which U.S. president made thanksgiving a national holiday?
831324
Read here\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving
915332
Although there is record of earlier thanksgiving celebrations (most notably in 1619 at Berkeley Plantation, Virginia), Americans trace their traditional Thanksgiving holiday to one celebrated in 1621. This celebration was held at the Plymouth Colony, now in the state of Massachusetts. The English Pilgrims who had founded the colony marked the occasion by feasting with Native American guests—members of the Wampanoag tribe—who brought gifts of food as a gesture of goodwill. Although this event was an important part of American colonial history, there is no evidence that any of the participants thought of the feast as a thanksgiving celebration. Two years later, during a period of drought, a day of fasting and prayer was changed to one of thanksgiving because rains came during the prayers. Gradually the custom prevailed among New Englanders to annually celebrate Thanksgiving after the harvest.\n\nColonial governments and, later, state governments took up the Puritan custom of designating thanksgiving days to commemorate various public events. Gradually the tradition of holding annual thanksgiving holidays spread throughout New England and into other states. During the American Revolution (1775-1783) the Continental Congress proclaimed a national day of thanksgiving following the American victory at the Battle of Saratoga in 1777. U.S. president George Washington proclaimed another day of thanksgiving in 1789 in honor of the ratification of the Constitution of the United States. In 1817 New York State adopted Thanksgiving Day as an annual custom, and many other states soon did the same. Most of the state celebrations were held in November, but not always on the same day.\n\nIn the mid-19th century Sarah Josepha Hale, editor of Godey’s Ladies Book, led a movement to establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday. In 1863, during the American Civil War (1861-1865), President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday in November to be Thanksgiving Day in order to bolster the Union’s morale. After the war, Congress established Thanksgiving as a national holiday, but widespread national observance caught on only gradually. Many Southerners saw the new holiday as an attempt to impose Northern customs on them. However, in the late 19th century Thanksgiving’s emphasis on home and family appealed to many people throughout the United States. As a distinctly American holiday, Thanksgiving was also considered an introduction to American values for the millions of immigrants then entering the country.
823094
The United States\n\nIn 1621, after a hard and devastating first year in the New World the Pilgrim's fall harvest was very successful and plentiful. There was corn, fruits, vegetables, along with fish which was packed in salt, and meat that was smoke cured over fires. They found they had enough food to put away for the winter.\n\nThe Pilgrims had beaten the odds. They built homes in the wilderness, they raised enough crops to keep them alive during the long coming winter, and they were at peace with their Indian neighbors. Their Governor, William Bradford, proclaimed a day of thanksgiving that was to be shared by all the colonists and the neighboring Native American Indians.\n\nThe custom of an annually celebrated thanksgiving, held after the harvest, continued through the years. During the American Revolution (late 1770's) a day of national thanksgiving was suggested by the Continental Congress.\n\nIn 1817 New York State adopted Thanksgiving Day as an annual custom. By the middle of the 19th century many other states also celebrated a Thanksgiving Day. In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln appointed a national day of thanksgiving. Since then each president has issued a Thanksgiving Day proclamation, usually designating the fourth Thursday of each November as the holiday.\n\nhttp://www.holidays.net/thanksgiving/story.htm\n\nhope this helps
184758
Benjamin Harrison VI (August 20, 1833 – March 13, 1901) was the 23rd President of the United States. Serving one term from 1889 to 1893, he was from the state of Indiana and had previously served as a senator from that state.
980585
What does being a "person of color" have to do with celebrating or not celebrating this holiday?  The offical celebration of Thanksgiving was not established until the time of President Lincoln.  It is a national holiday when people can take time out before the real hussle and bussle of the Christmas season to get together with family and friends and set a little special time aside to give thanks to whatever Diety they believe in.  There is no harm in having a special day of thanks.  Certainly, you should be grateful for the things of this world constantly, but there is no reason why you can't have a special day.  I agree that many things happened in the past that we of European descent have no cause to be proud of...however, I am, as a 21st century American, grateful for the fact that I live in this country and not another.  I am grateful for a government that sets aside a special day for thanks and that allows me the right to thank whatever Diety I wish in whatever way I wish.  No matter your ethnic/racial origins, you should be thankful for the way things are NOW and not dwell on the past.  A Mandan chief once said  something along the lines of not dwelling on things that cannot be changed (things in the past) and living toward changing those things that can (the future).  So, have a happy day of thanks.
423887
Holidays are celebrations of past events.  They give us a chance to do all the traditional things passed down year after year after that special past event.\n\nExamples: Christmas is a celebration of Christ's birth, Easter is a celebration of Christ's resurrection, Thanksgiving is a celebration of the Pilgrims' and Native Americans' first thanksgiving meal, President's day is a celebration of the lives of great presidents, Independence day is the celebration of American independence, etc.
181
It is believed that the pilgrims and indians shared wild turkey and venison on the original Thanksgiving. \n\nTurkey's "Americanness" was established by Benjamin Franklin, who had advocated for the turkey, not the bald eagle, becoming the national bird.
31040
15. James Buchanan\n23. Benjamin Harrison\n32. Franklin D. Roosevelt
841994
In Canada Thanksgiving is celebrated on the second Monday in October. Unlike the American tradition of remembering Pilgrims and settling in the New World, Canadians give thanks for a successful harvest. The harvest season falls earlier in Canada compared to the United States due to the simple fact that Canada is further north. \n\nThe history of Thanksgiving in Canada goes back to an English explorer, Martin Frobisher, who had been trying to find a northern passage to the Orient. He did not succeed but he did establish a settlement in Northern America. In the year 1578, he held a formal ceremony, in what is now called Newfoundland, to give thanks for surviving the long journey. This is considered the first Canadian Thanksgiving. Other settlers arrived and continued these ceremonies. He was later knighted and had an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean in northern Canada named after him - Frobisher Bay. \n\nAt the same time, French settlers, having crossed the ocean and arrived in Canada with explorer Samuel de Champlain, also held huge feasts of thanks. They even formed 'The Order of Good Cheer' and gladly shared their food with their Indian neighbours.\n\nAfter the Seven Year's War ended in 1763, the citizens of Halifax held a special day of Thanksgiving.\n\nDuring the American Revolution, Americans who remained loyal to England moved to Canada where they brought the customs and practices of the American Thanksgiving to Canada. There are many similarities between the two Thanksgivings such as the cornucopia and the pumpkin pie.\n\nEventually in 1879, Parliament declared November 6th a day of Thanksgiving and a national holiday. Over the years many dates were used for Thanksgiving, the most popular was the 3rd Monday in October. After World War I, both Armistice Day and Thanksgiving were celebrated on the Monday of the week in which November 11th occurred. Ten years later, in 1931, the two days became separate holidays and Armistice Day was renamed Remembrance Day.\n\nFinally, on January 31st, 1957, Parliament proclaimed...\n\n"A Day of General Thanksgiving to Almighty God for the bountiful harvest with which Canada has been blessed  ... to be observed on the 2nd Monday in October.\n\nHope this helps.
313948
I think there were quite a few.  They had a bunch of pets.  Maybe something here will help:\n\nhttp://www.whitehouse.gov/president/holiday/historicalpets2/04.html\nhttp://www.davidpietrusza.com/coolidge-pets.html
902097
OK I'll bit as you have asked this with different wording but I think I figured it out. If you mean what started Thanksgiving it was by the Indians and the Pilgrims getting together to give thanks and share food. If you mean who was the first President to make it a Holdiay then it would be\nTitle: President Abraham Lincoln's Proclamation for a National Day of Fasting \n\nWe have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have been preserved, the many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. \nIntoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to God that made us! It behooves us, then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness. \n\n-- April 30, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln's Proclamation for a National Day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer. \nsee http://www.sermons.org/thanksgiving2.htm... for the rest.
911396
TRUE Benjamin Franklin was not a proponent of the Eagle as the national bird. He believed the turkey was smarter, more representative of the country due to their numbers vs Eagles,. there were other reasons I just don't remember .He wrote a paper on the subject.\n\nDamn! Something just occurred to me. If a Turkey is the National bird, it would probably a protected species. Does that mean we would be eating eagle for Thanksgiving?\n\nActually, we now have a new, unofficial, National Bird. It is called the middle finger salute.
540572
Memorial Day was originally called Decoration Day and was created to celebrate Union soldiers in the Civil War. It was declared a national holiday in 1868 by General John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic. It was not officially recognized by the federal government as a national holiday until Congress passed the National Holiday Act of 1971, which also moved the date from May 30th to the last Monday in May.
81183
it's a federal public holiday, so the entire US does. yes.
470206
1. Abraham Lincoln--kept the nation together in its most difficult time and was comitted to stopping the spread of slavery.\n\n2. George Washington--gave the country a chance to grow and set many precedents for the future of the country.\n\n3. Franklin Roosevelt--Saw the country through the Great Depression and World War II, promoted essential anti-poverty measures.\n\n4. Harry Truman--Established the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan (both would prove critical in ending the Cold War), integrated the Army and put the Civil Rights movement on the national stage.\n\n5. Thomas Jefferson--Doubled the size of the country with the Louisiana Purchase and ensured that the government stayed in the hands of the people.
773611
Thanksgiving was a Day for reflection and a day to be thankful for our dedicated troops and Commander in Chief.
1111230
George Washington.  Got to love those wooden teeth.  \n\n\nCome on what kind of question is this.  The only half way decent not old president was JFK