When was Thanksgiving first proclaimed a National Holiday by the President of the United States?

In November, 1621 The Pilgrims and their neighbors, the Wampanoag Indians gathered at Plymouth for a three day festival honoring their first successful harvest. The Wampanoags brought five deer to celebrate, and the Pilgrims supplied the extras, nuts, cranberries, corn, spinach, and barley, along with forest fowl the Pilgrims gathered on a hunting expedition. Although turkey may have been served, it is more likely that duck, geese, pheasants and other fowl were served. Potatoes and Pumpkin pie were definitely not on the menu because they had not been introduced to New England at the time. This event more likely was not repeated for almost 200 years. It was just a friendly gathering and a three day party, and not a National Holiday.

In November, 1789, George Washington was the first President to proclaim Thanksgiving as a National Holiday, to be celebrated on November 26th. It had been sanctioned by the Congress first in 1777.

It wasn't until 1863, during the Civil War, that President Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving a National Holiday to be celebrated on the last Thursday of November, nationwide. This was due to a 30 year effort by Sara Josepha Hale (Mary Had A Little Lamb nursery rhyme author) who also supplied Thanksgiving Recipes.

And, It wasn't until 1941 that President Roosevelt signed a Bill finalizing Thanksgiving to be celebrated on the 4th Thursday of November to allow people more time to save money for Christmas.