Last year at this time, we were inaugurating a new President \u2014 something we\u2019ve done every four year since our nation was founded, and \u2014 hopefully \u2014 something we\u2019ll continue to do forever.
This isn\u2019t an inauguration year, but I think it\u2019s something we should all be proud of and there\u2019s a lot of interesting stories about the process and the event itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We think of January 20 as Inauguration Day, but that hasn\u2019t alway been the case. Following Washington\u2019s first inauguration, the Continental Congress declared March 4 as Inauguration Day. That date remained in place until the ratification of the 20th Amendment in 1933. Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first president inaugurated on the new date \u2014 for his second inauguration on January 20, 1937.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Several presidents have been inaugurated in places other than Washington, D.C., George Washington is the only president to have been inaugurated in two separate cities. On April 30, 1789, Washington took the presidential oath on the balcony of New York City\u2019s Federal Hall. His second inauguration took place on March 4, 1793, at Congress Hall in Philadelphia, which was then the nation\u2019s capital. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
After Warren G. Harding died in office, Calvin Coolidge was sworn in by his notary public dad. They were at a farm in Vermont and had to conduct the whole thing by kerosene lamp at 2:47 a.m. on August 13, 1923. (The new President then supposedly went back to bed.)
Teddy Roosevelt assumed the role of president following the assassination of William McKinley. He was sworn in at the private home of Ansley Wilcox. Following the assassination of JFK, Lyndon Johnson took the oath of office on November 22, 1963 \u2014 while aboard Air Force One. (The oath was administered by Judge Sarah Hughes, who became the first woman to inaugurate a president.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
William Henry Harrison set the record for longest-ever speech with his 8445-word inaugural address. George Washington\u2019s was the shortest with 135 words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Franklin Pierce was inaugurated (March 4, 1853) he became the only president to \u201caffirm\u201d the office of the president rather \u201cswear\u201d it. At the time he was in the midst of a crisis of faith \u2014 still reeling from the death of his only son. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The first Inaugural Ball was held during the inauguration ceremonies of James Madison. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dolly Madison was the first First Lady to attend her husband\u2019s inauguration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
John Quincy Adams was the first to wear long pants at his inauguration. In previous years, knee breeches were the standard \u201cuniform\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zachary Taylor refused to be sworn in on a Sunday, because he was very strict about \u201ckeeping holy the Sabbath.\u201d The position of president couldn\u2019t be just left vacant until Monday, so the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, David Rice Aitchison, was brought in to fill the vacancy. It would seem that makes Aitchison the 12th president and Zachary Taylor the 13th, but apparently he doesn\u2019t count\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you look at old inauguration pictures, you\u2019ll see that the president-elect is almost always wearing a top hat. So apparently the top hat was part of the uniform of the day. It\u2019s not clear why, or when, this tradition started. Kennedy was the last president to sport a top hat at his inauguration. Lyndon Johnson apparently ended the tradition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Warren G. Harding was the first to travel to and from his inauguration in an automobile. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Harry Truman\u2019s second inauguration was the first-ever televised inaugural ceremony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Richard Nixon didn\u2019t want his inauguration (in 1973) to be marred by a bunch of annoying pigeons, so he requested that tree branches along the parade route be treated with a chemical called Roost No More, which would supposedly make the birds\u2019 feet itch so they wouldn\u2019t want to perch above the president\u2019s motorcade. The inaugural committee spent $13,000 to comply with Nixon\u2019s request. But \u2014 the pigeon didn\u2019t just sit on the branches, they wolfed down the Roost No More, which proved to be highly toxic to birds. So instead of dealing with the hassle of live pigeons in the trees, Nixon\u2019s parade was marred by dead and dying pigeons littering the route.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although George Washington owned a lot of land \u2014 more than 50,000 acres of it, in addition to Mount Vernon \u2014 he was considered \u201cland poor,\u201d meaning he didn\u2019t often have a lot of cash at his disposal. His bank account was so low he actually had to borrow money to travel to New York City for his first inauguration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So \u2014 hopefully my great-great-great grandkids will blog about interesting inauguration facts and stories when they\u2019re my age\u2026..
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Last year at this time, we were inaugurating a new President \u2014 something we\u2019ve done every four year since our nation was founded, and \u2014 hopefully \u2014 something we\u2019ll continue to do forever.This isn\u2019t an inauguration year, but I think … Continue reading