Turkey Trivia

Interesting Thanksgiving and turkey facts.

1. President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863, supposedly as a response to a campaign organized by magazine editor Sara Joseph Hale.

2. In 1939, President Franklin Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving Day forward one week, as it is presently celebrated.

3. Benjamin Franklin, who proposed the turkey as the official United States' bird, was dismayed when the bald eagle was chosen over the turkey. Franklin wrote to his daughter, referring to the eagle's "bad moral character," saying, "I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country! The turkey is a much more respectable bird, and withal a true original native of America."

4. In 2015 more than 212 million turkeys were consumed in the United States. The National Turkey Federation estimates that 46 million of those turkeys were eaten at Thanksgiving, 22 million at Christmas and 19 million at Easter.

Nearly 88 percent of Americans surveyed by the National Turkey Federation eat turkey at Thanksgiving. The average weight of turkeys purchased for Thanksgiving is 16 pounds, meaning that approximately 736 million pounds of turkey were consumed in the United States during Thanksgiving in 2015.

5. Turkey is good for your eyes because it's rich in zinc.

All information from the National Turkey Federation.

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