Thanksgiving in the United States became an official annual national holiday in 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a nationwide day of thanksgiving to be observed on the last Thursday of November during the Civil War. Later, in 1941, Congress fixed the modern federal holiday date as the fourth Thursday in November, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed that into law.

Early proclamations

  • The first presidential Thanksgiving was proclaimed by George Washington for November 26, 1789, as a one-time “Day of Publick Thanksgivin” under the new Constitution.
  • Subsequent presidents occasionally issued thanksgiving proclamations, but dates varied by year and sometimes even by month, so there was no single established national holiday yet.

Lincoln makes it a holiday

  • In 1863, amid the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation calling for a recurring national Thanksgiving Day, effectively creating the annual holiday tradition at the national level.
  • Lincoln’s proclamation set Thanksgiving for the last Thursday in November, a pattern followed by later presidents and widely adopted across the states.

Congress formalizes the date

  • In 1870, Congress included Thanksgiving in a law listing federal holidays in Washington, D.C., which helped cement it as a recurring federal holiday, though the exact date was still set each year by the president.
  • To end confusion after date changes under Franklin D. Roosevelt, Congress passed a joint resolution in 1941 establishing Thanksgiving as a federal holiday on the fourth Thursday in November, which has remained the rule since 1942.

Why it’s a trending topic

  • In recent years, the question “when did Thanksgiving become a holiday” has trended around November as people revisit the holiday’s origins, including debates about its historical narrative and Indigenous perspectives.
  • Modern discussions on forums and social media often distinguish between the 1621 “first Thanksgiving” story, Lincoln’s 1863 national holiday proclamation, and the 1941 law fixing the date, which can make the timeline seem confusing but also keeps the topic in the news cycle each fall.

TL;DR:

  • First presidential Thanksgiving: 1789 (Washington, one-time).
  • Became an annual national holiday: 1863 (Lincoln proclamation).
  • Modern federal date (fourth Thursday in November): set by Congress in 1941, effective 1942.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.