50 Fun Facts About Presidential Inauguration

Since 1937, on what date are regular presidential inaugurations held?

The 20th Amendment moved the start of terms from March 4; when the date falls on a Sunday the public ceremony shifts to Monday.

Before 1937, on what date were regular inaugurations held?

That was the day the federal government began operating under the Constitution in 1789; Sundays pushed four ceremonies to the 5th.

Which constitutional amendment, adopted in 1933, moved Inauguration Day earlier?

Adopted in January 1933, it shortened the lame-duck period; FDR's first term was 43 days shorter as a result.

Where was the first presidential inauguration held in 1789?

He took the oath on the balcony on April 30, the only scheduled inauguration ever held outside January or March.

Who administered the first presidential oath in 1789?

Livingston was Chancellor of New York; the Supreme Court did not yet exist, and a chief justice has sworn in every president since 1797.

Which part of the inauguration is the only one required by the Constitution?

Article II prescribes the 35 words; everything else, from the Bible to the balls, is tradition.

Which president delivered the longest inaugural address, 8,445 words, in 1841?

He spoke without an overcoat or hat on a cold day and died 31 days later, though his pneumonia did not begin until three weeks after the speech.

Who gave the shortest inaugural address on record, just 135 words, in 1793?

His first address in 1789 had started the tradition; his second barely filled a paragraph.

Whose 1797 inaugural address contained the longest sentence, 737 words?

The whole speech ran 2,308 words, so nearly a third of it was one sentence.

Since whose 1981 inauguration has the ceremony been held on the Capitol's west front?

The move cut costs and made room for more spectators facing the National Mall; 35 prior ceremonies had used the east front.

What happened in Iran while Reagan was giving his first inaugural address in 1981?

After 444 days in captivity, the hostages' plane left Iranian airspace while Reagan was at the congressional luncheon.

Why was Reagan's 1985 public inauguration moved indoors?

Daytime temperatures were about 7 °F with wind chills near −25 °F; the parade was canceled too.

Whose 1909 inauguration was moved into the Senate Chamber because of a blizzard?

It was the first of three indoor ceremonies forced by weather, followed by 1985 and 2025.

Where was Donald Trump's 2025 inauguration held because of freezing temperatures and high winds?

The Rotunda seats only about 600; the parade was moved to Capital One Arena.

Lyndon B. Johnson took the oath of office in 1963 where?

The plane sat at Dallas Love Field; takeoff was delayed until he was sworn in, with Jacqueline Kennedy at his side.

Which president was sworn in by his own father, a notary public, by kerosene lamp in 1923?

It happened at 2:47 a.m. in the family parlor in Plymouth Notch, Vermont, after Harding's death; he repeated the oath before a judge weeks later.

Gerald Ford's 1974 swearing-in was the first unscheduled inauguration caused by what?

The previous eight intra-term ceremonies all followed a president's death; Ford took the oath in the White House East Room.

How many times has a president been sworn in mid-term after a predecessor died or quit?

Eight followed deaths in office and one followed Nixon's resignation; Ford remains the most recent.

Which poet read at the 1961 Kennedy inauguration, the first ever to do so?

Blinded by sun glare on fresh snow, the 86-year-old abandoned his new poem and recited "The Gift Outright" from memory.

Who recited "On the Pulse of Morning" at Bill Clinton's first inauguration in 1993?

She wrote it specifically for the day; Fleetwood Mac reunited to play "Don't Stop" at the celebrations.

Who, at 22, became the youngest inaugural poet with "The Hill We Climb" in 2021?

The National Youth Poet Laureate followed Garth Brooks singing "Amazing Grace" and Lady Gaga's national anthem.

Which poet read "Praise Song for the Day" at Barack Obama's 2009 inauguration?

Richard Blanco read "One Today" at Obama's second inauguration in 2013.

What song does the Marine Band play immediately after the presidential oath?

It follows four "ruffles and flourishes" while a 21-gun salute is fired; the vice president gets "Hail, Columbia" instead.

How many guns are fired in the salute after the presidential oath?

The 3rd Infantry Regiment, "The Old Guard", fires from Taft Park north of the Capitol and times the salute to outlast the music.

Barack Obama took his 2009 and 2013 oaths with his hand on which historic book?

The Bible used at Lincoln's 1861 inauguration was also used by Donald Trump in 2017.

Which president affirmed, rather than swore, the oath of office in 1853?

The Constitution allows "swear (or affirm)"; John Quincy Adams and Theodore Roosevelt both took the oath without a Bible.

What book was used for Lyndon B. Johnson's 1963 swearing-in aboard the plane?

It was found in Kennedy's cabin; Judge Sarah T. Hughes administered the oath.

Why did Chief Justice Roberts re-administer the oath to Barack Obama the day after the 2009 ceremony?

Roberts misplaced the word "faithfully" and Obama repeated it; a memo on Roberts's planned pauses never reached Obama's staff.

Which president started the tradition of reviewing the inaugural parade from a stand at the White House in 1881?

The parade runs 1.5 miles down Pennsylvania Avenue with military and civilian units from all 50 states.

Which president had to escape his own 1829 White House reception through a window?

Some 20,000 people created such a crush after his first inaugural parade that the public receptions later had to be scaled back.

Who in 1977 became the first president to walk more than a mile of the parade route to the White House?

Successors have kept the walk as a gesture, if rarely for the full distance.

Whose 1953 inaugural parade featured three elephants, an Alaskan dog team and an atomic cannon?

About 22,000 service members and 5,000 civilians marched with 65 musical units and 350 horses.

Why was there no inaugural parade for Franklin D. Roosevelt's fourth inauguration in 1945?

The World War II ceremony was simple and austere with no fanfare; the only other 20th-century parade canceled was Reagan's in 1985.

The first inaugural ball was held in 1809 for which president?

Tickets cost $4 and the party was held at Long's Hotel in Washington.

Which was the first inauguration to be televised, in 1949?

Kennedy's in 1961 was the first in color, and Clinton's second in 1997 the first streamed live online.

Which 1925 inauguration was the first broadcast nationally on radio?

Hoover's 1929 ceremony was the first captured by a talking newsreel.

Which 1857 inauguration was the first known to have been photographed?

Polk's 1845 ceremony had been the first covered by telegraph, and McKinley's 1897 the first recorded on film.

Which outgoing president left Washington rather than attend Thomas Jefferson's 1801 inauguration?

His son John Quincy Adams did the same thing in 1829, skipping Andrew Jackson's swearing-in.

Which famous line opened the body of FDR's first inaugural address in 1933?

The 1,883-word speech was heard by tens of millions on radio at the depth of the Great Depression.

Who was the last president to wear a top hat to his inaugural ceremony?

He disliked hats but followed the custom in 1961; his was also the last inauguration with a fully formal dress code.

Which former president was kept from Kennedy's 1961 inauguration by the snowstorm?

Eight inches of snow fell overnight; 1,700 Boy Scouts helped clear the streets so the parade could go ahead.

Before Trump in 2025, who was the only former president re-inaugurated after leaving office?

Cleveland's non-consecutive second inauguration came in 1893, four years after he lost to Benjamin Harrison.

Inaugurations in 1793 and 1797 were held in which city, then the nation's capital?

Both took place at Congress Hall; the ceremony moved to the new Capitol in Washington with Jefferson in 1801.

Which president was sworn in secretly on March 3, 1877, raising talk of two presidents at once?

March 4 fell on a Sunday and the disputed Compromise of 1877 made officials nervous, so he took the oath a day early.

Since 1953, what event follows the swearing-in at the Capitol's Statuary Hall?

By tradition the outgoing president does not attend; the 2021 luncheon was canceled because of COVID-19.

Which president hired sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens to design an artistic inaugural medal in 1905?

An admirer of ancient Greek coins, he found the previous medal unacceptable; the sculptor's perfectionism delayed the release.

The interfaith prayer service held the morning after the inauguration takes place where?

The modern tradition began in 1933 after FDR's first inauguration; attendance is by invitation only.

What was the inaugural theme of Barack Obama's 2009 ceremony, a phrase from the Gettysburg Address?

It marked the 200th anniversary of Lincoln's birth; Obama even retraced Lincoln's train route from Philadelphia to Washington.

Which vice president was sworn in by Speaker Tip O'Neill rather than a justice in 1977?

Unlike the president's oath, the vice president's has no constitutionally fixed words and may be given by various officials.

Joe Biden's 2021 inauguration made him the first president from which state?

He was also only the second Catholic president, after John F. Kennedy.