NATIONAL Day of Prayer...

In 1746 Massachusetts Governor William Shirley declared a Day of Prayer and Fasting, October 16, 1746, to pray for deliverance from an approaching French Fleet (the largest sailing fleet of the time with 70 ships with 13000 troops) the task of which was to reclaim some territory in (now) Canada and to destroy forts and encampments along the east coast from Boston to Georgia...

On that day, then, in Boston’s Old South Meeting House, Rev. Thomas Prince prayed “Send Thy tempest, Lord, upon the water...scatter the ships of our tormentors!” Historian Catherine Drinker Bowen related that as he finished praying, the sky darkened, winds shrieked and church bells rang “a wild, uneven sound...though no man was in the steeple.”

A hurricane subsequently sank and scattered the entire French fleet. With 4,000 sick and 2,000 dead, including the Admiral, the French Vice-Admiral d’Estournelle threw himself on his sword. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote of this in his Ballad of the French Fleet

On May 24, 1774, Thomas Jefferson drafted a Resolution for a Day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer to be observed as the British blockaded Boston’s Harbor. It passed unanimously. George Washington wrote in his diary, June 1, 1774: “Went to church, fasted all day.”

Similar announcements and plans were made on April 15, 1775 (Massachusetts) April 19 (Connecticut), June 12 (the Continental Congress), July 5 (Georgia) , July 12 (The Continental Congress), and almost very year thereafter until the passage of the Bill of Rights in 1789.

There is a continued history of these proclamations and resolutions until 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln formally signed a proclamation whose opening lines state:

[W]hereas it is the duty of nations, as well as of men, to owe their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord...

Jump ahead to 1952 when Public Law 82-324 was initiated by Mr. Conrad Hilton of Hilton Hotels and Senator Frank Carlson of Kansas and passed, stating that the President of the United States was to set aside an appropriate day each year, other than Sunday, as a National Day of Prayer.

And then in 1986, Vonette Bright (CoFounder of Campups Crusade for Christ, now Cru), the National Prayer Committee, and Senator Strom Thurmond penned a bill that would designate a specific day each year for the National Day of Prayer

May 8, 1988: – President Ronald Reagan signed Public Law 100-307 which designates the first Thursday in May as the annual observance for the National Day of Prayer

August 12 1998: Bill Clinton signs Public Law 105-225, Statute. 1258 which states: The President shall issue each year a proclamation designating the first Thursday in May as a National Day of Prayer on which the people of the United States may turn to God in prayer and meditation at churches, in groups, and as individuals.

And therefore each and every year in the United States the President issues a proclamation declaring the first Thursday in May as a National Day of Prayer. 

Not all churches observe the day, but many do. Not all individuals do, but it is my personal hope that people of true and abiding faith, like George Washington would be able to pen in their diary at the end of the day: went to church and fasted all day...