Corn has also played an important role in the history of the United States. When the first settlers arrived on the North American continent in December 1620, they lacked food, and many died. Those who survived were helped by Indians who shared food with them and showed them how to grow corn, squash, and legumes.

To repay them, the settlers organized a festival of thanksgiving lasting several days after the first harvest, thanking the natives for their help in surviving the first year on the new land.

The Festival was somewhat a seedline of the national Thanksgiving Day holiday established in 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln.