Fact of the Day

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

California’s American Indian and Alaska Native population, the highest of any state, was 738,978, as of July 1, 2008. Oklahoma’s population, 406,492, was the second highest. 
Source: Census Bureau

As of July 1, 2008, 4.9 million American Indians and Alaska Natives were living in the U.S. That’s 1.6 percent of the total population.

Source: Census Bureau

In 1990, President George H.W. Bush was the first president to designate November as "National American Indian Heritage Month."

Source: Census Bureau

The poppy was known as the flower that grew over the graves of soldiers in the Napoleonic Wars. After World War I, the poppy sprouted in France and Belgium in lime-rich soil due to rubble.
Source: Veterans Affairs Canada

Hurricane activity in October for the North Atlantic, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico was below the month’s average, which is one hurricane. There were two named storms, but neither became hurricanes.
Source: National Weather Service National Hurricane Center