What was the first formal presidential Thanksgiving proclamation in U.S. history?

The National Thanksgiving Proclamation was the first formal presidential Thanksgiving proclamation in U.S. history.

President George Washington issued it on October 3, 1789, at the request of Congress. He designated Thursday, November 26, as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer. The proclamation called on people to recognize the nation’s independence, peace, constitutional government, and other blessings.

Earlier thanksgiving proclamations had been issued by colonial authorities and by the Continental Congress. The Second Continental Congress declared a national day of thanksgiving in 1777, before the Constitution created the presidency. Washington’s document was therefore the first presidential proclamation of its kind.

The proclamation did not establish a permanent annual federal holiday. Presidents issued thanksgiving proclamations irregularly for decades. Abraham Lincoln began the modern annual tradition in 1863 by designating the last Thursday of November, and Congress later set the federal holiday’s legal date.