Et tu, LBJ?

In earlier times the inauguration of U.S. presidents took place on March 4th. George Washington’s first inauguration took place on April 30, 1789, but never mind.

After the Twentieth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was approved in 1933, presidential inaugurations were moved to January 20th.

The only inaugurations that have not taken place on March 4th or January 20th (besides George Washington's on April 30th) happened because (a) those dates occurred on a Sunday or (b) a president died or resigned.

The presidents who died in office were William Henry Harrison (1841), Zachary Taylor (1850), Abraham Lincoln (1865), James A Garfield (1881), William McKinley (1901), Warren G. Harding (1923), Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1945), and John F. Kennedy (1963). One president, Richard Nixon, resigned from office (1974).

You read it here first. Or maybe not.

I knew you couldn’t possibly get through today without knowing these things. To learn which presidents were not inaugurated on March 4th or January 20th (that is, who the successors to the ones who died or resigned were), click here.

The list is in purple, but I have no idea why.