VERIFYING historical past of presidential inaugurations held indoors resulting from climate

President-elect Donald Trump will take the oath of workplace from contained in the Capitol Rotunda on Monday, Jan. 20, as dangerously chilly temperatures are anticipated within the Washington, D.C., space.

Trump introduced the choice to maneuver the inauguration indoors in a put up to his Reality Social account on Friday. 

Since presidential inaugurations are sometimes massive out of doors occasions, many individuals are questioning if it’s the primary time one has ever been held indoors resulting from inclement climate.

Is that this the primary time a presidential inauguration has been held indoors resulting from inclement climate?

No, this isn’t the primary time a presidential inauguration has been held indoors resulting from inclement climate. 

This isn’t the primary time a presidential inauguration has been held indoors resulting from inclement climate. It occurred most lately in 1985 when former President Ronald Reagan started his second time period.

Reagan’s second inauguration on Jan. 21, 1985, occurred throughout a extreme chilly snap on the East Coast, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum says. Reagan was sworn in on Sunday, Jan. 20, 1985, however the public inaugural ceremony was scheduled for the following day.

In keeping with the Nationwide Climate Service (NWS), the excessive temperature that day was solely 17 levels Fahrenheit, and wind chill temperatures in the course of the afternoon had been within the vary of -10 to -20 levels. For comparability, the NWS says the conventional excessive temperature for Inauguration Day is 45 levels Fahrenheit.

On account of the bitter chilly, the public inaugural ceremony was moved indoors, whereas the inaugural parade and some other out of doors occasions had been canceled. Reagan’s inauguration passed off within the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, the place Trump’s second inauguration can be held. 

However Reagan isn’t the one president whose inauguration has been held indoors resulting from wintry climate. 

In 1909, former President William Howard Taft’s swearing-in ceremony on Inauguration Day was moved indoors from the East Portico of the U.S. Capitol to the Senate Chamber resulting from a snowstorm, the Council of the District of Columbia says. 

The storm dropped 10 inches of snow over Washington, D.C., with robust winds toppling bushes and phone poles. Trains had been stalled, streets had been clogged and “all exercise was delivered to a standstill,” the NWS added.

Nevertheless, Taft’s inaugural parade did proceed as deliberate after D.C. “staff labored by way of the evening to clear Pennsylvania Avenue of snow and to unfold sand on the highway,” the D.C. Council says. 

It took 6,000 folks and 500 wagons to clear 58,000 tons of snow and slush from the parade route, in accordance with the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies (JCCIC). 

The primary out of doors inauguration was held in 1817, when former President James Monroe was sworn into workplace, in accordance with the NWS. However Monroe took the oath of workplace for the second time in 1821 inside the Home Chamber due to a snowstorm.

Greater than a decade later, in 1833, former President Andrew Jackson’s inauguration additionally passed off contained in the Home Chamber “due to his ailing well being and dangerous climate,” the JCCIC says.

Different presidents have been sworn in away from the Capitol, too, sometimes resulting from an emergency, like when former President Lyndon B. Johnson was inaugurated aboard Air Pressure One after then-President John F. Kennedy’s assassination.