On October 3, 1863, expressing gratitude for a pivotal Union Army
victory at Gettysburg, President Abraham Lincoln announced that
the nation will celebrate an official Thanksgiving holiday on
November 26, 1863.

Engraving shows Founding Father and future American President John Adams, center, as he greets King George
III of England.

On September 27, 1779, the Continental Congress appoints John
Adams to travel to France to lead peace talks with Great Britain
during the Revolutionary War.

Founding Father John Adams (1735 – 1826) served as
the second president of the United States from 1797 to
1801. 

On September 26, 1960, for the first time in U.S. history, a
debate between major party presidential candidates was
broadcast on live television. The presidential hopefuls,
John F. Kennedy, a Democratic senator of Massachusetts,
and Richard M. Nixon, the vice president of the United States,
met in a Chicago studio to discuss U.S. domestic matters.

Kennedy emerged the apparent winner from this first of
four televised debates.

John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon

THE WARREN COMMISSION HANDING OVER THEIR VOLUMINOUS REPORT ON THE ASSASSINATION
TO PRESIDENT JOHNSON (right).

On September 24, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson received
the Warren commission’s special report on the assassination of President John  F. Kennedy, which had occurred on November
22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas.

Since the assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, was killed by a man
named Jack Ruby almost immediately after murdering
Kennedy, Oswald’s motive for assassinating the president
remained unknown.

The commission was led by Chief Justice Earl Warren and
became known as the Warren Commission. It concluded that
Oswald had acted alone and that the Secret Service had made
poor preparations for JFK’s visit to Dallas and had failed to
sufficiently protect him.

On September 22, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln issued a
preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, which set a date for
the freedom of more than 3 million enslaved in the United
States and recasts the Civil War as a fight against slavery.