George Washington’s first presidential Thanksgiving proclamation designated November 26, 1789, for public thanksgiving and prayer.
Washington issued the proclamation on October 3, 1789, at the request of Congress. It called on people in the United States to observe a day of gratitude for the nation’s independence, peace, prosperity, and constitutional government.
The proclamation was made in New York City, then the nation’s capital. Washington attended services at St. Paul’s Chapel and also donated food and beer to imprisoned debtors. The observance was a one-time presidential recommendation rather than the fixed annual holiday known today.
The Continental Congress had proclaimed an earlier national thanksgiving in 1777, during the Revolutionary War. Abraham Lincoln later helped establish the modern annual tradition by proclaiming a national Thanksgiving in 1863. Congress eventually set the federal holiday on the fourth Thursday of November, beginning in 1942.