Twelve Things You Probably Do Not Know About Presidential Inaugurations

Donald Trump will take the oath of office at noon Monday on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol. When he does so, he will become just the second president, after Grover Cleveland, to serve two non-consecutive terms as president. 

Although political divisions in the United States continue to run deep, the passions surrounding the nation’s sixtieth presidential inauguration will be cooler than in January 2021 when the transition took place in the shadow of the January 6 insurrection. Unlike Trump four years ago, President Joe Biden will follow the example set by all but five of his predecessors and attend his successor’s swearing-in ceremony. All of America’s living former presidents will attend the ceremony as well.  

The flags at the U.S. Capitol will fly at full-staff on Inauguration Day. They were set to fly at half-staff through the end of this month to honor the passing of former President Jimmy Carter, who died on December 29. Trump complained about the optics of having the flag fly at half-staff during his swearing in, saying: “Nobody wants to see this, and no American can be happy about it.” The Biden administration declined to waive the tradition of flying the flag at half-staff for thirty days after the death of a former president. But in a reflection of the separation of powers, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, not Biden, determines the practices that the Capitol observes. Flags at the Capitol will return to half-staff on Tuesday. 

The security in Washington on Inauguration Day will be tight. Much of downtown will be closed to vehicles, and more than 11,000 police and National Guard troops will be deployed around the city to keep order. The Inauguration Day parade will go on, however, after being virtual four years ago. So as we get set to mark one of the hallmarks of democracy—the peaceful transition of power—here are twelve lesser-known facts about presidential inaugurations. 

1.  Donald Trump will be sworn in as the forty-seventh U.S. president, but he will be only the fortieth person to give an inaugural address. John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Chester Arthur, and Gerald Ford were all vice presidents who ascended to the presidency after a president’s death or resignation. They never won an election on their own, so they never gave an inaugural address. Grover Cleveland held two nonconsecutive terms as president, and as a result, he is counted as the twenty-second and twenty-fourth president of the United States. Trump will be the forty-fifth and forty-seventh president for the same reason. 

2.  All but two elected presidents took the oath of office in Washington, DC. Washington did not become the nation’s capital until 1800, just before Thomas Jefferson was sworn in as the third president. George Washington took the oath of office for his first term in 1789 in Federal Hall in New York City, which at the time was the capital of the United States. The capital moved to Philadelphia the next year, so Washington was sworn into office for his second term in 1793 in the Senate Chamber of Congress Hall in the City of Brotherly Love. John Adams was sworn in as president in 1797 in the House Chamber in Congress Hall in Philadelphia. Every elected president since has taken the oath of office in Washington. (Four vice presidents took the oath of office outside of Washington after the death of the sitting president.) 

3.  The presidential oath of office is written into the U.S. Constitution. Article II, Section I of the Constitution stipulates: “Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation:—'I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.’” Even though the oath is only thirty-five words long, presidents and chief justices can get it wrong. Just ask Barack Obama and John Roberts. 

4.  One person has both taken the presidential oath of office and administered it. William Howard Taft was sworn in as America’s twenty-seventh president on March 4, 1909. A dozen years later he became the tenth chief justice of the Supreme Court. During his nine-year stint as chief justice, he issued the oath of office to Calvin Coolidge (1925) and Herbert Hoover (1929). Taft holds two other distinctions. He was America’s heaviest president, tipping the scales at more than 300 pounds. He was also the last president to sport facial hair, in his case, a handlebar moustache. 

5. Supreme Court Justice John Roberts will be administering the presidential oath of office for the fifth time. That is an impressive accomplishment. However, it is well short of the record. Chief Justice John Marshall, the longest serving chief justice in U.S. history, administered the presidential oath of office nine times. The first was to Thomas Jefferson in 1801. The last was to Andrew Jackson as he began his second term in 1833. Nothing in the U.S. Constitution requires that the chief justice swear in a president. Indeed, the Supreme Court did not exist when George Washington first took office. Marshall established a practice that has since become a tradition.  

6.  More presidents have been inaugurated in March than in January. Thirty-seven inaugurations have been held in March. Trump’s inauguration, twenty-three will have been held in January. Until 1937, presidents were inaugurated on March 4. (The public inaugural ceremonies were generally moved to March 5 when Inauguration Day fell on a Sunday.) The Twentieth Amendment moved Inauguration Day to January 20. (The public ceremony can be moved to January 21 when Inauguration Day falls on a Sunday, as happened with Ronald Reagan’s second inaugural in 1985). FDR’s second inauguration was the first to be held on January 20. The only elected president not to be inaugurated in either January or March was George Washington. His first inaugural took place on April 30, 1789. 

7.  John F. Kennedy was the last president to wear a top hat to his inauguration. Wearing top hats to the inauguration ceremony used to be tradition. Presidents from Franklin Pierce through Harry Truman donned them. Dwight Eisenhower broke the trend by opting for the less formal homburg. JFK went back to the stovepipe hat for his inauguration, though he took it off while he swore his oath of office and gave his inaugural address. No president since has donned a top hat on Inauguration Day. Trump isn’t likely to break that streak. 

8.  Lyndon B. Johnson was the first president to ask his wife to hold the Bible while he took the oath of office. Before LBJ, the executive secretary of the Joint Congressional Inaugural Committee traditionally held the Bible while the president swore his oath. Johnson asked his wife, Lady Bird Johnson, to do it. Every president since has followed suit. Melania Trump is expected to hold the bible when Trump is sworn in, as she did eight years ago. 

9.  The inauguration of James Buchanan on March 4, 1857, is the first one known to have been photographed. Other technological firsts for presidential inaugurations include the first to be filmed (William McKinley in 1897), the first to use loudspeakers (Warren Harding in 1921), the first broadcast on radio (Calvin Coolidge in 1925), the first broadcast on television (Harry Truman in 1949), the first broadcast in color (John F. Kennedy in 1961), and the first delivered over the internet (Bill Clinton in 1997). 

10.  The coldest Inauguration Day was Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration. The temperature at noontime in Washington on January 21, 1985, was 7 degrees—or 62 degrees colder than on the day of Reagan’s first inauguration. It was so cold that Reagan took the oath of office indoors at the U.S. Capitol—he had already taken the oath of office in a small, private ceremony at the White House the day before—and the traditional inaugural parade was canceled. Trump’s second inauguration will be warmer than Reagan’s, but it will not be warm. The forecast for Washington next Monday is mostly sunny and windy, with a high in the mid-twenties. Bundle up if you plan to attend the ceremony and the parade in person. 

11. This year’s inauguration will be just the second to fall on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Congress in 1983 decreed that the third Monday in January would be a federal holiday to honor civil rights leader Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Over the intervening four decades, Inauguration Day and Martin Luther King Jr. Day have coincided just once. That was in 1997 when Bill Clinton was inaugurated for his second term. Inauguration Day will next fall on Martin Luther King Jr. Day on January 20, 2053. 

12.  The shortest inaugural address was a lot shorter than this blog post. George Washington’s second inaugural address ran just 135 words—or about the length of two recitations of the Lord’s Prayer. This post, by comparison, runs 1,504 words. 

Oscar Berry assisted in the preparation of this post.