Since 1947, the chairman of the National Turkey Federation has presented a turkey to the president of the United States. And over the years, it has become a Thanksgiving tradition for the president to "pardon" that turkey and spare it from the dinner table.
The first documented turkey pardon was given by President John F. Kennedy in 1963. But rumors of turkey pardons go back as far as the Lincoln administration. Folklore has it that Abraham Lincoln's young son asked his father to spare a pet turkey that was supposed to be part of their Thanksgiving dinner.