November 25 |
Happy Thanksgiving! In the
United States, Thanksgiving Day is an annual day of thanks for the blessings of
the past year. It is observed on the fourth Thursday in November in each of the
states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. It is a historical, national
and religious holiday with origins that date back with the Pilgrims. After the
survival of their first colony through a bitter winter and the subsequent gathering
of the harvest in the autumn of 1621, Plymouth Colony Governor William Bradford
issued a thanksgiving proclamation. During the three-day October thanksgiving
the Pilgrims feasted on wild turkey and venison with their Native American guests.
Days of Thanksgiving were celebrated in America sporadically until, on November
26, 1789, President Washington issued a general proclamation calling for a nationwide
day of thanksgiving for the establishment of the government under the Constitution.
He made it clear that the day should be one of prayer and giving thanks to God,
to be celebrated by all religious denominations.
Credit for establishing this day as a national holiday is usually given to
Sarah J. Hale, editor and founder of the Ladies' Magazine in Boston. Her editorials
in the magazine and letters to President Lincoln urging the formal establishment
of a national holiday of Thanksgiving resulted in Lincoln's proclamation in 1863,
which designated the last Thursday of November as Thanksgiving Day. Later presidents
followed this example, with the exception of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who in 1939
proclaimed Thanksgiving Day a week earlier--on the fourth, not the last, Thursday
of November--in effort to encourage more holiday shopping. In 1941 Congress adopted
a joint resolution, permanently setting the date of Thanksgiving on the fourth
Thursday of November.
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2348 BC |
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Biblical scholars have long asserted this to be
the day of the Great Deluge, or Flood. |
1863 |
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Union ends the siege of Chattanooga with the Battle
of Missionary Ridge. |
1876 |
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Colonel Ronald MacKenzie destroys Cheyenne Chief
Dull Knife's village, in the Bighorn Mountains near the Red Fork of the Powder
River, during the so-called Great Sioux War. |
1901 |
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Japanese Prince Ito arrives in Russia to seek concessions
in Korea. |
1914 |
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German Field Marshal Fredrich von Hindenburg calls
off the Lodz offensive 40 miles from Warsaw, Poland. The Russians lose 90,000
to the Germans' 35,000 in two weeks of fighting. |
1918 |
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Chile and Peru sever relations. |
1921 |
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Hirohito becomes regent of Japan. |
1923 |
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Transatlantic broadcasting from England to America
commences for the first time. |
1930 |
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An earthquake in Shizouka, Japan kills 187 people. |
1939 |
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Germany reports four British ships sunk in the North
Sea, but London denies the claim. |
1946 |
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The U.S. Supreme Court grants the Oregon Indians
land payment rights from the U.S. government. |
1947 |
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The Big Four meet to discuss the German and European
economy. |
1951 |
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A truce line between U.N. troops and North Korea
is mapped out at the peace talks in Panmunjom, Korea. |
1955 |
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The Interstate Commerce Commission bans segregation
in interstate travel. |
1963 |
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The body of assassinated President John F. Kennedy
is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. |
1964 |
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Eleven nations give a total of $3 billion to rescue
the value of the British currency. |
1986 |
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As President Ronald Reagan announces the Justice
Department's findings concerning the Iran-Contra affair; secretary Fawn Hall smuggles
important documents out of Lt. Col. Oliver North's office. |
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