Click on the date to go directly to the corresponding Inaugural Address in the Public Papers of the Presidents series at the American Presidency Project. Presidents who were sworn in after the death or resignation of their predecessor did not deliver an Inaugural Address on that occasion.

Scheduling Presidential Inaugurations

The Twentieth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution mandates specific scheduling of presidential and Congressional terms.

Prior to the passage of the Twentieth Amendment in the early 1930s, Inauguration Day was always March 4, the anniversary of the Constitution first taking affect in 1789. The Twentieth Amendment changed the date of Inauguration Day to January 20, unless that falls on a Sunday, in which case the date is moved to January 21.

AMENDMENT XX [extracts]
Passed by Congress March 2, 1932. Ratified January 23, 1933.

Section 1. The terms of the President and the Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives at noon on the 3rd day of January, of the years in which such terms would have ended if this article had not been ratified; and the terms of their successors shall then begin.

Section 2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall begin at noon on the 3d day of January, unless they shall by law appoint a different day.

Section 3. If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President. If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified.