¹     Did you know that there is an inaugural parade
once every four years in our nation's capital? Since
1937, it has been set on the twentieth of January
following a November presidential election. The
president-elect may lead the parade. Otherwise,
he may see it from his place on a viewing stand built
at the White House. No two parades have been alike.
Read on to learn about some of the different inaugural
parades hosted by the United States.
 
²     In our nation's infancy (that's a fancy way of saying "when the USA was brand new"), the parade was more like a scheduled stroll. It included all kinds of government officials and friends. They would escort the president-elect to the Capitol; there he would take the oath of office. Our first president, George Washington, was escorted to Federal Hall in New York City. At that time, Washington, D.C. did not yet exist. The tradition of the long walk grew, and the custom of walking the president back to his home at the White House was included. That is the part of the event that evolved into the Inaugural Parade.
 
³     In 1809, James Madison, our 4th president, was escorted by the cavalry in his parade. That marked the first use of military presence in an inaugural parade.
 
⁴     Andrew Jackson, our 7th president, chose to walk to his ceremony. The year was 1829, and he was the first "poor boy" to become president. The man whose face graces our twenty dollar bills was escorted by a group of Revolutionary War veterans. They were joined by thousands of well-wishers who had turned out to see the new president. His informal parade made a strong and positive impression on the people.
 
⁵     William Henry Harrison was our 9th president. In 1841 he was the first president-elect to arrive in Washington by train. The weather for the parade was chilly and wet. Harrison rode unprotected from the elements on a white horse and acknowledged his many supporters. This inaugural parade was full of government officials as well as military bands and militia units. It was also the first parade to include floats. President-elect Harrison stopped at the Treasury Building to watch the two-hour parade. He got to lead the parade and view it too! Perhaps he should have worn a hat, coat, and gloves. One month later, he died from pneumonia.
 
⁶     Twenty years later, Abraham Lincoln, our 16th president, needed protection during his first parade. Trouble was brewing in the South. Lincoln rode surrounded by soldiers bearing weapons. The parade included a float with 34 girls dressed in white to represent each of the 34 states. For his second parade four years later, two companies of freed slaves marched. That was one first. The other first was the rain storm that put a damper on the event.
 
⁷     In 1869, Ulysses Grant, our 18th president, was the first president to watch the parade from a reviewing stand on Pennsylvania Avenue after he had taken his oath of office at the Capitol. Almost any group that came dressed in uniform was allowed to march, including firemen, Union veterans, and a variety of members of men's clubs. Grant's 14-year-old daughter, Nellie, watched the parade with her father.
 
⁸     In 1877, Rutherford Hayes, our 19th president, saw the parade established as a separate event from the oath of office ceremony. Ten thousand lantern bearers marched up Pennsylvania Avenue. They sang campaign songs and set off fireworks around the White House.
 
⁹     James Garfield, our 20th president, ushered in more firsts to our nation's 1881 inaugural parade. His mother was the first mother of a president-elect to see her son assume the role of president. For the first time the parade participants marched down concrete pavement that had been laid on Pennsylvania Avenue. John Philip Sousa led the full Marine Band, and General William T. Sherman of Civil War fame was the grand marshal.
 
¹⁰     Benjamin Harrison was elected as our 23rd president in 1889. He was escorted by his old Civil War Regiment, the 70th of Indiana. Besides the usual military units, his parade also featured the famous Buffalo Bill as well as flaming torches. The parade was so long that the sun went down before it had ended, and some units left the parade without making it to the end!
 
¹¹     Re-elected to office, our 25th president, William McKinley, viewed his second inaugural parade in 1901. It was the first time soldiers from Puerto Rico, wearing U.S. uniforms, marched in the parade.
 
¹²     In 1905 our 26th president, Theodore Roosevelt, enjoyed a colorful inaugural parade. During the parade, thirty Rough Riders and a Negro Cavalry rode up to the White House portico on horses. From horseback they shook hands with President Roosevelt.
 
¹³     William Howard Taft, our 27th president, rode with his wife in the inaugural parade. It was the first time a First Lady participated in the inaugural process. Though ten inches of snow had fallen the night before, the Tafts rode with the top of their carriage down so that they could be seen by the people who had braved the cold to witness the event.
 
¹⁴     The year 1917 witnessed the first time women were allowed to march in the parade. It was the inaugural parade of our 28th president, Woodrow Wilson.
 
¹⁵     In 1921, President Warren Harding, our 29th president, was the first president-elect to ride in a car in an inaugural parade.
 
¹⁶     Because of U.S. involvement in WWII, there was no parade for Franklin Roosevelt's 4th inauguration. Our 32nd president instead had an inauguration ceremony on White House property. You needn't feel sorry for him. He is the only president to be elected four times, and he had participated in earlier parades in his honor.
 
¹⁷     In 1949, President Harry Truman led his inauguration parade himself, renewing a tradition from which our president-elects had fallen away. Our 33rd president's parade included an old-fashioned calliope. It followed at the rear of the parade playing the tune, "I'm Just Wild about Harry"!
 
¹⁸     Flash forward to 1961. John Kennedy, our 35th president, was the first to have his inaugural parade televised in color.
 
¹⁹     Our 37th president, Richard Nixon, was the first to watch the parade from behind a bullet proof glass windshield on his reviewing stand. Soldiers lined the streets. America was in the midst of the Vietnam War, and security was tight.
 
²⁰     Jimmy Carter watched his inaugural parade from the comfort of the first solar heated presidential reviewing stand. For the first time in the history of inaugural parades, participants were chosen by each state's governor. Each state was allowed up to two entries in the parade.
 
²¹     In 1997, the inauguration of our 42nd president, Bill Clinton, was the first one carried live in cyberspace.
 
²²     The inauguration of 2001 welcomed George W. Bush, our 43rd president. It also marked the first time that people hoping to watch the parade had to pass through security checkpoints and be searched. This was due to the controversy surrounding the election results, and the need to prevent an outburst of violence.
 
²³     What other firsts await us in future inaugural parades? Time will tell. It may seem as if all possible firsts have occurred by now, but we'll just have to wait and see. A lot can happen in four years!

Inaugural Parades

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Mixed Review
(Answer ID # 0609747)

Complete.

Divide. Write your answer as a mixed number in simplest form.

Language Arts

Use each of the following adjectives once to complete each sentence: less, gigantic, first and able.

Circle the correct word that best completes each sentence.

Write the number of syllables that each word contains.

Write the letter for the word that best matches the definition.

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