FDR's First Inaugural Address: Trivia

    FDR's First Inaugural Address: Trivia

      Despite penning a majority of the inaugural address, speechwriter Raymond Moley isn't mentioned at all in the note FDR attached to the handwritten original, proving that people were stealing credit even before the internet. (Source)

      As if he needed to drive home his Americanness even further, President Roosevelt used for his swearing-in Bible a family heirloom printed back in 1686, which clocks in as the oldest Bible used for an inauguration. It was also in Dutch. (Source)

      If you're ever watching an inaugural ceremony on TV, you can thank FDR for making it just a bit longer. He started the trend of repeating the words of the oath in affirmation rather than saying a simple "I do." (Source)

      Unlike your wedding (probably), the sitting president went to the Roosevelts' ceremony; Teddy Roosevelt gave Eleanor away as her own father had died several years earlier. (Source)