In the United States, Thanksgiving Day always falls on the fourth Thursday in November.
Thanksgiving has been an official U.S. holiday since 1789 when George Washington issued the first proclamation of Thanksgiving to honor the new national constitution.
On Oct. 3, 1863, Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday of November as a National Day of Thanksgiving, and Americans celebrated the official holiday together as a nation on Nov. 26, 1863.
For the next 70 years, each U.S. president issued his own proclamation confirming the date. Then in 1939, Franklin Roosevelt reset the day as the third Thursday in November.
But in 1941, a resolution was made to change it to the fourth Thursday of November, and it has remained there ever since.
Other stuff about Thanksgiving:
•The day after Thanksgiving is the busiest day of the year for plumbers.
•According to the National Turkey Association, 46 million turkeys are expected to be eaten on Thanksgiving.
•Long before cranberry sauce became a traditional part of the Thanksgiving meal, Native Americans used cranberries as an ingredient in other foods and as a means of healing wounds and dyeing fabrics and other objects.
•Football became a Thanksgiving tradition in 1876 when Yale and Princeton played. The first time professional games were played on Thanksgiving was in 1920.
•The day before Thanksgiving is the biggest day for bar and liquor sales in the U.S., ahead of both Super Bowl Sunday and New Years’ Eve. It sometimes goes by the apt nickname, “Drinksgiving.”
•According to a 2015 Harris Poll, 79 percent of Americans think eating leftovers is the best part of hosting Thanksgiving dinner.
•There are two small towns in the U.S. called Turkey: Turkey, Texas and Turkey, N.C. (each has fewer than 500 residents).
•“Jingle Bells” was originally titled “One Horse Open Sleigh” and was written as a Thanksgiving song in 1857. In 1859, its name was changed and it was rebranded as a Christmas song.
•Green bean casserole was invented by the Campbell Soup Company as a way to sell cream of mushroom soup.
•When the pilgrims sat down for that first Thanksgiving dinner, they didn’t have any forks; knives and spoons were all they had to work with.