Which U.S. president issued the first presidential National Thanksgiving Proclamation in 1789?

George Washington issued the first presidential National Thanksgiving Proclamation in 1789.

At Congress’s request, Washington proclaimed Thursday, November 26, 1789, a day of public thanksgiving and prayer. He issued the proclamation on October 3 while serving as the first president under the new Constitution. The observance encouraged Americans to give thanks for the nation’s peace, prosperity, and recently established government.

Washington’s proclamation was not the origin of every American thanksgiving observance. Colonial communities and individual states had held thanksgiving services long before 1789. The Continental Congress had also issued a national Thanksgiving proclamation in 1777 during the Revolutionary War. Washington’s document was the first presidential proclamation of this kind under the United States government created by the Constitution.

The modern federal Thanksgiving holiday developed much later. Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 proclamation helped establish an annual national tradition, and Congress fixed the holiday’s date in federal law in 1941. Washington’s 1789 proclamation is therefore an important early presidential milestone, not the beginning of all Thanksgiving celebrations in North America.