It's become tradition in recent years that the president of the United States pardons one turkey to save it from the dinner table. Who was the first president to pardon a Thanksgiving turkey?

While Abraham Lincoln is on record as having saved a Christmas turkey because his son Tad had grown attached to it, the first president to grant clemency to a Thanksgiving bird was JFK. Presidents Nixon and Regan both granted stays to specific turkeys, and George H.W. Bush was the first to make it a formal tradition.

Asked by Beth Sederstrom · Last updated 5 years ago · 10.1K views · SOURCE