The Inauguration

The inauguration of President Obama will take place on Monday, 21 January 2013 and will be the fifty-seventh Presidential Inauguration.

Information on the Presidential Inauguration is available from the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies website.

Want the basic facts on the Inauguration? Check out our inauguration Quick Facts.

Related

• Presidential Inaugurations, a Library of Congress American Memory web site.

Presidential Inauguration 2013 - News

21 January 2013 President Obama's Second Inaugural Address  "For now decisions are upon us and we cannot afford delay. We cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned debate. (Applause.) We must act, knowing that our work will be imperfect. We must act, knowing that today’s victories will be only partial and that it will be up to those who stand here in four years and 40 years and 400 years hence to advance the timeless spirit once conferred to us in a spare Philadelphia hall."

19 January 2013 Foreign Press Center Briefing on Symbolic Aspects of Inauguration 

18 January 2013 U.S. Presidential Inaugurations Serve Multiple Purposes    The inauguration of the president of the United States is a quasi-religious holiday, a celebrity gala and an opportunity for political management all rolled into one, according to professor Michael Cornfield, a political scientist at George Washington University in Washington.

10 January 2013 U.S. Presidential Transitions: Second Terms  The roughly 75 days between a U.S. presidential election and the inauguration are as important to a second-term president as they are to a newly elected president, but the priorities are different.

03 January 2013 Washington Welcomes 113th Congress In the midst of preparations for the second inauguration of President Obama, Washington focused its attention January 3 on welcoming the newest incarnation of its legislative branch.

31 December 2012 "Faith in America's Future" Is 2013 Obama Inaugural Theme   Ceremonies for President Obama’s inauguration for a second term will have “Faith in America's Future” as an overall theme.

31 December 2012 Planners Look to Precedents if Inauguration Day Falls on Sunday  Only six times in U.S. history has the constitutionally mandated date for a presidential inauguration fallen on a Sunday.  And, in a tradition that dates back to 1917, the White House will likely arrange a private swearing-in before noon on January 20, 2013.

27 December 2012 Inaugural Balls Are a Long, Varied American Tradition  For the 2013 inauguration, President Obama, citing the state of the economy, has asked for only two official inaugural balls, down from 10 after his 2009 inauguration. One of the 2013 balls will be for the president’s invited guests, with some tickets for the public. The other will be for military families.

27 December 2012 Why Is U.S. Inauguration Day Held in Cold of January?  For nearly 80 years, January 20 has been the day of America’s presidential transition. Because the 20th falls on a Sunday in 2013, President Obama will take the oath of office January 20 in private, and again publicly on January 21 as part of the now familiar inaugural proceedings.

26 December 2012 Inauguration Celebrates Continuity of American Democracy  When Barack Obama takes the oath of office on January 21, 2013, it will mark the 57th time that a U.S. president has been sworn in for a four-year term since 1789, when George Washington first took the same oath.