American Presidential Inauguration Facts You Never Knew

I know you really never cared before about the President of the United States Inauguration, until Barrack Obama. Who cares about the ceremony to swear in the new President of the world’s most powerful country? Oh, you care today because the guy being sworn in different. He is really one of the people, right?

You should always care friends! And you should know some facts about the ceremony that places the next leader of the Free World on the throne! Here we go then.

1. George Washington gave the shortest Inauguration speech in the history of Inaugurations in 1793. He was said to have spoke only 135 words. (This factoid is 27 words.)

2. In 1801 Thomas Jefferson was the first President Inaugurated at the Capitol in Washington, D.C.

3. Abraham Lincoln was the first President to include African-Americans in his Inaugural Parade in 1865.

4. In 1925 Calvin Coolidge was the first President to be sworn in at the Inauguration while being broadcast over the radio nationwide.

5. Harry S. Truman’s Presidential Inauguration was the first broadcast over television nationwide.

6. President Bill Clinton’s 2nd Inauguration was first to be broadcast over the Internet in 1997.

7. Lyndon Johnson is the only President sworn into office by a woman (U.S. District Judge Sarah Hughes in 1963).

8. Woodrow Wilson was the first President to include women in his Inauguration Parade in 1917.

9. John Quincy Adams was the first President sworn in while wearing long trousers in the 1825 Inauguration.

10. The first Presidential Inauguration to be photographed was that of James Buchanan in 1857.

11. William McKinley’s Inauguration was the first ceremony to be recorded by a motion picture camera in 1897.

12. President Jimmie Carter’s Inauguration included handicapped accessible viewing stands and solar heated stands in 1977.

13. Five Inaugurations or swearing ceremonies were held in cities other than Washington, D.C. [New York, Philadelphia, Dallas, Plymouth, Vt., and Buffalo].

14. Theodore Roosevelt was the only President sworn in at his Inauguration that did not place his hand on a Bible during the ceremony.

15. Until 1937 were inaugurated in March in an effort to avoid bad weather. The 20th Amendment changed the inaugural date to January 20th.