Thanksgiving Day

Fun Facts - Congress didn't officially declare Thanksgiving a national holiday until 1941. Abraham Lincoln was the first president to declare a day of Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday in November.

- Benjamin Franklin wanted the turkey to be the national bird of the United States. But it was Thomas Jefferson who opposed him. It is believed that Franklin then named the male turkey as 'Tom' to spite Jefferson.

- According the U.S. Department of Agriculture, more than 45 million turkeys are cooked and eaten in the United States at Thanksgiving. That number represents one sixth of all the turkeys sold in the U.S. each year!

- According to the National Turkey Foundation, approximately 690 million pounds of turkey were consumed in the United States during Thanksgiving 2007. This equals the weight of 4.48 million individuals of average weight (154 pounds). This is the same amount of the estimated weight of the total population of Singapore.

- Turkey was the first food eaten on the moon! Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin enjoyed roasted turkey eaten out of a foil pack.