On November 26, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a bill officially establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day. While it wasn’t until FDR’s declaration that the modern holiday was celebrated nationally, in 1789, President George Washington became the first president to proclaim a “Thanksgiving holiday”, and the tradition of celebrating the holiday on Thursday dates back even further, to the early history of the first U.S. colonies.

NewsHour: American Heritage
Jim Lehrer talks about the history of Thanksgiving with historians Michael Bechloss, Haynes Johnson, Doris Kearns Goodwin and Rick Kennedy. Watch segment, originally aired Nov. 25, 1999.

Nightly Business Report: Heritage Turkeys
NBR reports on some businesses that are making an effort to sell turkeys that more closely resemble the birds that the Pilgrims ate, from Nov. 22, 2006. Read more…

Rediscovering George Washington: The First Thanksgiving
Read the Proclamation of National Thanksgiving, delivered by George Washington on October 3, 1789.

Tavis Smiley: Young Voices
Read “The Death of Thanksgiving” by Rose Capozzi.