Robert Robert Livingston was an American lawyer, politician, and diplomat from New York, as well as a Founding Father of the United States. He was known as "The Chancellor" after the high New York state legal office he held for 25 years. He was a member of the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence, along with Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Roger Sherman. Livingston administered the oath of office to George Washington when he assumed the presidency April 30, 1789. Livingston was also elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1801.
The oath of office of the president of the United States is the oath or affirmation that the president of the United States takes upon assuming office. The wording of the oath is specified in Article II, Section One, Clause 8, of the United States Constitution, and a new president must take it before exercising or carrying out any official powers or duties.
Between 73 and 79 days after the presidential election, the president-elect of the United States is inaugurated as president by taking the presidential oath of office. The inauguration takes place for each new presidential term, even if the president is continuing in office for a second term.
The Grand Lodge of New York is the largest and oldest independent organization of Freemasons in the U.S. state of New York. The headquarters of the Grand Lodge is the Grand Lodge Building located at 23rd Street in Manhattan.
Volume of Sacred Law (VSL) is the Masonic term for whatever religious or philosophical texts are displayed during a Lodge meeting.
The first inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States took place on Tuesday, January 20, 2009, at the West Front of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. The 56th inauguration, which set a record attendance for any event held in the city, marked the commencement of the first term of Barack Obama as president and Joe Biden as vice president. Based on combined attendance numbers, television viewership, and Internet traffic, it was one of the most-observed events ever by the global audience at the time.
The first inauguration of George Washington as the first president of the United States was held on Thursday, April 30, 1789, on the balcony of Federal Hall in New York City, New York. The inauguration was held nearly two months after the beginning of the first four-year term of George Washington as president. Chancellor of New York Robert Livingston administered the presidential oath of office. With this inauguration, the executive branch of the United States government officially began operations under the new frame of government established by the 1787 Constitution. The inauguration of John Adams as vice president was on April 21, 1789, when he assumed his duties as presiding officer of the United States Senate; this also remains the only scheduled inauguration to take place on a day that was neither January nor March.
The first inauguration of Calvin Coolidge as the 30th president of the United States was held on Friday, August 3, 1923, at the Coolidge Homestead in Plymouth Notch, Vermont, following the death of President Warren G. Harding the previous evening. The inauguration – the sixth non-scheduled, extraordinary inauguration to ever take place – marked the commencement of the first term of Calvin Coolidge as president. The presidential oath of office was administered to the new president by his father, John Calvin Coolidge Sr., who was a Vermont notary public and justice of the peace. On Tuesday, August 21, 1923, President Coolidge repeated the oath before Justice Adolph A. Hoehling Jr. of the Court of the District of Columbia at the Willard Hotel, Washington, D.C.
The first inauguration of Bill Clinton as the 42nd president of the United States was held on Wednesday, January 20, 1993, at the West Front of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. This was the 52nd inauguration and marked the commencement of the first term of Bill Clinton as president and Al Gore as vice president. At 46 years, 154 days of age at the time of his first inauguration, Clinton was the third-youngest person to become president, and the first from the Baby Boomer generation.
The second inauguration of Bill Clinton as president of the United States was held on Monday, January 20, 1997, at the West Front of the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. This was the 53rd inauguration and marked the commencement of the second and final term of Bill Clinton as president and Al Gore as vice president. This was the last presidential inauguration to take place in the 20th century, the last in the 2nd millennium, and the first to be streamed live on the internet.
The inauguration of George H. W. Bush as the 41st president of the United States was held on Friday, January 20, 1989, at the West Front of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. This was the 51st inauguration and marked the commencement of the only term of both George H. W. Bush as president and Dan Quayle as vice president. Chief Justice William Rehnquist administered the presidential oath of office to Bush and Justice Sandra Day O'Connor administered the vice presidential oath of office to Quayle. Bush was the first sitting vice president to be inaugurated as president since Martin Van Buren in 1837 and the last World War II combat veteran. Bush composed his own prayer for the ceremony which he recited at the start of his inaugural address; the last president to do so was Dwight D. Eisenhower at his first inauguration in 1953.
The first inauguration of Ronald Reagan as the 40th president of the United States was held on Tuesday, January 20, 1981, at the West Front of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. This was the first inauguration to be held on the building's west side. This was the 49th inauguration and marked the commencement of Ronald Reagan's and George H. W. Bush's first term as president and vice president. Chief Justice Warren E. Burger administered the presidential oath of office to Reagan, who placed his hand upon a family Bible given to him by his mother, open to 2 Chronicles 7:14. Associate Justice Potter Stewart administered the vice presidential oath to Bush.
The inauguration of Jimmy Carter as the 39th president of the United States was held on Thursday, January 20, 1977, at the East Portico of the United States Capitol in Washington D.C. This was the 48th inauguration and marked the commencement of Jimmy Carter's and Walter Mondale's single term as president and vice president. Chief Justice Warren E. Burger administered the presidential oath of office to Carter, and Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill administered the vice presidential oath of office to Mondale. This was the last inauguration held on the East Portico of the Capitol building as well as the last time the chief justice would stand to the left of the podium, with the audience facing them, while swearing in a president. Exactly forty years later, Carter attended the inauguration of Donald Trump, becoming the first U.S. president to mark the 40th anniversary of his inauguration.
The first inauguration of Dwight D. Eisenhower as the 34th president of the United States was held on Tuesday, January 20, 1953, at the East Portico of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. This was the 42nd inauguration and marked the commencement of the first term of Dwight D. Eisenhower as president and of Richard Nixon as vice president. Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson administered the presidential oath of office to Eisenhower. The vice presidential oath was administered to Nixon by Senator William Knowland.
The inauguration of William Howard Taft as the 27th president of the United States was held on Thursday, March 4, 1909, at the Senate chamber inside the United States Capitol, Washington, D.C., instead of the regular East Portico due to blizzard. This was the 31st inauguration and marked the commencement of William Howard Taft's only term as president and James S. Sherman's only term as vice president.
The inauguration of John Quincy Adams as the sixth president of the United States took place on Friday, March 4, 1825, in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. The inauguration marked the commencement of the only four-year term of John Quincy Adams as president and the first term of John C. Calhoun as vice president. Adams was the first president to have been the son of a former president–John Adams; and Calhoun, at age 42 on Inauguration Day, was the second-youngest vice president.
The inauguration of John F. Kennedy as the 35th president of the United States was held on Friday, January 20, 1961, at the East Portico of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. It was the 44th inauguration, marking the commencement of John F. Kennedy's and Lyndon B. Johnson's only term as president and vice president. Kennedy was assassinated 2 years, 306 days into this term, and Johnson succeeded to the presidency.
The second inauguration of Barack Obama as president of the United States was the 57th inauguration, marking the commencement of his second and final term, with Joe Biden as vice president. A private swearing-in ceremony took place on Sunday, January 20, 2013, in the Blue Room of the White House, followed by a public inauguration ceremony on Monday, January 21, 2013, at the West Front of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.
The inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States took place on Wednesday, January 20, 2021, marking the start of the four-year term of Joe Biden as president and Kamala Harris as vice president. The 59th presidential inauguration took place on the West Front of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. Biden took the presidential oath of office, before which Harris took the vice presidential oath of office.
