A feast of three days was attended by 90 Wampanoag indians and 53 pilgrims to celebrate the fall harvest.
President George Washington gives his Thanksgiving proclamation and states it is to be held on “Thursday the 26th day of November.” However, the celebration continues to be off and on.
President Abraham Lincoln proclaims a national day of "Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens."
President Ulysses S. Grant signed into law the Holidays Act that made Thanksgiving a yearly appointed federal holiday in Washington D.C.
An act by Congress made Thanksgiving, and other federal holidays, a paid holiday for all federal workers throughout the United States.
Under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the date was moved to one week earlier, observed between 1939 and 1941 amid significant controversy.
Thanksgiving, by an act of Congress, signed into law by FDR, received a permanent observation date, the fourth Thursday in November.