Which President first established the date of Thanksgiving as a national celebration?
1 Answer
Jan 12, 2017
President Abraham Lincoln first established the date of Thanksgiving as a national holiday.
Explanation:
In 1863, Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday of the month of November as a nationally recognized day of "Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens."
Abraham Lincoln was reminded of this urgency by 74-year old magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale, who wrote, "You may have observed that, for some years past, there has been an increasing interest felt in our land to have the Thanksgiving held on the same day, in all the States; it now needs National recognition and authoritative fixation, only, to become permanently, an American custom and institution."
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