Stories by FactCheck.org

The Truman Library cannot confirm the rumor that President Truman pardoned a Thanksgiving turkey in 1947, starting the White House tradition. According to the library, its staff has found "no documents, speeches, newspaper clippings, photographs, or other contemporary records" to back up the story.
Source: Harry S. Truman Library & Museum

In the first half of 2009, 99.3 percent of U.S. imports of live turkeys came from Canada, at a value of $9.2 million.

Source: Census Bureau

AAA estimates that 38.4 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more over the Thanksgiving weekend, the bulk of them (33.2 million) traveling by car. The total is a 1.4 percent increase over last year.
Source: AAA.com

President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared that Thanksgiving 1939 would be held not on the last Thursday of the month, but the fourth Thursday. The declaration, which moved the national holiday up to Nov. 23 that year, was made at the request of business owners who wanted more shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Source: FDR Presidential Library

President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed that Thanksgiving would be a national holiday, observed on the last Thursday of November, in 1863.
Source: Census Bureau

Minnesota is expected to be the top turkey-producing state in 2009, raising 45.5 million of the Thanksgiving bird.
Source: Census Bureau

Of the 709 million pounds of cranberries estimated to be produced in the U.S. in 2009, 400 million pounds will come from Wisconsin.
Source: Census Bureau

The 2009 forecast for turkey sale receipts to farmers is $3.8 billion.

Source: Census Bureau

President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address on Nov. 19, 1863.

Source: Library of Congress

At noon on Nov. 18, 1883, the U.S. Naval Observatory changed its telegraphic signals to correspond to the four standard time zones that were created in the continental U.S. The railroads were responsible for prompting the introduction of time zones.

Source: Library of Congress