First Turkeys: A History Of White House Thanksgivings

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1||Happy Thanksgiving, hooray hooray hooray, aren’t you glad you’re a presidentially pardoned turkey on this Thanksgiving Day…

…But not this turkey, which President Bill Clinton prepares to cut at Camp David, in 2000.

It’s become an annual tradition for presidents to celebrate Thanksgiving by pardoning turkeys at the White House. Some photos through the years… ||Newscom/BlackStar&&

2||President Lyndon B. Johnson. ||Lyndon B. Johnson Library&&

3||President Harry Truman, 1949. ||Wikimedia&&

4||President George W. Bush greets members of the Chickahominy tribe of Virginia after delivering remarks on Thanksgiving at the Berkeley Plantation in Charles City, VA in 2007.||Newscom/UPI&&

5||President Ronald Reagan pardons the Thanksgiving turkey in 1984.||Newscom/BlackStar&&

6||President Herbert Hoover, 1929.||Library of Congress&&

7||President Gerald Ford, 1975.||Wikimedia&&

8||President Richard Nixon in 1969.||National Archives&&

9||President George H.W. Bush in 1989.||Newscom/BlackStar&&

10||President George W. Bush in 2007. ||Newscom/BlackStar&&

11||President John F. Kennedy in 1962.||Wikimedia&&

12||President Bill Clinton in 2000. ||Newscom/BlackStar&&

13||President Barack Obama in 2010. ||Newscom/Sipa&&

14||A turkey is delivered to the White House for President Warren G. Harding in the 1920s.||Library of Congress &&

15||President Theodore Roosevelt signs his 1902 Thanksgiving Proclamation Act.||Library of Congress &&

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