INAUGURATION 2009: Q&A for trivia buffs

1. After 8 inches of snow fell on the morning of the inauguration, the Army used flamethrowers to melt snow and ice from Pennsylvania Avenue. Ask not what this president did for you; ask which president this was done for.

Answer: John F. Kennedy. Weather has often been a problem at inaugurations, even when they were held in March instead of January. Ronald Reagan’s first inauguration was the warmest on record; his second inauguration was the coldest. On Jan. 20, 1985, wind chills sent the temperature down to 20 below, and Reagan agreed to take the oath indoors. A blizzard forced William Howard Taft’s (inset) indoors in 1909. Said he, “I always said it would be a cold day when I got to be president of the United States.”

2. Speaking of lousy weather, this president gave the longest inaugural address ever —- 90 minutes, more than 8,000 words —- in a driving, icy rain, with no coat or hat. He was dead a month later. Who was he?

Answer: William Henry Harrison, the hero of Tippecanoe. Harrison either already had a cold when he made the speech in March 1841, or caught one that day. Then, perhaps because he shook scores of not particularly clean hands, he contracted pneumonia and died. Harrison served exactly one month in office —- the briefest service by any president —- from March 4 to April 4.

3. Who was the first president to include African-Americans in his inaugural parade?

Answer: You got it —- Abraham Lincoln. Presidents often use their inaugural parades to showcase their beliefs and accomplishments. (Except for Reagan in 1985; the extreme cold forced him to cancel his parade, which was to feature 12,000 people, 66 floats and 57 marching bands.) Interestingly, for his first inaugural, with the country on the brink of Civil War, Lincoln’s parade consisted of a single float that symbolized the Constitution and the Union. For his second inaugural, four companies of African-American troops joined the procession to the Capitol. The largest parade, meanwhile, was Eisenhower’s: 73 bands and 59 floats plus horses and elephants.

4. John Marshall, the chief justice of the United States, began the tradition of having the chief justice swear in the president with the inauguration of Thomas Jefferson in 1805. Which president later became chief justice?

Answer: William Howard Taft. Taft, a former federal jurist whose first love was the law, had four unhappy years in the White House and came in third in his bid for re-election in 1912 —- the worst showing by any incumbent president. Afterward Taft taught at Yale Law School and was named chief justice by President Harding in 1921. The high court appointment was more important to Taft than the presidency. “I don’t remember that I ever was president,” he wrote. Taft was the only chief executive who later became chief justice, and therefore the only president who swore in another president. Two, actually: Calvin Coolidge (above left) in 1925 and Herbert Hoover (above right) in 1929. Taft, by the way, was also our heaviest president, weighing in at more than 350 pounds.

5. William Henry Harrison died after just 30 days in office, but his grandson served a full term 48 years later. Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd president, took office in 1889. Two presidents got to see their own sons inaugurated as chief executive. Who were they?

Answer: Easy one. George H.W. Bush, No. 41, whose son George W. Bush became No. 43. And John Adams, president No. 2, whose son John Quincy Adams became No. 6. The elder Bush got to see his son inaugurated twice; the elder Adams only got to see his son inaugurated once. That was because both Adamses served only one term (unusual in those times); in addition, both Adamses are the only presidents who didn’t attend their successors’ inaugurations. By the way, Bush 41 and Adams 6 both lost the popular vote but won the Electoral College.

6. The oath of office is just 35 words long and has not changed in more than 200 years. It says: “I do solemnly swear 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.” The president has the option of saying “I do solemnly affirm” rather than “I do solemnly swear.” But only one (see note) has done so. Who was he?

Answer: Franklin Pierce (inset). Pierce’s 11-year-old son, Benjamin, died in a train accident shortly before Pierce was to take the oath. Some sources report that Pierce believed his son’s death was punishment for his own sins, and he would not swear on a Bible while taking the oath of office. Note: Herbert Hoover has been reported as saying “affirm” rather than “swear,” but other reports say Hoover did “swear” but declined to use a Bible.

7. Normally, we have one inauguration every four years. But several presidencies ended early —- most when the president died and once when he resigned. We’ve actually had years that saw three presidents sworn in. When was the last one?

Answer: 1881. Rutherford B. Hayes’ (above, left) four-year term ended March 4, and James A. Garfield (center) took the oath that day to succeed him. On July 2, Garfield was shot in the back by a deranged lawyer named Charles Guiteau. It was thought at first that Garfield would pull through; one contemporary account has him telling bystanders at the scene that he thought he’d be all right. But he died of complications from the wound on Sept. 19. Chester A. Arthur (right) was sworn in the next day —- the first president to take the oath of office at home. Arthur skipped the ZZ Top beard thing and went with mutton chops.

8. It took several decades in the life of the Republic before we had a president who was not born a British subject. Who was he?

Answer: Born in 1782, Martin Van Buren took office in 1837 as the eighth president. The 5-foot-6 Van Buren, who had the nickname the “Little Magician” because of his reputation for manipulating the system to benefit friends and supporters, presided over one of the nation’s first financial panics. He spent much of his presidency seeking to ensure the solvency of the federal government. Inclined against the expansion of slavery, he ran for the presidency again in 1848 on the Free Soil ticket and was defeated.

9. Dating at least from Lincoln’s time, a top hat or stove-pipe hat was a common sight on the presidential noggin during the inauguration (and in Lincoln’s case, lots of other times). Who was the last president to wear a top hat at his inauguration?

Answer: Kennedy. Every president since has gone lidless at his inaugural. The Huffington Post recently called for the return of the top hat at the inauguration and asked huffpo users what they thought. Replied Tages72: “I do think Obama would have looked great in a top hat and white scarf as he’s got that Fred Astaire physique going for him, but nowadays it would simply look silly. Wish walking sticks would come back, though.”

10. Whose inaugural was responsible for dead birds and collapsed cadets?

Answer: Ulysses S. Grant. His inauguration was in March (they didn’t start inaugurating in January until FDR), and, at 4 degrees, it turned out to be one of Washington’s coldest March days ever. Cadets and midshipmen who took part in the parade collapsed after standing outside without overcoats for more than 90 minutes. The food froze at the unheated inaugural ball, and canaries that had been intended to fly gracefully among the dancing guests died in their cages.

INAUGURATION TECH

Thomas Jefferson, 1801: First time a newspaper published an extra with the president’s inaugural address on the same day as the ceremony. Jefferson had sent an advance copy to the National Intelligencer, which had special editions ready by the end of the address.

James Polk, 1845: First swearing-in to be sent by telegraph as the event occurred. (Inventor Samuel Morse sat on the platform with the president, tapping his telegraph key as Polk spoke.)

James Buchanan, 1857: First inaugural to be photographed.

William McKinley, 1897: First recorded on movie film and gramophone record.

Warren G. Harding, 1921: First to have his inaugural speech amplified for those standing nearby, and broadcast on radio.

Herbert Hoover, 1929: First recorded on talking newsreel.

Harry Truman, 1949: First televised inauguration.

Bill Clinton, 1997: First live Webcast.

Sources: The Web sites of the White House, the White House Historical Society, the National Archives, the Library of Congress, the U.S. Senate, the Washington Post, the Smithsonian, the BBC.

$40 MILLION

Estimated cost of the parade, balls, ceremonies, giant TV screens on the Mall and other items. Obama hopes to cover the full expense through private donations.