The first Thanksgiving feast traditionally identified in American history took place in 1621.
The event was a three-day harvest celebration at Plymouth Colony in present-day Massachusetts. It followed the colonists’ first successful harvest after the devastating winter of 1620–1621, when roughly half of the settlers died. Wampanoag people joined the colonists during the gathering.
The precise dates are unknown. Historians place it in the autumn, probably between late September and early November. Contemporary accounts describe food and activities, but they do not identify the gathering as the start of an annual national holiday or provide the familiar modern menu.
The phrase “first Thanksgiving” was applied retrospectively. Other earlier or later religious thanksgiving observances have also been proposed, including celebrations in 1623 and elsewhere in colonial North America. In ordinary U.S. trivia, however, 1621 means the Plymouth feast associated with the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag.