On Monday, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts will swear in Donald Trump as this country’s 47th president at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.
The inauguration of a new (or returning) president — and the peaceful transition of power — is an amazing occurrence that we often take for granted in this country.
In honor of the event, we thought we’d share some facts we found from the Library of Congress, the White House Historical Association and Architect of the Capitol. Use these historical tidbits to amaze and impress your friends.
• George Washington had to travel from his home at Mount Vernon to his April 30, 1789, inaugural ceremony at Federal Hall in New York City, then the temporary capital of the United States.
• Washington set many precedents during this first presidential inauguration. The ceremony took place outside, the oath was taken upon a Bible, an inaugural address was given and festivities accompanied the inauguration, including a church service, parade and fireworks.
• Thomas Jefferson, the country’s third president, was the first to be inaugurated in Washington, D.C. The ceremony took place March 4, 1801, in the Senate wing of the non-yet-finished Capitol building.
• The first inaugural ball was held in 1809 at Long’s Hotel to honor President James Madison.
• The crowd was raucous at Andrew Jackson’s first inaugural reception in 1829, breaking windows, tearing down curtains and standing on the furniture in muddy boots. Servants dragged tubs of punch onto the lawn to draw the unruly mob out of the White House.
• William Henry Harrison, who served the shortest presidential term, gave the longest inaugural address on March 4, 1841. One month later, he became the first president to die in office on April 4, 1841.
• After a controversial election in 1876 in which an Electoral Commission granted Rutherford Hayes the victory, Hayes took the oath of office in secret in the Red Room at the White House on March 3, 1877, because Republicans feared for his life. He took the oath again on March 5 on the east portico of the Capitol.
• More than 7,000 people attended James Garfield’s inauguration on March 4, 1881. The inaugural ball was held at the Smithsonian Institute’s new National Museum Building (now the Arts and Industries Building).
• At his March 4, 1905 inauguration, Theodore Roosevelt was accompanied in the procession by a contingent of Rough Riders who had charged San Juan Hill with him eight years earlier.
• Calvin Coolidge was sworn in by his father, a notary public, on Aug. 3, 1923, at his family’s Vermont farm after learning by courier that President Warren Harding had died in office. The ceremony was conducted by kerosene lamp, as the farm had not electricity.
• Coolidge’s second inauguration in 1925 was the first to be broadcast nationally by radio. President Harry Truman’s in 1949 was the first to be televised.
• President Franklin Roosevelt, the only U.S. president to be elected to four terms in office, was inaugurated for the first time March 4, 1933. His second inauguration was the first to take place in January, after the 20th Amendment moved the day to Jan. 20.
• Democrat John F. Kennedy, the first Catholic to be elected as the country’s leader, was inaugurated Jan. 20, 1961. It was the first time a poet (Robert Frost) participated in the official ceremonies at the Capitol.
• Lyndon Johnson was sworn in as president on Air Force One after Kennedy’s assassination on Nov. 22, 1963.
• Ronald Reagan had both the coldest and warmest weather at his inaugurations. The temperature was 55 degree at his first inauguration on Jan. 20, 1981, and 7 degrees on Jan. 21,
• President George H.W. Bush was the first former president to be present at the inauguration of his son when George W. Bush was sworn in Jan. 20, 2001.
• Former President Donald Trump will again attend a private prayer service with his family before his inauguration at St. John’s Episcopal Church, which has hosted similar events before the swearings-in of FDR, Harry Truman, Reagan, both Bushes and Barack Obama.
• Trump will be the second president to serve nonconsecutive terms. The first was Democrat Grover Cleveland, the 22nd and 24th president, who served from 1885-89 and 1893-97.
