Thanksgiving Day 2011: Facts and Figures

(LIN) - Thanksgiving Day can be traced all the way back to the fall of 1621, when the Pilgrims held a three-day feast to commemorate a bountiful harvest.

The event was marked for years to come, as President Abraham Lincoln declared the last Thursday of November to be a national day of Thanksgiving.

In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into a law a bill that established Thanksgiving Day as the fourth Thursday of November.

Let’s eat

• 248 million:  The number of turkeys expected to have been raised in 2011.
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• 2.4 billion pounds: The total weight in sweet potatoes, a popular Thanksgiving side dish.
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• 1.1 billion pounds: In 2010, this was the total production of pumpkins in major pumpkin-producing states. Illinois led the country by producing 427 million pounds of pumpkin.
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• 656, 340 tons: The contracted production of snap (green) beans in 2011. Green bean casserole anyone?
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• 13.3 pounds: The quantity of turkey consumed by a typical American in 2009.

Thanksgiving themes year-round

• 4: Number of places in the U.S. with turkey in its name. There’s Turkey Creek, La., Turkey, Texas, Turkey Creek, Ariz., and Turkey N.C.
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• 9: Number of places in the U.S. with cranberry in its name. Cranberry Township (Butler County), Pa., was the most populous in 2012, with 28,090 residents.
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• 37: Number of places with Plymouth in its name. Plymouth, Minn. was the most populous in 2010, with 70,576 residents.
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• 116.7 million: Number of households, and possible Thanksgiving gathering places, across the U.S.
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Source: U.S. Census Bureau