President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the first to establish Thanksgiving Day as a permanent federal holiday, signing a congressional bill into law on Dec. 6, 1941 which said that henceforth, the fourth Thursday in November would be a legal holiday. The legislation was drafted after FDR’s decision in 1939 to declare the third Thursday in November as Thanksgiving to lengthen the Christmas shopping season. The public uproar was so great that it was decided the date of Thanksgiving needed to be set in perpetuity.