--- title: National Day of Prayer 2016: How the Annual Observance Began description: During the early 1950s, faith was seen as just one more way in which the U.S. and its allies were different from communist forces canonical: https://time.com/4319483/national-day-of-prayer-2016-barack-obama-history/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-05-05T15:41:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T17:18:43.043Z article:section: History og:title: How the National Day of Prayer Began og:description: The first such day was proclaimed in 1952 og:url: https://time.com/4319483/national-day-of-prayer-2016-barack-obama-history/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltddf543564a843e9c/69889209524fc04ad3df7dd1/graham.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Billy Graham og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How the National Day of Prayer Began twitter:description: The first such day was proclaimed in 1952 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltddf543564a843e9c/69889209524fc04ad3df7dd1/graham.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How the National Day of Prayer Began  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. May 5, 2016 3:41 PM UTC  A crowd of several thousand persons stands on capitol plaza and on the center steps of the U.S. Capitol, left, in Washington Feb. 3, 1952, to hear Evangelist Billy Graham preach at a rally. A crowd of several thousand persons stands on capitol plaza and on the center steps of the U.S. Capitol, left, in Washington Feb. 3, 1952, to hear Evangelist Billy Graham preach at a rally.AP  by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Rothman is managing editor at TIME. May 5, 2016 3:41 PM UTC President Obama’s [proclamation](https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/05/04/presidential-proclamation-national-day-prayer-2016) that Thursday is the [National Day of Prayer](http://time.com/4319501/obama-national-day-of-prayer/) for 2016 came as no surprise: After all, it’s been more than half a century since President Truman, on April 17, 1952, signed the law that first called upon the President to set aside such a day for the people of the United States to “turn to God in prayer and meditation at churches, in groups, and as individuals.” The first such day was observed on July 4, 1952, with Truman noting in his [proclamation](http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=87332) that he found it “fitting that this Day of Prayer coincide with the anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.” (It wasn’t until 1988 that Congress specified that the President ought to pick the first Thursday in May for the proclamation.) [_Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter_](http://time.com/newsletter) One of the people who advocated most strongly for that 1952 law was the Evangelist Billy Graham, who led a weeks-long prayer “[crusade](http://time.com/vault/issue/1952-03-03/page/78/)” to Washington that year, and on Feb. 3, 1952, gave a [speech](http://billygrahamlibrary.org/1952-washington-d-c-meeting/) urging Congress to introduce legislation establishing a National Day of Prayer. This was something he’d been [suggesting](http://time.com/vault/issue/1950-07-24/page/13/) for years, but it finally stuck—becoming law in just a couple of weeks. And, though an individual’s faith is often separate for world-historical events, that timing is notable. **MORE** [This Is How the National Prayer Breakfast Got Its Start](http://time.com/4202899/national-prayer-breakfast-history/) It was perhaps Conrad Hilton—the hotelier who would go on to host the first-ever National Prayer Breakfast in 1953—who summed it up best. During the Cold War years of the early 1950s, faith was seen as just one more way in which the U.S. and its allies were different from communist forces that decried religion. “It took a war and the frightening evil of Communism to show the world that this whole business of prayer is not a sissy, a counterfeit thing,” TIME [quoted](http://time.com/vault/issue/1954-02-15/page/51/) Hilton saying in 1954\. “Rather it is a part of man’s personality, without which he limps.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4319483/national-day-of-prayer-2016-barack-obama-history/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4319483/national-day-of-prayer-2016-barack-obama-history/"},"headline":"How the National Day of Prayer Began","datePublished":"2016-05-05T15:41:12.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T17:18:43.043Z","description":"The first such day was proclaimed in 1952","url":"https://time.com/4319483/national-day-of-prayer-2016-barack-obama-history/","keywords":["faith","politics"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltddf543564a843e9c/69889209524fc04ad3df7dd1/graham.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltddf543564a843e9c/69889209524fc04ad3df7dd1/graham.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Billy Graham","caption":"Billy Graham","creditText":"AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/faith/","name":"faith"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4319483/national-day-of-prayer-2016-barack-obama-history/","name":"How the National Day of Prayer Began"}}]}] ```