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Inaugural trivia Whose inauguration was the first in D.C.? Whose inauguration had frozen canaries? Whose was the first to have a poet? Find out these facts and others about presidential inaugurations over the years.
March 4, 1793
At just 135 words, George Washington's second inaugural address was the shortest in history.
Ferris, Jean Leon Gerome
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THE FOUNDATION PRESS/LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
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March 4, 1801
Thomas Jefferson was the first president to be inaugurated in Washington, D.C. Jefferson walked to and from the ceremony, rather than riding in a carriage as Adams and Washington did.
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
The Marine Band first performed at an inauguration when they played at Thomas Jefferson's inaugural ceremony, as they have at every inauguration since. Here, the Marine Band can be seen in the center of the lowest deck at Obama's inauguration on Jan. 20, 2009.
Jonathan Newton
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THE WASHINGTON POST
March 4, 1829
Andrew Jackson was the first president to be sworn in on the east front portico of the U.S. Capitol.
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
The presidential campaign of 1828 was extremely ugly. Andrew Jackson placed blame for the death of his wife, Rachel Donelson Jackson, on political attacks by John Quincy Adams and his allies. Adams did not attend Jackson's inauguration.
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AP
April 6, 1841
John Tyler was the first vice president to ascend to the presidency upon the death of his predecessor.
Anonymous
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
1845
James K. Polk's inauguration was the first covered by telegraph. This picture appeared in the Illustrated London News, which was the first newspaper known to feature an illustration of the inauguration.
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PRINTS AND PHOTOGRAPHS DIVISION
Martin Van Buren was the first president who was not born a British subject. His inauguration on March 4, 1837, was also the first time the president and the president-elect rode together to the Capitol for the ceremony.
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AP
March 4, 1857
James Buchanan's inauguration is believed to be the first to ever be photographed. The ceremony took place at the Capitol, which was still under construction in 1857. The stone yard in the foreground was covered with boards to provide a platform for the crowd.
John Wood
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
March 4, 1861
Abraham Lincoln's first inauguration in 1861 featured an unprecedented level of security because of heightened tensions on the eve of the Civil War. His procession to the Capitol was surrounded by heavily armed cavalry and infantry.
Illus. in: Harper's weekly
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
March 4, 1873
Ulysses S. Grant's second inauguration was the coldest of those held in March. The temperature at noon was 16 degrees. About 100 canaries that were brought in to enliven the festivities with song instead froze to death.
Anonymous
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AP
1897
William McKinley's inauguration was the first to be recorded by a motion picture camera. Here, Chief Justice Melville Weston Fuller administers the oath of office to McKinley as outgoing President Grover Cleveland looks on.
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Warren G. Harding became the first president to ride to and from the inauguration ceremony in an automobile on March 4, 1921. Here, outgoing President Woodrow Wilson rides with the president-elect on the way to Harding's swearing-in.
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AP
President Calvin Coolidge's inauguration on March 4, 1925, was the first to be nationally broadcast on radio. Coolidge, left, is shown en route to taking the oath of office. It would also be his third time for receiving the oath, because the ceremony was done twice when he first became president in 1923. His father, who was a justice of the peace, swore him in at the family's farmhouse in Vermont, hours after Harding's death. Amid concerns about its validity, Coolidge took the oath again before a judge in Washington.
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Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first to take the oath of office on Jan. 20. The date had been moved from March by a constitutional amendment to shorten the lame duck period between the election and the inauguration. Here, military units splash in the pouring rain during the inaugural parade on Jan. 20, 1937.
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President Dwight Eisenhower presided over the longest inaugural parade on record at his first inauguration in 1953. The procession lasted four hours and 39 minutes. Here, Eisenhower, center, gets a kick out of being lassoed by Monte Montana, dressed in cowboy style, as he reviews the parade from presidential stand in front of the White House on Jan. 20, 1953.
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AP
President Harry S. Truman's inauguration on Jan. 20, 1949, was the first to be televised.
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Robert Frost became the first inaugural poet when he recited at President John F. Kennedy's inauguration in 1961. Here, Kennedy and Frost chat in the green room of the White House under a portrait of John Quincy Adams.
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Frost penned a new poetic preface to a poem he wrote in 1930. But at the podium, he said he had trouble reading the preface he had written for the occasion and instead recited the poem, "The Gift Outright," changing a word in the last line to fit the event. Instead of saying, "Such as she was, such as she would become," Frost recited: "Such as she was, such as she will become." The picture shows a detail of the handwritten preface, "Dedication."
STEVEN SENNE
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Nov. 22, 1963
Lyndon Baines Johnson's hasty swearing-in was the first (and only) time the ceremony has occurred on an airplane. Johnson's swearing-in also marked the first time a woman administered the oath of office. Johnson took the oath of office on Nov. 22, 1963, hours after President John F. Kennedy's assassination in Dallas. U.S. District Court Judge Sarah T. Hughes administered the oath to Johnson on Air Force One.
CECIL STOUGHTON
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AP
Lady Bird Johnson became the first presidential wife to participate in inaugural ceremonies when she held a family Bible for her husband, Lyndon Baines Johnson, as he swore the oath of office. Here, she stands between Chief Justice Earl Warren and Johnson during his inauguration on Jan. 20, 1965. The wives of all Johnson's successors have taken part in the oath-taking ceremony.
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Jan. 20, 1965
Lyndon Baines Johnson became the first president to ride in a bulletproof limousine at his inauguration on Jan. 20, 1965.
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Jan. 20, 1977
President Jimmy Carter became the first president to walk the parade route from the Capitol to the White House when he stepped from his bulletproof limousine with his wife, Rosalynn.
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AP
Gerald R. Ford became the first unelected vice president to become president when he succeeded Richard M. Nixon, who was the first president in U.S. history to resign. Ford took the oath of office on Aug. 9, 1974, after Nixon resigned because of his role in the Watergate scandal. Here, Gerald and Betty Ford say goodbye to Richard and Pat Nixon as they leave the White House.
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AP
Jan. 20, 1981
The inauguration ceremonies were moved to a platform on the west front of the Capitol for the first time when President Ronald W. Reagan took the oath of office beginning his first term in January 1981. Since then, the oath-taking has been on the steps of the western side of the Capitol for every inauguration but one -- Reagan's second, when bitter cold forced the ceremony indoors.
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AP
President Bill Clinton's inaugural ceremony on Jan. 20, 1997, was the first to be broadcast on the Internet. Here, Clinton reaches for wife Hillary's hand after being sworn in for his second term.
WILFREDO LEE
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Jan. 20, 2009
Barack Obama became the first African American president when he took the oath of office on Jan. 20, 2009. Obama's inauguration also marked the first time a woman, Sen. Diane Feinstein, acted as emcee. The event also drew the largest crowd of any inauguration. In addition, Obama became the first Hawaiian-born citizen to become president.
Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post
Jan. 20, 2009
President Obama and first lady Michelle take a turn on the dance floor after his 2009 inauguration. Obama continued the tradition started by President George W. Bush of holding the Commander-in-Chief Ball in honor of military personnel. Obama also honored slain civil rights leader the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. with the first National Day of Service as part of the festivities.
Richard A. Lipski
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THE WASHINGTON POST
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