The following exceprt is taken from General Duncan McNabb's (the Commander of the US Air force's Air Mobility Command, where I work) Thanksgiving message to all Air Mobility Command troops. It gives a short, one paragraph, history of the Thanksgiving Holiday.
....Thanksgiving Day was first observed at Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1621. In subsequent years, states set aside one day in the fall to commemorate the harvest until 1863 when President Lincoln made the last Thursday in November the national holiday. His Thanksgiving Day Proclamation intended to heal the wounds of the Civil War and it remained the day for giving thanks until 1941…when Congress decreed that Thanksgiving would be on the fourth Thursday of November. This day affords us an opportunity to give thanks for all that makes this nation great....
I find it interestering that the first National Thanksgiving Holiday was intended to preserve the union!
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