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N0KFQ > TODAY 26.11.12 17:23l 45 Lines 2016 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 31861_KB0WSA
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Nov 26
Path: IZ3LSV<F1OYP<N9PMO<XE1FH<N0KFQ<KB0WSA
Sent: 121126/1511Z 31861@KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA BPQK1.4.53
Nov 26, 1941:
FDR establishes modern Thanksgiving holiday
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a bill officially
establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day.
The tradition of celebrating the holiday on Thursday dates back
to the early history of the Plymouth and Massachusetts Bay
colonies, when post-harvest holidays were celebrated on the
weekday regularly set aside as "Lecture Day," a midweek church
meeting where topical sermons were presented. A famous
Thanksgiving observance occurred in the autumn of 1621, when
Plymouth governor William Bradford invited local Indians to join
the Pilgrims in a three-day festival held in gratitude for the
bounty of the season.
Thanksgiving became an annual custom throughout New England in
the 17th century, and in 1777 the Continental Congress declared
the first national American Thanksgiving following the Patriot
victory at Saratoga. In 1789, President George Washington became
the first president to proclaim a Thanksgiving holiday, when, at
the request of Congress, he proclaimed November 26, a Tuesday, as
a day of national thanksgiving for the U.S. Constitution.
However, it was not until 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln
declared Thanksgiving to fall on the last Thursday of November,
that the modern holiday was celebrated nationally.
With a few deviations, Lincoln's precedent was followed annually
by every subsequent president--until 1939. In 1939, Franklin D.
Roosevelt departed from tradition by declaring November 23, the
next to last Thursday that year, as Thanksgiving Day.
Considerable controversy surrounded this deviation, and some
Americans refused to honor Roosevelt's declaration. For the next
two years, Roosevelt repeated the unpopular proclamation, but on
November 26, 1941, he admitted his mistake and signed a bill into
law officially making the fourth Thursday in November the
national holiday of Thanksgiving Day.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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