Facts About Inaugurations

Looking for some added facts about Inaugurations? We've got plenty!

• How often have we had a president refuse to attend his successor's inauguration? Four times. The nation's second president, John Adams, was on his way home to Quincy, Massachusetts when Thomas Jefferson took the oath of office in 1801. While no one knew why, the rumor was that Adams simply hadn’t been invited. In 1829, when Andrew Jackson became our seventh president, John Quincy Adams was in town, but their bitter rivalry saw him sitting the ceremonies out. Martin Van Buren wasn’t present for the 1841 inauguration of William Henry Harrison– no reason has ever been established. The last time it happened on purpose was in 1869. While Ulysses Grant took office, outgoing President Andrew Johnson spent his final moments in office signing final bills and holding a cabinet meeting. In 1921, however, Woodrow Wilson remained inside the Capitol Building during the inauguration of Warren G. Harding due to poor health.
• Washington’s first inauguration required some improv. He arrived in New York City on April 30, 1789, with much fanfare, and then a large crowd gathered in what turned out to be a parade. When Washington arrived at Federal Hall, someone realized they forgot the Bible and obtained one from a nearby Masonic Lodge. Washington also started the inaugural address tradition. His speech, just135 words.
• The longest inaugural address? It was given by William Henry Harrison in 1841. The day of the inauguration was overcast with cold wind and a noon temperature estimated to be 48-degrees, but the president-elect chose to not wear an overcoat, hat, or gloves for the ceremony. He spoke for about 90-minutes, delivering the longest inaugural address to date, at 8,445 words. He also died a month later of pneumonia.
• Today, we know January 20th as Inauguration Day, but following Washington’s first inauguration, the Continental Congress declared March 4th 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, for his second inauguration on January 20, 1937.
• Zachary Taylor refused to be inaugurated on a Sunday. In 1849, President Taylor refused to be sworn in on a Sunday, because he was very strict about "keeping holy the Sabbath.”
• When Andrew Johnson was inaugurated as vice president in 1865, he wasn't sober. He had been very ill from typhoid fever and drank whiskey to try to numb the aches and pains...but he overdid it and ended up slurring his way through his oaths. Then he tried to swear in the new senators, but got too confused and had to let a Senate clerk complete his duties.
• Today? Joe Biden will be Sworn in with a 127-year-old family Bible. Biden has used the family Bible for every swearing-in ceremony since he was first elected to the United States Senate in 1973.
• Nearly every president has taken their oath with one hand on a Bible—though, technically, there is no requirement for them to use a religious text. Some of Washington’s successors - like Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and George H. W. Bush- used their own Bibles, while others picked Bibles that once belonged to other prominent presidents. Barack Obama chose the Lincoln Bible for his 2009 inauguration, making him the first to do so since it was initially used in 1861.

Inauguration Day Falls On Palindrome Date For First Time- Today ushers in a week of palindrome dates. Those are dates that can be read the same backwards and forwards in the system used in the U.S. It's 1-20-21, and a week later it'll be 1-29-21. It will be the first Inauguration Day in U.S. history that falls on a palindrome date. The next series of these dates will start December 1st. There are only two years where this can happen in a century, those ending in 11 and 21. There are 19 five-digit palindromes this year, plus two six-digit ones.

And here are some more Inauguration Facts from Infoplease.com:

• George Washington's was the shortest inaugural address at 135 words. (1793)
• Thomas Jefferson was the only president to walk to and from his inaugural. He was also the first to be inaugurated at the Capitol. (1801)
• The first inaugural ball was held for James Madison. (1809)
• John Quincy Adams was the first president sworn in wearing long trousers. (1825)
• Franklin Pierce was the first president to affirm rather than swear the oath of office (1853). Herbert Hoover followed suit in 1929.
• William H. Harrison's was the longest inaugural address at 8,445 words. (1841)
• The first inauguration to be photographed was James Buchanan's. (1857)
• Abraham Lincoln was the first to include African-Americans in his parade. (1865)
• James Garfield's mother was the first to attend her son's inauguration. (1881)
• William McKinley's inauguration was the first ceremony to be recorded by a motion picture camera. (1897)
• William Taft's wife was the first one to accompany her husband in the procession from the Capitol to the White House. (1909)
• Women were included for the first time in Woodrow Wilson's second inaugural parade. (1917)
• Warren G. Harding was the first president to ride to and from his inaugural in an automobile. (1921)
• Harry Truman's was the first to be televised. (1949)
• Lyndon Johnson was the first (and so far) only president to be sworn in by a woman, U.S. District Judge Sarah T. Hughes. (1963)
• Jimmy Carter's inaugural parade featured solar heat for the reviewing stand and handicap-accessible viewing. (1977)
• Ronald Reagan's second inaugural had to compete with Super Bowl Sunday. (1985)
• The first ceremony broadcast on the Internet was Bill Clinton's second inauguration. (1997)

Calvin Coolidge's oath in 1925 was administered by Chief Justice (and ex-president) William Taft. It was also the first inaugural address broadcast on the radio. Coolidge was sworn in by his father, a notary public, when he assumed the presidency in 1923 after Warren Harding's death. It was the first time a president was sworn in by his father.

John Kennedy's inauguration had Robert Frost as the first poet to participate in the official ceremony. (1961) The only other President to feature poets was Bill Clinton.Maya Angelou read at his 1993 inaugural, and Miller Williams read at his second, in 1997. (1961)

On the second day of his presidency, Barack Obama was sworn in a second time by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. because, following Roberts's lead, Obama improperly recited the oath. He said, "I will execute the office of president to the United States faithfully." The word "faithfully" belongs between "will" and "execute." (2009)

All but six presidents took the presidential oath in Washington, DC. The exceptions were:

• George Washington -- 1789, New York City; 1793, Philadelphia
• John Adams -- 1797, Philadelphia
• Chester Alan Arthur -- 1881, New York City
• Theodore Roosevelt -- 1901, Buffalo
• Calvin Coolidge -- 1923, Plymouth, Vt.
• Lyndon Baines Johnson -- 1963, Dallas

When Washington and Adams were sworn in, the U.S. capital had not yet been transferred from Philadelphia to Washington, DC (the latter became the seat of government beginning Dec. 1, 1800). Arthur, T. Roosevelt, Coolidge, and L. B. Johnson had all been vice-presidents who assumed the presidency upon the deaths of their predecessors, and none was in Washington, D.C., when the oath of office was administered.