The American celebration of Thanksgiving is better known in other countries as the celebration of the harvest and abundance. In America, it is a holdover from the 1620 landing of the Pilgrims from Europe. The Pilgrim Governor William Bradford proclaimed a day of thanksgiving to be shared by all the colonists and the neighboring Native Americans after the natives helped the colonists after the devastating winter of 1621. During the American Revolution (late 1770's), a day of national thanksgiving was suggested by the Continental Congress. In 1817 New York State had adopted Thanksgiving Day as an annual custom. By the middle of the 19th century many other states also celebrated a Thanksgiving Day. In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln appointed a national day of thanksgiving.