Intro
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ALT: U.S. Capitol decorated for inauguration (AP Images)
"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." This is the oath taken by every president of the United States.
Photo #1
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ALT: Painting of Washington taking oath (AP Images)
This 1889 painting by Ramon de Elorriaga depicts the inauguration of George Washington as first president of the United States on April 30, 1789, at New York’s Federal Hall.
Photo #2
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ALT: Painting of large crowd in front of White House (AP Images)
After Andrew Jackson’s inauguration on March 4, 1829, more than 20,000 well-wishers came to the White House to meet him.
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ALT: Painting of large crowd in front of U.S. Capitol (AP Images)
When William Henry Harrison was inaugurated on March 4, 1841, he declined the offer of a closed carriage and rode instead on horseback to the Capitol, where he delivered the longest inaugural address in U.S. history (more than an hour) in the bitter cold. He returned to the White House, again on horseback, and, according to a disputed legend, caught a cold that turned into pneumonia. Not disputed is the fact that he died one month later, on April 4, after the shortest presidency in history.
Photo #4
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ALT: East front of U.S. Capitol at Lincoln’s inauguration (AP Images)
The crowd surrounding the east front of the U.S. capitol, showing ongoing construction on the dome, at Abraham Lincoln’s first inauguration, March 4, 1861.
Photo #5
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ALT: Crowd behind decorated banister (AP Images)
Calvin Coolidge is sworn in as the 30th president of the United States by Chief Justice William H. Taft, the only time in U.S. history that a former president administered the oath of office to an incoming one.
Photo #6
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ALT: Two men shaking hands in open-top automobile (AP Images)
Outgoing President Herbert Hoover shakes hands with President-elect Franklin Delano Roosevelt in front of the White House on March 4, 1933. This was the last inauguration held in March. Since 1937, they have been held on January 20.
Photo #7
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ALT: Kennedy speaking from podium (AP Images)
President John F. Kennedy delivers his inaugural speech after taking the oath of office at the Capitol in Washington on January 20, 1961. In this famous speech, he exhorted Americans to “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”
Photo #8
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ALT: Johnson taking oath on airplane (AP Images)
Following John F. Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas on November 22, 1963, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson took the oath of office on the presidential plane returning to Washington. The woman in the foreground is Judge Sarah T. Hughes, the only woman to administer the oath of office. Johnson’s wife, Lady Bird, is on his right, and Kennedy’s widow, Jacqueline, is in the foreground on his left.
Photo #9
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ALT: Group walking down street (AP Images)
Newly sworn-in President Jimmy Carter and first lady Rosalynn Carter made history by walking from the Capitol to the White House.
Photo #10
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ALT: Reagan taking oath (AP Images)
Because January 20, 1985, was a Sunday, President Ronald Reagan took the oath of office for his second term in a private White House ceremony conducted by Chief Justice Warren Burger, with first lady Nancy Reagan holding the Bible. The public ceremony the following day was held in the Rotunda of the Capitol when a record freeze forced the ceremony indoors.
11.
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ALT: Bushes and Clintons coming down Capitol steps (AP Images)
Despite one of the most contentious and time-consuming presidential elections in U.S. history, the outgoing Democrat, Bill Clinton, and the incoming Republican, George W. Bush, came together to peacefully transfer power on January 20, 2001.
In the weeks following Election Day 2000, the close race between Bush and the Democratic nominee, Vice President Al Gore, was thrown into the courts as the outcome of the Electoral College vote hung on a razor-thin margin in Florida. The U.S. Supreme Court, in Bush v. Gore, ruled that the Florida Supreme Court's method for recounting ballots was a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment and allowed certification of George W. Bush as the winner of Florida's 25 electoral votes to stand.
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ALT: President Obama at podium, waving (AP Images)
On January 20, 2008, Barack Obama became the first African American to assume the U.S. presidency.
He made his history-making oath of office with his hand on a Bible once owned by Abraham Lincoln, the president who abolished slavery in the United States.
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ALT: Crowd filling National Mall in Washington (AP Images)
Every four years, Washington is crowded with visitors eager to personally witness the peaceful transfer of executive power that is a hallmark of American democracy.
Although onlookers at the 2013 inauguration are unlikely to be as numerous as those who packed the National Mall in 2009 in this image, television and radio coverage will ensure that millions will listen to President Obama as he renews his vow to “faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and ... preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."