In August 1939 President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving up by one week, to lengthen the Christmas shopping season. Football teams had already scheduled their big games for the old date. Calendar makers had already printed calendars for years to come.
Critics called the new holiday Franksgiving. Thirty-two states followed the change, and 16 refused, so for two years the country celebrated two Thanksgivings. On December 26, 1941, Roosevelt signed a law that fixed Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November.