August 9, 1607

English settlers led by Captain George Popham joined Abnaki Indians along Maine's Kennebec River for a harvest feast and prayer meeting.

Spring 1610

Colonists in Jamestown, Virginia suffered through a famine during the winter of 1609-1610 that decimated the colony.  When supply ships arrived with food they held a celebration which has sometimes been considered the "first Thanksgiving."

October 1621

The Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony celebrated the autumn harvest with a three-day feast and invited the Wampanoag tribe to join them.

In 1841, Dr. Alexander Young contended that this harvest celebration was the "first Thanksgiving," and the origin of an American tradition.

July 8, 1630

Governor John Winthrop and the members of the Massachusetts Bay colony observed a day of prayer and thanksgiving.

November 13, 1775

The Boston Gazette and Country Journal published a proclamation for a public thanksgiving:  “…We have thought fit . . . to appoint THURSDAY the Twenty-third Day of November . . . to be observed as a Day of public THANKSGIVING, throughout the Colony; . . . . “

November 30, 1777

After the U.S. victory over British forces in the Battle of Saratoga, the Continental Congress recommended that the colonies observe a day of thanksgiving. The commander-in-chief of the Continental forces, George Washington, issued General Orders setting aside Thursday, December 18 "for Solemn Thanksgiving and Praise."

October 3, 1789

The first President of the United States, George Washington, proclaimed November 26th to be a day of national thanksgiving and prayer after receiving Congressional requests for such a decree.

Thanksgiving failed to become an annual tradition at this time. Only Presidents Washington, Adams, and Madison declared national days of thanks in their terms. Thomas Jefferson and John Quincy Adams considered the practice to infringe upon the separation of church and state. Governors, on the other hand--particularly in the New England states, regularly issued proclamations of thanksgiving.

April 13, 1815

President James Madison proclaimed a national day of prayer and thanksgiving after the end of the War of 1812.   He was the last president to call for a national thanksgiving until Abraham Lincoln in 1863.

1850

The Territory of Minnesota celebrated its first Thanksgiving Day on December 26, 1850.

Other states and territories followed suit as thanksgiving became a national tradition even before it became a national holiday.

1856

In 1856, Puritan leader William Bradford's 1650 manuscript, "Of Plimoth Plantation," was published after being lost for about eighty years. The document briefly mentions the Plymouth colony's famous 1621 harvest celebration.

Another colonial publication, Mourt's Relation, was rediscovered in the 1820s and included Edward Winslow's detailed first-hand account of the feast.

These documents fueled nineteenth-century interest in the Puritan colony and also influenced the eventual association of the colony with Thanksgiving Day.

November 28, 1861

Union and Confederate troops celebrated Thanksgiving Day away from their families during the first year of the Civil War.

President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday of November to be Thanksgiving Day in the District of Columbia.  Governors throughout the Union followed suit with similar state proclamations.

August 1939

In 1939, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared November 23rd, the next-to-last Thursday of the month, to be Thanksgiving Day. While governors usually followed the president's lead with state proclamations for the same day, on this year, twenty-three states observed Thanksgiving Day on November 23rd, twenty-three states celebrated on November 30th, and Texas and Colorado declared both Thursdays to be holidays. The nation was again divided over the date of Thanksgiving Day in 1940.
 

November 26, 1941

After two years of confusion and complaint, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed legislation establishing Thanksgiving Day as the fourth Thursday in November. Calendars and holiday plans were already set for the third Thursday in November, 1941 so the legislation took effect in 1942.
Roosevelt, recognizing the problems caused by his 1939 decree, had announced a plan to return to the traditional Thanksgiving date in 1942. But Congress introduced the legislation to ensure that future presidential proclamations could not impact the scheduling of the holiday. Their plan to designate the fourth Thursday of the month allowed Thanksgiving Day to fall on the last Thursday five out of seven years.