamation was on 1863.
Thanksgiving is celebrated on Thursday because President Abraham Lincoln declared it a national holiday in 1863, choosing the last Thursday in November as a day for Americans to give thanks for their blessings.
Abraham Lincoln [February 12, 1809-April 15, 1865], as the 16th U.S. President, declared a national Day of Thanksgiving in 1863. He made that declaration by way of a Proclamation of October 3rd. That had been the date of the original proclamation by first U.S. President George Washington [February 22, 1732-December 14, 1799] to the same effect, in 1789.