Spanish explorer, Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, led 1,500 men in a thanksgiving celebration at the Palo Duro Canyon.

Coronado's expedition traveled north from Mexico City in 1540 in search of gold. The group camped alongside the canyon, in the modern-day Texas Panhandle, for two weeks in the spring of 1541.

The Texas Society Daughters of the American Colonists commemorated the event as the "first Thanksgiving" in 1959.

Washington's first proclamation after his inauguration as the nation's first president in 1789 declared November 26, 1789, as a national day of "thanksgiving and prayer."

1800s The annual presidential thanksgiving proclamations ceased for forty five years in the early 1800s.

1863 President Abraham Lincoln resumed the tradition in 1863

November 26, 1941 President Roosevelt signed the bill establishing the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day. Because two year out of every seven have five Thursdays in November, some states for the next fifteen years celebrated on their own on the last Thursday. Since 1956, the fourth Thursday in November has been observed by every state.