But 56 years before they celebrated spanish explorer pedro menendez arrived on the coast of florida and founded the first north american city st augustine on september 8 1565 the spanish and the native timucua celebrated with a feast of thanksgiving. St augustine florida is the site of the first real thanksgiving that was actually 55 years before the thanksgiving at plymouth the basis of our traditional thanksgiving the thanksgiving at st augustine took place on september 8 th 1565 nativity of our lady on that date fr francisco lopez de mendoza grajales planted a cross in the . Americas real first thanksgiving st augustine florida september 8 1565 item preview remove circle share or embed this item embed embed for wordpresscom hosted blogs and archiveorg item description tags want more advanced embedding details examples and help . Americas real first thanksgiving st augustine florida september 8 1565 americas real first thanksgiving st immigration national identity and catholic conscience the pilgrims the first thanksgiving was actually celebrated on this date the nativity of the blessed mother in 1565 by hispanics in st augustine florida you can read. Americas first thanksgiving was actually in st augustine florida the countrys oldest city was founded in 1565 the spanish settlers celebrated with a mass of thanksgiving and shared a meal