Pointless Presidential Pfacts #30 - "There's an Inauguration For That"

Times they are a changing. When a new technology surfaces it of course becomes a part of the national story and an inauguration is always a new chapter on the American story. When Barack Obama is sworn in for a second term, his inaugural this time around will be the first to have an app.

There were other technological advances that helped usher in a new presidential administration, or at least get the message out that there was one.

James K. Polk's inaugural on March 4, 1845 was the first to be telegraphed.

William McKinley in 1897 was the first to be filmed using a motion picture camera.

The first telephone at an inauguration was in 1905 for Theodore Roosevelt.

This just in, radio joined the event by broadcasting Calvin Coolidge's inauguration in 1925.

Inaugurations became talkies in newsreels with Herbert Hoover's swearing-in in 1929.

Don't touch the remote (which probably wasn't around), Harry Truman's 1948 inauguration was the first to be televised.

William Jefferson Clinton's inaugural ceremony was the first broadcast live on the internet on January 20, 1997.