Give Thanks To FDR For Additional Christmas Shopping Days

If you thought Thanksgiving came a little early this year – you’re right.  Since Thanksgiving is always the fourth Thursday in November, the 22^nd is the earliest it could ever come.  The 28^th is the latest it can come in November.

President George Washington proclaimed a national day of Thanksgiving to celebrate the U-S Constitution in 1789.  That first Thanksgiving was November 26^th, a Tuesday.  It was basically a one shot holiday.

It wasn’t until Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday in November as a national day of Thanksgiving in 1863 that the holiday we know today became a tradition.  It continued to be celebrated on the last Thursday in November until 1939 when Thanksgiving fell on the 30^th, the last day of the month and Franklin Roosevelt decided to move it one week earlier.  Some people refused to go along with the change and celebrated on the 30^th anyway.

Two years later Roosevelt signed legislation making the fourth Thursday of each November a national Thanksgiving Day.  That bill was signed on this day in 1941.

Less than two weeks later, theUnited States was forced into World War Two by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.