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This Day In History, November 26th, 2019 – “Thanksgiving”



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It was just 156 years ago today, November 26, 1863 that the United States celebrated what would become our first ever “Traditional” Thanksgiving. Now, Americans throughout our history had given “thanks” to God and the bountiful land we live on. Yes, the Pilgrims had harvest feasts and things like that, and I’ve previously written an article about Washington establishing a day of Thanksgiving. But it was President Lincoln, who on October 3rd of 1863, made it so that on the last Thursday in the month of November a National day of Thanksgiving would be observed. And so the tradition started. Thanks to Union victories at Gettysburg on the 3rd of July, and Grant’s victory at Vicksburg on the 4th, Lincoln, a man that needed some celebration, wanted Americans to have a day of peace amongst friends and families, and a way to thank God for all they had. With the exception of FDR’s moving of the date to the third Thursday of the month so that stores had an extra week of Christmas spending between the years of 1939-1941 in order to ease the strain of the Great Depression, Thanksgiving has since been celebrated on the last Thursday in November.

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Happy Thanksgiving.


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