U.S. Inauguration Day – January 20, 2009

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(Photo by Karen Ballard)

Inauguration Trivia

1801: First inaugural speech to be reported in full
in a newspaper is Thomas Jefferson's. An extra edition of the National
Intelligencer is printed minutes after the speech ends.

1829: Andrew Jackson, "the People's President,"
holds an open house. About 20,000 people trample mud and horse manure
into the White House, destroy rugs, break satin-covered chairs, smash
crystal and china, and spill liquor. Fights break out, women faint and
Jackson has to escape through a window. Order is restored when barrels
of whiskey are placed on the South Lawn, drawing the crowd outside.

1837: Martin Van Buren is the first president to be
born an American citizen and the first to share a carriage to the
Capitol with the outgoing president (Jackson).

1841: William Henry Harrison is the first president
to arrive in Washington for the inauguration by railroad. It is a
freezing, windy day and he delivers a long and windy speech. Harrison
develops pneumonia and dies one month into his term.

1845: James K. Polk's inauguration is the first to be reported by telegraph.

1873: Ulysses S. Grant's inauguration is so cold -
a low of 4 degrees and a high of 16 – that trumpet valves freeze and
violin strings snap. One hundred and fifty canaries, whose chirping was
to amuse guests, freeze to death in their cages.

1897: William McKinley's inauguration is the first to be filmed and recorded with sound.

1901: After McKinley is shot by anarchist Leon
Czolgosz, Theodore Roosevelt is administered the oath in Buffalo, N.Y.,
at a friend's home. Roosevelt does not swear on the Bible or on any
other book, making him unique among presidents.

1909: Nellie Taft is the first first lady to ride to the Capitol with her husband, William Howard Taft.

1913: West Point cadet and future President Dwight D. Eisenhower marches at Woodrow Wilson's inauguration.

1917: For the first time, women march in an inaugural parade at Wilson's second inauguration.

1921: Warren G. Harding is the first to ride to and
from his inaugural in an automobile. His is also the first speech to be
broadcast over loudspeakers.

1925: Calvin Coolidge's ceremony is the first broadcast nationally by radio.

1929: Herbert Hoover's inauguration is the first to be recorded for a newsreel "talkie."

1933: Franklin D. Roosevelt is the first president
to be inaugurated on Jan. 20, moved from March by the 20th amendment to
the Constitution.

1941: FDR becomes the first – and only – president to take the oath of office for a third term.

1945: FDR is the first and only president to be inaugurated for a fourth term.

1953: Longest inaugural parade, lasting four hours
and 39 nine minutes is for Eisenhower, who allowed himself to be
lassoed by cowboy Monte Montana, to the consternation of the Secret
Service, which had not been alerted.

1961: John F. Kennedy is the first Catholic to take
the oath, the first to have both parents in attendance, the first to
have a poet, Robert Frost, participate in the official ceremonies, the
first to have Army flamethrowers clear the snow from Pennsylvania
Avenue and the last to wear a traditional stovepipe hat to the
inauguration. Frost concludes his reading by dedicating the poem to
President-elect "John Finley."

1963: Vice President Lyndon Johnson is sworn in
aboard Air Force One after Kennedy is killed in Dallas. Federal
District Judge Sarah Hughes is the only woman ever to swear in a
president.

1974: Gerald Ford becomes the only person to succeed to the presidency without having been elected either president or vice president.

1981: At the formal inaugural luncheon, President
Ronald Reagan announces that the 52 hostages held by Iranian
revolutionaries for 444 days have been freed. He asks his predecessor,
Jimmy Carter, to be the first to greet them.

1985: Super Bowl XIX falls on the same day as the
private ceremony for Reagan's second inauguration, the public ceremony
to take place the next day. Reagan takes the private oath then
officiates the game's coin toss on television. San Francisco beats
Miami 38-16.

1993: Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton attend
services at the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, the
first time the traditional inaugural morning prayer service is held at
a predominantly black church.

(This article appeared on page A – 7 of the San Francisco Chronicle)