The first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade was held in 1924 as basically a big advertisement. This year, the parade will start at 8:30 EST on Thanksgiving morning and is expected to have three million attendees.

• The big balloons in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade first debuted in 1927, replacing the animals from the Central Park Zoo.
• The first-ever balloon was Felix the Cat, a famous cartoon character from the 1920s.
• Mickey Mouse entered in 1934; Mickey has been updated three times over the years.
• The parade was canceled from 1942 to 1944 due to WWII.
• Floats were introduced in 1968.
• In 1997, due to wind, several floats crashed, including Barney the Dinosaur and the Pink Panther.
• Snoopy has appeared in the parade 40 times since 1968. The parade for last year had 27.7 million watchers.

Some balloons looked really creepy, especially the ones from the 1960s. Some of them are in the slideshow above.