THE FIRST THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION FROM POTUS GEORGE WASHINGTON ON OCT 3RD, 1789 TO CELEBRATE THE FOUNDING OF A NEW NATION IN THE NEW WORLD AS RELIGIOUS CHRISTIAN PILGRIMS CELEBRATED THE FIRST GIVING OF THANKS FOR BEING DELIVERED FROM A POOR HARVEST IN 1621 AS AMERICAN INDIANS AND THE NEW ENGLAND PILGRIMS SHARE ON THE NEW FEAST AND FAST FORWARD TO THE HEIGHT OF THE CIVIL WAR IN 1863 POTUS ABRAHAM LINCOLN LEGISLATION MAKING THANKSGIVING A NATIONAL HOLIDAY ON THE LAST THURSDAY OF NOVEMBER–AND THE POTUS FDR FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT CAN’T BE LEFT OUT MOVES THANKSGIVING TO THE 4TH THURSDAY OF NOVEMBER IN 1941 FOR RETAIL SAKE– AND THUS WHERE IT STANDS TODAY–HAPPY THANKSGIVING

When is Thanksgiving Day 2015?

Today! Thursday November 26th, (the fourth Thursday in November).

Thanksgiving Day traditionally kicks off the 'holiday season' in the United States. The day was set in stone by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939 and approved by Congress in 1941. FDR changed it from Abraham Lincoln's designation as the last Thursday in November (because there are sometimes five Thursdays in the month).

While Britons think of it as a warm-up for the Yuletide period, many Americans think it of it as just as important as Christmas.

In fact, more people in the US celebrate Thanksgiving than do Christmas. Thanksgiving Day is secular holiday in a country that officially separates church and state so this probably makes sense.

What is the history of Thanksgiving?

Thanksgiving Day can be traced back to the 1621 celebration at the Plymouth Plantation, where the religious refugees from England known popularly as the Pilgrims invited the local Native Americans to a harvest feast after a particularly successful growing season.

The previous year's harvests had failed and in the winter of 1620 half of the pilgrims had starved to death.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/12018337/Thanksgiving-day-2015-what-is-the-history-US-usa-black-friday.html