The first Thanksgiving...
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The first Thanksgiving on American soil probably occurred in May 1541 near Canyon, Texas, where Father Juan de Padilla said Mass for an army of 1,500 soldiers under conquistador Francisco Vasquez de Coronado. Or it may have occurred on September 8, 1565, when Father Francisco Lopez said a Mass for the 800 newly-arrived Spanish colonists in St. Augustine, Florida. Or among the English, the leader of the settlers who landed at Berkeley Hundred (in present-day Henrico County, Virginia) on December 4, 1619, commanded that: “We ordain that this day of our ships’ arrival, at the place assigned for plantation, in the land of Virginia, shall be yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of Thanksgiving for Almighty God.”