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50 free Presidential Inauguration trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Every four years, at noon on January 20, the president of the United States takes a 35-word oath. Around that single constitutional requirement has grown a day of parades, poems, prayer services, balls and the occasional flubbed line. This inauguration trivia quiz covers the firsts and the records: the first ceremony on Federal Hall's balcony in 1789, the longest and shortest addresses, the swearing-in by kerosene lamp, the oath aboard Air Force One, the move to the Capitol's west front and the ceremonies driven indoors by the cold. Every answer is sourced and explained, so you can play it for Presidents' Day, a civics class or the next Inauguration Day.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Since 1937, on what date are regular presidential inaugurations held?
January 20
The 20th Amendment moved the start of terms from March 4; when the date falls on a Sunday the public ceremony shifts to Monday.
Q 02Before 1937, on what date were regular inaugurations held?
March 4
That was the day the federal government began operating under the Constitution in 1789; Sundays pushed four ceremonies to the 5th.
Q 03Which constitutional amendment, adopted in 1933, moved Inauguration Day earlier?
20th
Adopted in January 1933, it shortened the lame-duck period; FDR's first term was 43 days shorter as a result.
Q 04Where was the first presidential inauguration held in 1789?
Federal Hall, New York City
He took the oath on the balcony on April 30, the only scheduled inauguration ever held outside January or March.
Q 05Who administered the first presidential oath in 1789?
Robert Livingston
Livingston was Chancellor of New York; the Supreme Court did not yet exist, and a chief justice has sworn in every president since 1797.
Q 06Which part of the inauguration is the only one required by the Constitution?
The oath
Article II prescribes the 35 words; everything else, from the Bible to the balls, is tradition.
Q 07Which president delivered the longest inaugural address, 8,445 words, in 1841?
William Henry Harrison
He spoke without an overcoat or hat on a cold day and died 31 days later, though his pneumonia did not begin until three weeks after the speech.
Q 08Who gave the shortest inaugural address on record, just 135 words, in 1793?
George Washington
His first address in 1789 had started the tradition; his second barely filled a paragraph.
Q 09Whose 1797 inaugural address contained the longest sentence, 737 words?
John Adams
The whole speech ran 2,308 words, so nearly a third of it was one sentence.
Q 10Since whose 1981 inauguration has the ceremony been held on the Capitol's west front?
Ronald Reagan
The move cut costs and made room for more spectators facing the National Mall; 35 prior ceremonies had used the east front.
Q 11What happened in Iran while Reagan was giving his first inaugural address in 1981?
The 52 American hostages were freed
After 444 days in captivity, the hostages' plane left Iranian airspace while Reagan was at the congressional luncheon.
Q 12Why was Reagan's 1985 public inauguration moved indoors?
Bitter cold
Daytime temperatures were about 7 °F with wind chills near −25 °F; the parade was canceled too.
Q 13Whose 1909 inauguration was moved into the Senate Chamber because of a blizzard?
William H. Taft
Q 21Who, at 22, became the youngest inaugural poet with "The Hill We Climb" in 2021?
Amanda Gorman
The National Youth Poet Laureate followed Garth Brooks singing "Amazing Grace" and Lady Gaga's national anthem.
Q 22Which poet read "Praise Song for the Day" at Barack Obama's 2009 inauguration?
Elizabeth Alexander
Richard Blanco read "One Today" at Obama's second inauguration in 2013.
Q 23What song does the Marine Band play immediately after the presidential oath?
Hail to the Chief
It follows four "ruffles and flourishes" while a 21-gun salute is fired; the vice president gets "Hail, Columbia" instead.
It was the first of three indoor ceremonies forced by weather, followed by 1985 and 2025.
Q 14Where was Donald Trump's 2025 inauguration held because of freezing temperatures and high winds?
The Capitol Rotunda
The Rotunda seats only about 600; the parade was moved to Capital One Arena.
Q 15Lyndon B. Johnson took the oath of office in 1963 where?
Aboard Air Force One
The plane sat at Dallas Love Field; takeoff was delayed until he was sworn in, with Jacqueline Kennedy at his side.
Q 16Which president was sworn in by his own father, a notary public, by kerosene lamp in 1923?
Calvin Coolidge
It happened at 2:47 a.m. in the family parlor in Plymouth Notch, Vermont, after Harding's death; he repeated the oath before a judge weeks later.
Q 17Gerald Ford's 1974 swearing-in was the first unscheduled inauguration caused by what?
A resignation
The previous eight intra-term ceremonies all followed a president's death; Ford took the oath in the White House East Room.
Q 18How many times has a president been sworn in mid-term after a predecessor died or quit?
Nine
Eight followed deaths in office and one followed Nixon's resignation; Ford remains the most recent.
Q 19Which poet read at the 1961 Kennedy inauguration, the first ever to do so?
Robert Frost
Blinded by sun glare on fresh snow, the 86-year-old abandoned his new poem and recited "The Gift Outright" from memory.
Q 20Who recited "On the Pulse of Morning" at Bill Clinton's first inauguration in 1993?
Maya Angelou
She wrote it specifically for the day; Fleetwood Mac reunited to play "Don't Stop" at the celebrations.
Q 24How many guns are fired in the salute after the presidential oath?
21
The 3rd Infantry Regiment, "The Old Guard", fires from Taft Park north of the Capitol and times the salute to outlast the music.
Q 25Barack Obama took his 2009 and 2013 oaths with his hand on which historic book?
The Lincoln Bible
The Bible used at Lincoln's 1861 inauguration was also used by Donald Trump in 2017.
Q 26Which president affirmed, rather than swore, the oath of office in 1853?
Franklin Pierce
The Constitution allows "swear (or affirm)"; John Quincy Adams and Theodore Roosevelt both took the oath without a Bible.
Q 27What book was used for Lyndon B. Johnson's 1963 swearing-in aboard the plane?
A Catholic missal
It was found in Kennedy's cabin; Judge Sarah T. Hughes administered the oath.
Q 28Why did Chief Justice Roberts re-administer the oath to Barack Obama the day after the 2009 ceremony?
The words had been jumbled
Roberts misplaced the word "faithfully" and Obama repeated it; a memo on Roberts's planned pauses never reached Obama's staff.
Q 29Which president started the tradition of reviewing the inaugural parade from a stand at the White House in 1881?
James Garfield
The parade runs 1.5 miles down Pennsylvania Avenue with military and civilian units from all 50 states.
Q 30Which president had to escape his own 1829 White House reception through a window?
Andrew Jackson
Some 20,000 people created such a crush after his first inaugural parade that the public receptions later had to be scaled back.