Austin Improv

FACT OF THE DAY: Thanksgiving is a national holiday largely due to the efforts of Sarah Josepha Hale, the American author who wrote “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” Beginning in 1846, she wrote letters to five consecutive US presidents petitioning for the holiday, which until then was celebrated only by some northeastern states on various days. Abraham Lincoln was persuaded to support the idea, and in 1863 it became the third national holiday (after Independence Day and Washington’s birthday).