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Politics
Claire Jerry, Political History Curator, Smithsonian Institution

A brief history of presidential inaugural speeches, from George Washington to today

Abraham Lincoln's first inauguration on March 4, 1861. Bettmann/Getty Images

The only constitutionally mandated event on Inauguration Day is for the president-elect to take the oath of office. But on the first Inauguration Day, in 1789, George Washington did something else.

He gave a speech.

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