George H.W. Bush Established the Thanksgiving Turkey Pardon Tradition in 1989

Every Thanksgiving , one lucky turkey gets something most birds can only dream of: a trip to the White House and a presidential pardon. It's one of America's quirkiest holiday traditions, complete with cameras, presidential jokes and a bird that gets to avoid becoming Thanksgiving dinner. But who actually started it?

Although Abraham Lincoln is often credited with the idea, the president who established the modern annual tradition was George H.W. Bush, in 1989. According to the White House Historical Association , Bush formally pardoned a Thanksgiving turkey during a White House ceremony, announcing that the bird would be spared and allowed to live on a nearby children's farm.

But the story actually begins much earlier. In 1863, Abraham Lincoln's young son, Tad, reportedly begged his father to spare a turkey intended for the family's Christmas dinner. Lincoln agreed, according to an account later published by White House reporter Noah Brooks.

As Smithsonian Magazine explains, the episode involved Christmas, not Thanksgiving, and was not the beginning of an annual presidential ceremony.

Another president frequently associated w...