Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Inauguration Day 2009

Some random information for you:

Where to watch the Inauguration:

General inauguration information from, where else, Wikipedia.

Miscellaneous stuff:
  • Thomas Jefferson was the only president to walk to and from the inaugural, and the first to be inaugurated at the Capitol. (1801)
  • The first inaugural ball was held for James Madison. (1809)
  • Abraham Lincoln was the first to include African-Americans in his parade. (1865)
  • Women were included for the first time in Woodrow Wilson's second inaugural parade. (1917)
  • The first president to ride in a car at his inauguration was Warren Harding. (1921)
  • Calvin Coolidge's inauguration was the first broadcast on radio. (1925)
  • The first poet to participate in an official inauguration ceremony was Robert Frost. (Kennedy's, 1961)
  • Lyndon Johnson remains the only president to be sworn in by a woman, U.S. District Judge Sarah Hughes. (1963)
  • Barack Obama will be our 44th president and his inauguration will be the 56th formal one. Fifteen presidents were elected to a second term, and Roosevelt was elected to a fourth term. (2009)

Most Memorable Inaugural Addresses and Quotations:
  • George Washington’s first Inaugural Address, April 30, 1789, put the new nation in world historical context: “the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered, perhaps, as deeply, as finally, staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.
  • Thomas Jefferson’s first Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801. After a bitter election that resulted in the first transfer of power from one party to another, he tried to unify the young nation, exclaiming, “We are all Federalists; we are all Republicans.
  • Abraham Lincoln’s second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865, during the closing days of the Civil War, called for “malice toward none,” and “charity for all.”
  • Franklin Roosevelt’s first Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933, during the depths of the Great Depression, proclaimed, “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
  • John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961, challenged fellow citizens: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”
  • Ronald Reagan’s first Inaugural Address, January 20, 1981, pressed a new idea to reverse the growth of big government: “In the present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem.”

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