1863
Abraham Lincoln, photographed by Alexander Gardner in November 1863.Image: Alexander Gardner · Public domainpolitics · Americas
Two presidents proclaim a national Thanksgiving
On 3 October 1789 George Washington issued the first Thanksgiving proclamation under the new US Constitution, asking Americans to set aside Thursday 26 November as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer. Congress had asked him to recommend such a day. Exactly 74 years later, on 3 October 1863, in the middle of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday of November a national day of Thanksgiving and Praise. He acted after years of campaigning by the magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale, and the holiday has been kept every year since.
Source: George Washington’s Mount Vernon: Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1789 ↗
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