1 2
George Washington
Thursday, April 30, 1789
Washington took the oath of
office on Wall Street in New
York City.
Monday, March 4, 1793
Washington’s second oath of
office was taken in Philadelphia.
He gave the shortest inaugural
address ever—135 words.
12
Zachary Taylor
Monday, March 5, 1849
March 4 fell on a Sunday for the
second time in U.S. history. The
ceremony was moved to Monday.
Some people were concerned that
this left the country without a
president for 24 hours.
23
Benjamin Harrison
Monday, March 4, 1889
Harrison has been the only
grandson of a president to be
elected president.
34
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Tuesday, January 20, 1953
Eisenhower took his oath of office on
two Bibles; one was the Bible used by
George Washington and the other was one
Eisenhower received as a gift from his mother.
Monday, January 21, 1957
January 20 occurred on a Sunday, so the
president took the oath Sunday and Monday.
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3 4
John Adams
Saturday, March 4, 1797
John Adams became the second
president of the United States.
Thomas Jefferson became
Adam’s vice president because
he received the second greatest
number of votes.
13
Millard Fillmore
Tuesday, July 9, 1850
Fillmore assumed the presidency
after Taylor’s death, but was
never elected president.
24
Grover Cleveland
Saturday, March 4, 1893
The inaugural ball featured the
new invention of electric lights.
35
John F. Kennedy
Friday, January 20, 1961
Kennedy became the first Catholic
president.
Thomas Jefferson
Wednesday, March 4, 1801
Jefferson’s oath of office was the
first taken in Washington, D.C.
He rode on horseback from the
Capitol to the president’s house
launching the first inaugural
parade.
14
Franklin Pierce
Friday, March 4, 1853
Pierce was the first president who
chose “to affirm” rather than “to
swear” on the Bible while taking
his oath.
25
William McKinley
Thursday, March 4, 1897
Thomas Edison’s gramophone and
his new motion picture camera
recorded McKinley taking the oath
of office.
Monday, March 4, 1901
McKinley’s second inauguration
celebrated the victory and the end
to the Spanish American War.
36
Lyndon B. Johnson
Friday, November 12, 1963
Johnson became the only
president to have taken the oath
of office on an airplane after
Kennedy’s assassination.
Wednesday, January 20, 1965
Lady Bird Johnson was the first
wife to stand with her husband as
he took the oath of office.
5 6
James Madison
Saturday March 4, 1809
Mild weather drew 10,000
spectators. The first inaugural ball
was held.
Thursday, March 4, 1813
When James Madison took his
second oath of office, the United
States was at war with Great
Britain.
15
James Buchanan
Wednesday, March 4, 1857
Buchanan’s inauguration was the
first to be photographed.
26
Theodore Roosevelt
Saturday, September 14, 1901
Roosevelt became president after
McKinley was assassinated.
Saturday, March 4, 1905
Roosevelt was elected in 1905
and his inauguration was huge
with attendees coming from
many different backgrounds and
cultures. Even Apache leader
Geronimo was in attendance.
37
Richard M. Nixon
Monday, January 20, 1969
This was the first address to be
televised by satellite around the
world.
Saturday, January 20, 1973
Nixon took the oath of office on
the East Front of the Capitol.
James Monroe
Tuesday, March 4, 1817
Monroe’s inaugural address was
the first to be given outdoors.
Monday, March 5, 1821
March 4 fell on a Sunday so
Monroe waited until Monday to
take the oath of office.
16
Abraham Lincoln
Monday, March 4, 1861
President Buchanan rode with
president-elect Lincoln in an open
carriage to the Capitol.
Saturday, March 4, 1865
Lincoln was the first president to
include African Americans in the
inaugural parade.
27
William Howard Taft
Thursday, March 4, 1909
A huge blizzard hit the nation’s
capital the night before and
caused the ceremonies to be
moved. Telephone and telegraph
poles were knocked down, so
news about the inauguration was
slow in getting out.
38
Gerald R. Ford Jr.
Friday, August 9, 1974
Ford took the oath of office after
Nixon resigned.
John Quincy Adams
Friday, March 4, 1825
The first son of a former president
to be elected president, John
Quincy Adams was chosen by the
House of Representatives when
the electoral college could not
determine a clear winner.
17
Andrew Johnson
Saturday, April 15, 1865
Johnson assumed the office
of president after Lincoln was
assassinated.
28
Woodrow Wilson
Tuesday, March 4, 1913
The election of 1912 produced a
Democratic victory over the split vote
for President Taft’s Republican Party and
Theodore Roosevelt’s Progressive Party.
Monday, March 5, 1917
March 4 was on a Sunday again, so
Wilson took the oath of office on Sunday
and Monday.
39
Jimmy Carter
Thursday, January 20, 1977
Carter and his family surprised
everyone by walking from the
Capitol to the White House after
the ceremony.

6 7
John Quincy Adams
Friday, March 4, 1825
The first son of a former president
to be elected president, John
Quincy Adams was chosen by the
House of Representatives when
the electoral college could not
determine a clear winner.
17
Andrew Johnson
Saturday, April 15, 1865
Johnson assumed the office
of president after Lincoln was
assassinated.
28
Woodrow Wilson
Tuesday, March 4, 1913
The election of 1912 produced a
Democratic victory over the split vote
for President Taft’s Republican Party and
Theodore Roosevelt’s Progressive Party.
Monday, March 5, 1917
March 4 was on a Sunday again,
so Wilson took the oath of office on
Sunday and Monday.
39
Jimmy Carter
Thursday, January 20, 1977
Carter and his family surprised
everyone by walking from the
Capitol to the White House after
the ceremony.
Andrew Jackson
Wednesday, March 4, 1829
Jackson was the first military
leader elected president since
Washington. The inauguration
was held for the first time on the
East Portico of the Capitol.
Monday, March 4, 1833
Jackson was the first president
to have two inaugural balls.
18
Ulysses S. Grant
Thursday, March 4, 1869
Grant had the largest military
group march during an inaugural
parade.
Tuesday, March 4, 1873
Many of the events planned
for Grant’s second inauguration
had to be canceled because of
freezing temperatures.
29
Warren G. Harding
Friday, March 4, 1921
For the first time a president-elect
rode to the inauguration in an
automobile. Also for the first time,
the inauguration was broadcast to
the crowd over a loudspeaker.
40
Ronald Reagan
Tuesday, January 20, 1981
Reagan’s first inauguration day
has been the warmest on record.
It was 55 degrees Fahrenheit
that day.
Monday, January 21, 1985
For the first time, a president took
the oath of office in the Capitol
Rotunda.
8 9
Martin Van Buren
Saturday, March 4, 1837
Van Buren clearly won the
presidency, but the Senate had to
choose a vice president after the
electoral college could not.
19
Rutherford B. Hayes
Monday, March 5, 1877
March 4 was on a Sunday, so
Hayes took the oath of office
in the Red Room at the White
House on March 3, and again on
Monday on the East Portico of the
Capitol so the country would not
be without a president on Sunday.
30
Calvin Coolidge
Wednesday, March 4, 1925
The president’s inauguration was
broadcast to the nation by radio.
Coolidge was the first president
to be sworn in by a former
president—William Taft.
41
George H.W. Bush
Friday, January 20, 1989
Bush took the executive oath
on the 200th anniversary of
the presidency on the same
Bible George Washington used
in 1789.
INAUGURATION FACTS
William Henry Harrison
Thursday, March 4, 1841
Harrison stood in a snowstorm
and delivered the longest
inaugural speech. It lasted an
hour and forty-five minutes
and contained 8,445 words.
One month later he died of
pneumonia.
20
James A. Garfield
Friday, March 4, 1881
Snow stopped many people from
attending the inauguration at the
Capitol in Washington, D.C.
31
Herbert Hoover
Monday, March 4, 1929
Herbert Hoover came to the office
of president not having served in
any political capacity.
42
Bill Clinton
Wednesday, January 21, 1993
Clinton was the first Democrat to
be elected president since 1976.
Monday, January 20, 1997
Clinton’s second inauguration was
the first to be broadcast live over
the Internet.
QUICK CHART
10
John Tyler
Tuesday, April 6, 1841
Tyler became the first vice
president to assume the office
of president after the death of a
president.
21
Chester A. Arthur
September 20, 1881
Arthur was sworn in at his
home in New York City after the
assassination of James Garfield.
32
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Saturday, March 4, 1933
Roosevelt announced his plans for
a New Deal.
Wednesday, January 20, 1937
For the first time the inauguration
was held on January 20.
Monday, January 20, 1941
Saturday, January 20, 1945
World War II affected celebrations.
43
George W. Bush
Saturday, January 20, 2001
Bush was inaugurated president after
one of the most controversial elections
in U.S. history.
Thursday, January 20, 2005
Bush was the first president to be
elected to two terms following another
president’s two elected terms since Grant
followed Lincoln in the late 1800s.
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11
James Knox Polk
Tuesday, March 4, 1845
Inaugural ceremonies were held
before a large crowd that stood
in the pouring rain. Samuel
Morse used his new invention
to telegraph the highlights to
Baltimore.
22
Grover Cleveland
Wednesday, March 4, 1885
Cleveland rode to the Capitol with
President Arthur, who had taken
office upon Garfield’s death.
Fireworks were set off over the
White House that night.
.
33
Harry S. Truman
Thursday, April 12, 1945
Truman became president after
Roosevelt died.
Thursday, January 20, 1949
For the first time the inauguration
was televised, and Truman
brought back the custom of the
having an inaugural ball.
44
Barack Obama
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Obama became the first African
American president.