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Inauguration Day Events
(Vocabulary words are found in bold.)
• Procession to the U.S. Capitol
• Vice-president’s swearing-in ceremony
• President’s swearing-in ceremony
• Inaugural address
• Departure of the outgoing president
• Inaugural luncheon
• Inaugural parade
• Inaugural ball
On January 20, Barack H. Obama will be sworn is as the 44th president of the
United States. His inauguration will be the 56th in history and one full of tradition.
The date of the ceremony is set by the U.S. Constitution, but it hasn’t always
happened in January. Until 1933, inaugurations occurred on March 4. The 20th
Amendment of the Constitution changed the date of the presidential inauguration to
January 20.
President George W. Bush will accompany Obama to the United States Capitol
for the ceremony. This tradition began in 1837 when Andrew Jackson and Martin Van
Buren traveled together to the swearing in.
Millions of people are expected to attend the event. Inaugurations offer citizens a
way to celebrate their Election Day choices and to witness democracy in action. In 2009,
for the first time in history, the length of the National Mall will be open to the public to
view the festivities, which will take place at the west front of the U.S. Capitol where a
special platform has been built.
Before the swearing in, the United States Marine Band, the San Francisco Boys
Chorus and the San Francisco Girls Chorus will perform. An invocation will be given by
Pastor Rick Warren, author of A Purpose Driven Life. “The Queen of Soul,” Aretha
Franklin, will then sing.
Then Vice-President-elect Joseph R. Biden, Jr. will be sworn into office by
Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, the Honorable John Paul Stevens.
An original musical piece will follow, composed by John Williams.
The swearing in of President-elect Barack Obama will then be led by Chief
Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, the Honorable John G. Roberts.
Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution of the United States provides an oath for
the president to take before entering office. The oath reads “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.”
Most presidents, in a tradition created by George Washington, put one hand over
their hearts and one hand on the Bible when giving the oath. Many also say “so help me
God,” words also added by Washington when he finished the oath.
Obama will lay his hand on the same Bible that Abraham Lincoln used at his first
inauguration in 1861. The oath will be followed by the Inaugural Address, when Obama
shares his vision for the country and goals for his administration.
Inaugural addresses have always been a part of the ceremonies. The shortest
speech was given by George Washington at his second inauguration in 1793; it was just
135 words. The longest speech was given by William Henry Harrison in 1841. He
delivered all 10,000 words in a terrible ice storm. Shortly after, he became ill with
pneumonia, and within a month was dead.
Inaugural addresses weren’t delivered to the public, however, until the
inauguration of James Monroe in 1817. The best known addresses were of Abraham
Lincoln in 1865, at his second term inaugural, when at the end of the Civil War, he urged
Americans to come together. During the Great Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt, eased
the people with his 1933 address and the famous line: “The only thing we have to fear is
fear itself.” And in 1961, John Kennedy, urged Americans to “Ask not what your country
can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”
Obama’s address will be followed with a poem by Elizabeth Alexander and a
benediction by Reverend Dr. Joseph E. Lowery. The National Anthem, played by the
United States Navy Band “Sea Chanters,” will conclude the ceremony.
The new president will then take the ceremonial walk to the White House, with a
long line of marching bands and floats behind him. James Madison began the tradition of
parading from the Capitol to the president’s house. In 1977, Jimmy Carter became the
first president to walk the entire route from the Capitol to the White House after the
inauguration.
The remaining day’s events will include a luncheon and ten official inaugural
balls. The first official inaugural ball was held for James Madison, the fourth president, in
1809.
Trivia
The inauguration of the first president of the United States, George Washington, occurred
in New York City.
If January 20 falls on a Sunday, inauguration ceremonies are held the following day.
The first inauguration to take place in Washington, D.C. was Thomas Jefferson’s.
However, Thomas Jefferson did not approve of elaborate festivities. After he took his
oath, he walked back to his hotel alone and ate dinner.
In 1961, Robert Frost was the first poet to read a poem at an inauguration – that of John
F. Kennedy.
The crowd was so big at the inaugural ball of James Madison that windows were broken
to let air in. They couldn’t be opened because they had been painted shut.
During Ulysses S. Grant’s 1873 inaugural ball the temperature dropped to below zero. A
trumpet player’s lips froze to his horn.
Herbert Hoover’s 1929 inauguration parade was the first to include airplanes.
Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration in 1985 was moved into the Capitol when
temperatures dropped below zero.
The first inauguration to be televised was Harry Truman’s in 1949.
William Clinton’s second inauguration was the first to be broadcast live over the Internet.
Warren G. Harding was the first president to arrive to his inauguration in a car in 1921.
George H. W. Bush is the first former president to watch the inauguration of his son,
George W. Bush.
Sources
Santella, Andrew. U.S. Presidential Inaugurations. New York: Childrens’ Press, 2002.
Boller, Paul. Presidential Inaugurations. New York: Harcourt, Inc., 2001.
www.pic2009.org
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