President John F. Kennedy announced that he would not eat the turkey presented to him in 1963 by the California Turkey Advisory Board, and newspapers reported that the bird had been “pardoned,” according to the Smithsonian. Tragically, the president himself never made it to Thanksgiving that year; he was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963, six days before the holiday.

According to the White House blog, starting with President Richard Nixon, the turkey annually presented by the National Turkey Federation would end its days in a petting zoo rather than on a platter.