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Thanksgiving is just a day away!  But  before you sit down and eat your Thanksgiving meal, let's find out how well you know your Thanksgiving history...

1. FACT OR FICTION: IN 1863, ABRAHAM LINCOLN BECAME THE FIRST AMERICAN PRESIDENT TO PROCLAIM A NATIONAL DAY OF THANKSGIVING.

2.
FACT OR FICTION: NATIVE AMERICANS USED CRANBERRIES, NOW A STAPLE OF MANY THANKSGIVING DINNERS, FOR COOKING AS WELL AS FOR MEDICINAL PURPOSES.

3. 
 FACT OR FICTION: ONE OF AMERICA’S FOUNDING FATHERS THOUGHT THE TURKEY SHOULD BE THE NATIONAL BIRD OF THE UNITED STATES.

4. FACT OR FICTION: THE TRADITION OF PLAYING OR WATCHING FOOTBALL ON THANKSGIVING STARTED WITH THE FIRST NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE GAME ON THE HOLIDAY IN 1934.
 

Ready to check your answers?

 

1. Fiction - George Washington, John Adams and James Madison all issued proclamations urging Americans to observe days of thanksgiving, both for general good fortune and for particularly momentous events (the adoption of the U.S. Constitution, in Washington’s case; and the end of the War of 1812, in Madison’s).

2. 
Fact -  According to the Cape Cod Cranberry Growers’ Assoc., Native Americans used cranberries in a variety of foods, including “pemmican”. They also used it as a medicine to treat arrow punctures and other wounds and as a dye for fabric. The Pilgrims adopted these uses for the fruit and gave it a name "craneberry” because its drooping pink blossoms in the spring reminded them of a crane.


3. Fact - In a letter to his daughter sent in 1784, Benjamin Franklin suggested that the wild turkey would be a more appropriate national symbol for the newly independent United States than the bald eagle (which had earlier been chosen by the Continental Congress). 

4. Fiction
- The American tradition of college football on Thanksgiving is pretty much as old as the sport itself. The newly formed American Intercollegiate Football Association held its first championship game on Thanksgiving Day in 1876.  

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