Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Hard Numbers

HARD NUMBERS: Term limits, Day fit for a King and a president,  Benefits of brevity, Presidential addresses clarified

Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, on Inauguration Day, 1933.

Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, on Inauguration Day, 1933.

by Harris & Ewing via Reuters
Make us preferred on Google

22: Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the only American president to be inaugurated four times, serving from 1933 to 1945. In 1951, the United States Congress ratified the 22nd Amendment to the US Constitution, limiting future presidents to a maximum of two terms in office.


2: For only the second time in history, Inauguration Day coincides with Martin Luther King Jr. day, a federal holiday that honors the slain civil rights leader on the third Monday of January. Many liberal and progressive groups have pledged to focus on traditional days of service to mark the King holiday rather than inauguration day itself, while some protest marches against Trump are expected as well.

8,445: The longest inaugural address in US history was delivered by William Henry Harrison, whose speech ran to 8,445 words. After speaking for nearly two hours without a coat or hat on a wet and chilly Washington day in January 1841, Harrison fell ill, developed pneumonia, and died a month later. The shortest inaugural was George Washington’s second, which ran to just 135 words, half the length of this Hard Numbers section.

40: Trump is the 47th president, but how many have given inaugural addresses? Only 40, as it turns out. Four US presidents were actually vice presidents who ascended to office due to death or assassination and never won an election of their own, so they didn’t get the chance to give an inaugural address. Two US presidents have been counted twice because they served nonconsecutive terms – Grover Cleveland was the first, and Donald Trump is the second.

More For You

Cuba’s next fuel shipment in purgatory
Farida Dowidar
Earlier this week, Florida‑based Vanguard Energy announced it had authorization from both the US and Cuban governments to ship 250,000 barrels of fuel to private buyers in Cuba – potentially the island’s largest delivery since Eisenhower‑era sanctions in 1960. But once the news became public, the US State Department said Vanguard did not have a [...]
Length of Russia-Ukraine war surpasses World War I
Farida Dowidar
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has outlasted what many thought would be the “war to end all wars.” For a conflict Vladimir Putin believed would end in Russian victory within weeks, the Ukraine war has stretched well past four years, and with no clear end in sight. The fight has been, at times, so grinding that Ukraine and Russian advances [...]
Brazil’s Lula expands lead after Bolsonaro corruption scandal
Will Fitzpatrick
The new polling released on Wednesday shows Lula widening his lead over the senator and son of former President Jair Bolsonaro. Separate polling last month showed only a one percentage point difference between the two. The shift follows a tough period for Bolsonaro’s campaign, coming under fire for allegedly seeking financial support from Daniel [...]
Iraqi Kurdish migrants’ perilous journey
Will Fitzpatrick
Migrants often endure perilous journeys, be it crossing the Darien Gap on foot, the Mediterranean Sea in plastic dinghies, or the Sahara Desert under extreme heat. Along the way, there can be people who seek to exploit these migrants, as the BBC reported was the case for at least 300 Iraqi Kurds who were captured by Libyan militias in the North [...]