Presidential Inaugurations Through the Years
We rounded up historic photos showing presidential oaths of office past ahead of President Barack Obama's 2013 inauguration Jan. 21.
President Barack Obama's second inauguration ceremony and celebration Jan. 21 is a far cry from the inauguration of our first president, George Washington. That ceremony was held April 30, 1789, at Federal Hall in New York City, where the federal government was headquartered at the time. It was later at Washington's second inauguration, in Philadelphia, where he made the shortest inauguration speech on record — 133 words and less than two minutes long. One thing all presidential inauguration swearing-in ceremonies have in common, though, are these words: "I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of the President of the United States and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of…
