Traditionally, the day after Thanksgiving begins the Christmas shopping season and is sometimes known as "Black Friday". One of the busiest shopping days of the year, "Black Friday" was so termed to mark it as the day retail businesses would make their profits for the year and be operating in the "black" and not the "red".

In 1953, someone at Swanson misjudged the number of frozen turkeys it would sell that Thanksgiving -- by 26 TONS! So they came up with a brilliant plan: Why not slice up the meat and repackage with some trimmings on the side? And so the first TV dinner was born!

Each plate setting includes an ice cream sundae (vanilla ice cream with whipped cream and a cherry) in a large sundae bowl. Snoopy serves up the food, throwing the plates to each guest Frisbee-style. Each guest also gets two slices of buttered toast, and a handful of pretzel sticks, popcorn, and jelly beans.

The Mayflower averaged only two miles (3.2 kilometers) per hour during its historic voyage across the Atlantic Ocean.

The Pilgrims set apart a day to celebrate immediately after their first harvest in 1621.

Every year, the U.S. President is presented with at least one live turkey & 2 dressed turkeys by the National Turkey Federation. The live turkey is traditionally pardoned & lives out the rest of his days on a peaceful farm.

According to the National Turkey Federation, it's estimated that turkeys have 3,500 feathers at maturity.

The green bean casserole was first created in 1955 by the Campbell Soup Company. The inspiration for the dish was to create a quick and easy recipe around two things most Americans always had on hand in the 1950s: green beans and Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup.

In "The One with All the Thanksgivings", the main characters spend Thanksgiving at Monica's apartment where they tell stories about their worst Thanksgivings: Chandler learning of his parents' divorce, Phoebe losing arms in past lives, and Joey getting his head stuck in a turkey.

Butterball is the biggest processor of turkeys in the United States, according to the National Turkey Federation.