10 things you didn't know about Thanksgiving
1. The first American Thanksgiving took place in the fall of 1621 and it lasted three days.
2. Black Friday is the busiest day of the year for plumbers, according to Roto-Rooter, the nation's largest plumbing service.
3. Only male turkeys, called toms, gobble. Females, called hens, cackle.
4. Ben Franklin wanted the turkey to be our national bird. An eagle, he wrote in a letter to his daughter, had "bad moral character."
5. Thanksgiving is not just an American holiday. Canadians celebrate it too. Except they do it the second Monday in October.
6. Thanksgiving is the reason we have TV dinners! In 1953 Swanson had so much extra turkey that a salesperson suggested they package it in aluminum and sell it with sides like sweet potatoes.
7. Wild turkeys can run 12 miles an hour and they are actually adept swimmers.
8. If you feel groggy after a Thanksgiving meal, its partially because turkey meat contains tryptophan, an amino acid that the body uses to make serotonin, a neurotransmitter in the brain that regulates sleep.
9. Each year, the president of the U.S pardons a turkey and spares it from being eaten for Thanksgiving dinner.
10. Californians consume the most turkey in the U.S. on Thanksgiving Day!
2. Black Friday is the busiest day of the year for plumbers, according to Roto-Rooter, the nation's largest plumbing service.
3. Only male turkeys, called toms, gobble. Females, called hens, cackle.
4. Ben Franklin wanted the turkey to be our national bird. An eagle, he wrote in a letter to his daughter, had "bad moral character."
5. Thanksgiving is not just an American holiday. Canadians celebrate it too. Except they do it the second Monday in October.
6. Thanksgiving is the reason we have TV dinners! In 1953 Swanson had so much extra turkey that a salesperson suggested they package it in aluminum and sell it with sides like sweet potatoes.
7. Wild turkeys can run 12 miles an hour and they are actually adept swimmers.
8. If you feel groggy after a Thanksgiving meal, its partially because turkey meat contains tryptophan, an amino acid that the body uses to make serotonin, a neurotransmitter in the brain that regulates sleep.
9. Each year, the president of the U.S pardons a turkey and spares it from being eaten for Thanksgiving dinner.
10. Californians consume the most turkey in the U.S. on Thanksgiving Day!