Bet You Didn't Know: Thanksgiving

That the first Thanksgiving in 1621 didn't become an annual tradition until over two hundred years later and that it wasn't just one big meal, it was a 3 day festival of eating, hunting and other entertainments in honor of the Pilgrims first successful harvest. The Native Americans bring five deer as gifts to the Pilgrims but they didn't have turkey.

In 1789, President Washington announced the first ever Thanksgiving Holiday which took place on Thursday, November 26th but it still didn't become an annual tradition.

Sara Josepha Hale who wrote the nursery rhyme, "Mary had a little lamb", was inspired by a diary of Pilgrim life to recreate the first Thanksgiving feast. In 1827, Hale waged an over 30 year campaign to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. She also published recipes for turkey, pumpkin pie and stuffing.

In 1863, President Lincoln announced that America would celebrate Thanksgiving every year on the final Thursday in November.

In 1939, President Roosevelt decided to move Thanksgiving up a week to extend the holiday shopping season to give depression era retailers more time to make money. This move was highly criticized and in 1941,FDR signed a bill putting Thanksgiving back on the fourth Thursday of November.

One of the quirkiest Thanksgiving traditions began in 1989, where President Bush Senior gave the first official pardon to a turkey sending them to retirement on a farm rather than to a dinner table.

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