Did you know that since at least 1987, there has been at least one turkey pardoned each year? Sometimes, there has been more than one bird pardoned. They go on to live on ranches, hang out and are grand marshals of Disney parades, living the relaxed live at Mount Vernon and more!
Ronald Reagan has been credited with the first 'official' pardon. That turkey, Charlie, was sent to a petting zoo. In 1989, George H.W. Bush created the annual tradition of pardoning a turkey, and it has been a permanent part of presidential history ever since. There have been other turkey's lives spared prior to 1987. John F. Kennedy spared a bird just days before his assassination, and Nixon even spared a feather or two while president.
Happy Thanksgiving!
This years lucky ducks, well turkeys, are Tatar and Tot!
There's even a movie made about a presidential-pardoned turkey!
An who can forget this classic song...
A Brief Timeline of how Thanksgiving came to be...
1621 - The Pilgrims celebrated the first corn harvest with a celebratory feast
1623 - The Pilgrims held a feast to celebrate the end of a long drought
1789 - George Washington made the first Thanksgiving Proclamation celebrating the end of the War for Independence
1817 - A few states, including New York, began celebrating their own Thanksgiving Holiday
1827 - Sarah Joseph Hale, author of Mary Had a Little Lamb, began a campaign to establish Thanksgiving as a National Holiday
1863 - Abraham Lincoln granted Mrs. Hale's request, and Thanksgiving was celebrated on the last Thursday in November
1939 - FDR moved the Holiday up a week, to help with retail sales during the Great Depression (but people didn't like it!)
1941 - FDR signed a bill marking the 4th Thursday in November as Thanksgiving
Thank you Mrs. Hale and President Roosevelt for our 2 days off each year!
