What started the tradition of “pardoning” thanksgiving turkeys?
The news report I was just listening to said the tradition was started by Harry Truman, but this is a quote from Bush’s speech in 2001 “This White House tradition dates back to Abraham Lincoln. Probably what you don’t know is that Abraham Lincoln had a son named Tad who kept a turkey as a pet. I thought about trying to keep the turkey as a pet, but I don’t think the two dogs and the cat would like it”. Here’s what snope.com has to say about it: The earliest provable instance of the word pardon being used was by newspapers in 1963 reporting on President Kennedy’s announcement that he did not eat the turkey in question. the next instance was President Ronald Reagan in 1987. It was apparently President Bush who turned it into an annual event, in 1989, complete with the anecdotal story of President Lincoln.
