However, it was President George Washington who first issued a proclamation calling upon all the "people of the United States" to observe "a day of public thanksgiving and prayer" on a specific date.

He urged the people of the United States to celebrate “a day of public thanksgiving and prayer.” But Washington believed that particular Thanksgiving in 1789 was a crucial occasion.

Our first president used the holiday to unite a divided nation. So can we. Washington’s Thanksgiving and Ours On Thursday, Nov. 26, 1789, George Washington woke early. Assisted by his enslaved ...

In response to a joint request by both Houses of Congress, on Oct. 3, 1789, President George Washington proclaimed Nov. 26, 1789, as a day of “public thanksgiving and prayer” devoted to “the ...

This year, another American Founder joins the lineup: Here is George Washington’s proclamation, issued 74 years (to the day) before Lincoln’s. Congressional representatives asked Washington to ...

Today is Thanksgiving, a day of family, feasting and football. But according to George Washington, who founded the holiday seven months after he took office, the primary purpose of the holiday is ...

U.S. President George Washington declared Nov. 26, 1789, to be Thanksgiving Day. It was the first U.S. holiday by presidential proclamation.

On the third Thursday of February 1795, President George Washington proclaimed a day of national thanksgiving to thank God “for the Constitutions of Government which unite and by their union ...

By Lincoln’s day, George Washington had already provided us with a Thanksgiving proclamation that today, nearly two and a half centuries later, still stands as a Thank You that a nation can put ...

For his first presidential Thanksgiving, George Washington aimed to pull his country together in the face of the many internal ... 1789, Thanksgiving Day Proclamation. National Archives. November ...

Washington made sure his Thanksgiving message — not simply a message, but a "proclamation" — sounded clear and strong: May God "render our national government a blessing to all the people, by ...

President George Washington aimed to unify the country with his first Thanksgiving message. Getty Images Maurizio Valsania, Università di Torino On Thursday, Nov. 26, 1789, George Washington woke ...