The 15 Weirdest Presidential Inaugurations in US History

By Kacey Deamer and Tia Ghose, Reside Science | January 20, 2017 10:11am ET

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  Credit score: White Home

  Inauguration Day

  Later as we speak (Jan. 20), Donald Trump will probably be sworn in because the 45th president of the US within the nation's 58th inauguration ceremony, and over time, the in any other case severe ceremony of swearing within the president has had a number of odd moments. From Dwight Eisenhower being lassoed by a cowboy to Richard Nixon's lifeless birds, listed here are a few of the most weird swearing-in days in U.S. historical past.

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  Credit score: Eisenhower Presidential Library/Nationwide Archives

  Lasso laughs

  Throughout Dwight Eisenhower's 1953 inauguration, the American infatuation with on-screen cowboys was at such a peak that Montie Montana, a rodeo rider and film star, was included within the ceremony. Although Montana initially steered presenting the president with a 10-gallon cowboy hat, this concept was bucked for a lasso. Montana rode as much as the inaugural parade stand on horseback and lassoed the newly sworn-in president in entrance of the group.
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  135 phrases

  Throughout his second inauguration, the nation's first president gave the shortest inaugural handle. With a succinct 135 phrases, George Washington thanked the American folks for the distinguished honor and reminded them of the oath he would take — quick and to the purpose.

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  Credit score: Soph | Dreamstime.com

  Nontraditional parade

  Invoice Clinton prioritized variety for his inaugural celebration. Moderately than the standard parade marchers of navy cadets and equestrian groups, Clinton included a reggae band and lawn-chair drill workforce — members drill with garden chairs — in his inauguration parade. The procession additionally included an Elvis Presley impersonator on a float with members of the late musician's authentic band.
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  Credit score: Library of Congress

  Assertion jewellery

  Theodore Roosevelt was significantly impressed by Abraham Lincoln — a lot so that in his second inauguration in 1905, Roosevelt wore a hoop containing a lock of Lincoln's hair. The ring was gifted to him by Secretary of State John Hay, who was Lincoln's former private secretary. After Lincoln's assassination, Hay reportedly paid $100 for six strands of hair to be faraway from the President's head throughout his post-mortem. Hay later had considered one of these strands mounted into a hoop underneath an oval piece of glass.
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  Credit score: Alex Wong/Getty Photographs

  Fumbled oath

  Barack Obama's first inauguration truly occurred twice. In the course of the swearing-in ceremony Chief Justice John Roberts of the U.S. Supreme Court docket stumbled over the oath, main Obama to combine up his phrases. To keep away from any doubt in regards to the legality of Obama's presidency, the 2 males redid the constitutionally mandated oath the following day, phrase for phrase.

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  Credit score: Lillian C. Buttre, American Portrait Gallery | Wikimedia Commons

  Drunken oratory

  In 1865, Andrew Johnson gave a train-wreck of a speech on the large day. The vice chairman normally provides a brief and easy speech previous to the president's handle. However the 16th vice chairman, who later turned the 17th president after Abraham Lincoln was assassinated that 12 months, was in poor health with typhoid fever and took the medication of the day, whiskey, the night time earlier than. The hangover will need to have gone to his head: In the course of the speech, he bragged about his humble origins and his overcome Accomplice rebels. Lincoln reportedly seemed on in horror, whereas the previous vice chairman Hannibal Hamlin tugged at his coattails in a failed bid to get him to cease.
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  Credit score: The Thriller Man | Wikimedia Commons

  Lifeless birds

  Ulysses S. Grant thought that canaries would add a festive contact to his inaugural ball in 1873, the start of his second time period. Sadly, the 18th president did not anticipate the chilly temperatures — the morning low was four levels Fahrenheit (about 15 levels Celsius), the coldest March day on document. With wind chill, the day felt like a blustery minus 15 F to minus 30 F (minus 26 C to minus 34 C). All informed, about 100 birds froze to dying throughout Grant's inauguration.

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  Credit score: Library of Congress

  Extra lifeless birds

  Birds do not appear to do effectively on Inauguration Day. Throughout Richard Nixon's Inauguration Day parade in 1973, he wished to verify pigeons did not spoil his massive day. The 37th president had a chemical chicken repellant sprayed all alongside the inaugural parade route. The streets have been strewn with dozens of lifeless pigeons.

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  Credit score: Library of Congress

  Coat-check blunders

  Grant's inaugurations suffered from a number of blunders. Not solely did he inadvertently result in mass chicken dying on the second inauguration, his first inauguration in 1869 noticed outright brawls. The folks staffing the coat-check space could not learn the declare tickets, in order folks waited ever longer to choose up their outerwear, fights broke out and a few company deserted their jackets and hats. "Illiterate staff blended up everybody's coat claims, resulting in fights among the many males and tears among the many girls," writes Jim Bendat in "Democracy's Large Day: The Inauguration of our President 1789-2009" (iUniverse Star, 2008).

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  Credit score: White Home Historic Society

  Quiet ceremony

  Calvin Coolidge, often known as "Silent Cal," was infamous for speaking little and doing issues with no fanfare. That features the beginning of his presidency. He was staying along with his father in rural Vermont when information got here that President Warren G. Harding had died. As a result of the 30th president's father occurred to be a justice of the peace, his father carried out the swearing in proper there, with out an viewers.

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  Credit score: Library of Congress

  Killer speech

  William Henry Harrison's inauguration speech was lethal uninteresting. The ninth president of the US holds the document for longest inaugural handle at about eight,500 phrases. Harrison stood so lengthy within the chilly, wet climate to present his inauguration speech that he caught a chill, acquired pneumonia and died only a month later. However not everybody thinks the speech killed him; he might have gotten his chilly three weeks later, which means his wet day efficiency wasn't in charge for his demise.

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  Credit score: Library of Congress

  Home occasion from hell

  After Andrew Jackson's inauguration in 1829, the seventh president threw an epic occasion on the White Home straight out of an '80s film. Jackson was infamous for his frontier-style, "man of the folks" mystique and he attracted a equally tough crowd. The louts crashed the occasion, sloshed by way of the home in muddy sneakers, broke china and ripped the curtains down. To get them to go away, the workers used a time-tested trick: Leaving a tub of whiskey on the entrance garden.

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  Credit score: Herbert Hoover Presidential Library

  Debating a little bit lady

  In 1929, when President Herbert Hoover was sworn in, the chief justice who administered the oath, William Howard Taft, garbled it, substituting the phrase "preserve" for "shield." An eighth-grade lady named Helen Terwilliger caught the flub, and despatched Taft a word. As a substitute of admitting the error, Taft wrote a letter insisting he acquired the phrases proper, and film buffs ultimately performed their newsreels to find out who was proper. The eighth-grader held the day and Taft ultimately conceded he was flawed.

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  Credit score: Library of Congress

  Working for workplace

  President James Buchanan had an excessive case of diarrhea on his Inauguration Day in 1857. Previous to the inauguration, the 15th president of the US had contracted a case of "Nationwide Lodge Illness," by staying at a shady institution. The cussed case of dysentery lingered previous his inauguration, and Buchanan wanted a physician close by through the ceremony.

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  Credit score: White Home Historic Affiliation

  Some air, please

  Whereas partying has all the time been a significant a part of the inaugural custom, company have been significantly rowdier in years previous. Throughout James Madison's inaugural ball in 1809, the climate acquired so sizzling that patrons reportedly broke out the home windows at Lengthy's Lodge so they may breathe. (Tickets for the ball apparently value $four every.)

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