Thanksgiving is a time of coming together and gorging on copious amounts of turkey and carbs. In between bites of stuffing and pumpkin pie, snack on these unusual Turkey Day facts.
At the turn of the 20th century, Thanksgiving was kind of creepy. Children and adults would dress up in masks and host costume crawls in cities.
These towns are located in Texas, Kentucky and North Carolina. Other Thanksgiving-themed town names include Pilgrim, Michigan; Cranberry, Pennsylvania and Yum Yum, Tennessee.
Sarah Josepha Hale petitioned several presidents to make it a national holiday. She succeeded in 1863.
Up until 1932, balloons from the parade were released into the sky when the festivities were over. Macy’s offered a $50 reward for those who found a balloon and returned it.
Myth has it that we're always so tired on Thanksgiving because of the tryptophan in turkey. According to WebMD, there is no more of the amino acid tryptophan in turkey than any other type of poultry.
Approximately 44 million to 46 million turkeys are raised in Minnesota annually.
President Roosevelt officially changed the date of Thanksgiving in 1941 to be the second-to-last Thursday in November as a way to encourage more holiday shopping to boost the economy.
Story has it that in 1850, James Lord Pierpont was at the Simpson Tavern in Medford, Massachusetts and was inspired by the town's famous sleigh races. So, he plucked out a little tune on the piano.
The Presidential Pardoning of the Turkey was formally started by George H.W. Bush in 1989, even though several presidents, including both Lincoln and JFK, showed mercy to turkeys in their time.
The idea to play on Thanksgiving started as a marketing ploy to get more attendance to games.