WASHINGTON, Friday, Oct. 21. President LINCOLN has issued a proclamation setting apart the last Thursday in November for a day of thanksgiving and praise to Almighty God for, among other things ...

President Abe Lincoln issued his powerful Thanksgiving proclamation on Oct. 3, 1863, asking Americans to set aside the last Thursday of November to praise "our beneficent Father." ...

Thanksgiving Proclamation; Thanksgiving Proclamation; ... Nov. 24, 1864. Credit... The New York Times Archives. See the article in its original context from November 24, 1864, Page 4 Buy Reprints.

Lincoln's proclamation, for the first time, officially established the date of America's annual Thanksgiving Day, though the tradition of giving thanks went back much further.

Lincoln obliged and a few weeks later, on Oct. 3, 1863 — during the height of the Civil War — he issued the Thanksgiving Proclamation. Ever since, the country has celebrated Thanksgiving Day.

Lincoln’s Thanksgiving proclamation of October 1863 during the Civil War sought to unite the country and build peace. The writer Sarah Josepha Hale had written Lincoln, encouraging him to make ...