Inaugurations… they’re are the official formal ceremony that marks the beginning of a major political leader’s term of office and we’re coming up on that big occasion for our very own President Obama as he indulges in his second term.
LIST: 5 Reasons You Should Stand In The Cold For Obama!
This will be the last time we celebrate POTUS Obama being elected into that White House and as historic as it is we decided to dig up some deets on the formal occasion.
And below are five of the most interesting things we found that make us go “mmm…?!”
1. Inauguration organizers held a practice parade in Washington to prepare for the upcoming event, even including a stand for POTUS and LOTUS! The dress rehearsal closed streets and affected parking near the National Mall.
2. Vice Presidents now take their oath of office on the very same platform as the President’s swearing-in ceremony on the west front terrace of the Capitol. It is typical that the VP takes his oath and gives a short speech, followed by the President and this usually goes very smoothly, except for in 1865 when Vice President Andrew Johnson hadn’t been feeling very well for several weeks before inauguration day. To get him through the big day, Johnson downed glasses of whiskey and when he got up to the podium to take his oath, it was obvious to everyone that he was drunk off his a**. Rambling on , incoherently the man didn’t step down from the podium until someone finally pulled on his coattails.
3. Back in the day when news was carried by messengers on horses, there needed to be a great amount of time between Election Day and inauguration day so that all the votes could be tallied and reported, therefore to allow this time, inauguration day used to be March 4th but with our nation’s speedy growth in technology that amount of time is no longer need and ever since 1933 inaugurations now go down on January 20th.
4. Oh Bill Clinton…
For Presiden’t Obama’s first inaugural celebration he held 10 balls, but that was not record enough to beat former President Bill Clinton, who for his entry into office in 1993, held a record of 11 inaugural balls.
- 5. A president’s Inauguration once killed him!?
-
William Henry Harrison, the ninth United States President gave the longest inaugural address and it was the death of him. At 8,445 words and more than two hours in length, depsite warnings Harrison stood through blistering cold weather on a chilly March day with no overcoat, scarf, or hat. After delivering his long address and attending all three Inaugural balls the new president caught pneumonia and died just after a month in office!
