The annual presidential turkey pardon has become a November tradition as quintessentially American as the Thanksgiving meal itself. Every year, in the week of Thanksgiving, the President appears alongside one or two live turkeys with goofy names like Butter and Bread or Corn and Cob, and formally saves them from ending up part of a holiday feast.

But the history of the ceremony is more complicated than some might imagine.

Presidents began holding a photo-op with a turkey every year beginning in 1947. That’s when the National Turkey Federation and Poultry and Egg National Board first presented the National Thanksgiving Turkey to President Harry Truman. But as the Truman Library notes, there is no documentation or proof that Truman pardoned any birds.

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