White House Turkeys Through the Years

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White House Turkeys Through the Years

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President Harry S. Truman pets a 35-pound turkey as it is presented to him in the White House Rose Garden on Nov. 18, 1952. The turkey was intended for the president's last Thanksgiving at the White House.

Henry Griffin/AP
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Vice President Richard Nixon "shakes hands" with a 40-pound white turkey on Nov. 14, 1955, at the Capitol in Washington. The bird was destined for President Eisenhower's Thanksgiving dinner at his Gettysburg, Pa., farm.

William J. Smith/AP
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First lady Mamie Eisenhower is amused by the gobbling of a 40-pound turkey presented to her at the White House on Nov. 14, 1957, for the Eisenhower's Thanksgiving dinner.

Charles Gorry/AP
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Charlie, Caroline Kennedy's pet Welsh Terrier, inspects a turkey presented to President John Kennedy on Nov. 19, 1963, after a traditional Thanksgiving week ceremony at the White House. President Kennedy "pardoned" the bird, sending it back to the farm.

AP Photo
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National Turkey Federation president John Hendricks attempts to hang on to the live turkey that he brought to the White House in Washington on Nov. 17, 1984.

Scott Stewart/AP
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President Ronald Reagan is presented with a turkey at the White House on Nov. 18, 1988.

Mike Sprague/AFP/Getty Images
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President Bush gestures during a Rose Garden ceremony on Nov. 25, 1992, where he pardoned a turkey presented by the National Turkey Federation. Bush was the first president to hold an official ceremony to pardon a turkey at the White House.

Greg Gibson/AP
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President Clinton accepts a 60-pound turkey from Raeford, N.C., during a ceremony in the Rose Garden of the White House on Nov. 26, 1997. Afterward, the president granted the turkey a pardon, sending it to a Virginia farm.

Joe Marquette/AP
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President George Bush holds a turkey named "Biscuits" by the neck during the ceremony to pardon the National Thanksgiving Turkey at the White House on Nov. 17, 2004.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP
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President Barack Obama, with daughters Sasha and Malia, pardons Liberty, a 19-week old, 45-pound turkey at the White House on Nov. 23, 2011.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP
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