March 4th, 1789: 1st day of Governance under U.S. Constitution

~ Barack Obama's first inauguration on January 20th, 2009 ~

The first inauguration, that of George Washington, took place on April 30, 1789. All subsequent (regular) inaugurations from 1793 until 1933, were held on March 4, the day of the year on which the federal government began operations under the U.S. Constitution in 1789.

THE AMERICAN RELAYER - Issue 4
Politics in the United States

The exception to this pattern being those years in when March 4 fell on a Sunday. When it did, the public inauguration ceremony would take place on Monday, March 5. This happened on four occasions, in: 1821, 1849, 1877, and 1917. Inauguration Day moved to January 20, beginning in 1937, following ratification of the Twentieth Amendment to the Constitution, where it has remained since. A similar Sunday exception and move to Monday is made around this date as well (which happened in 1957, 1985, and 2013).

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_inauguration

On January 20th, 2017, Donald John Trump was inaugurated as 45th President of the United States. The "establishment" candidate, Hillary Rodham Clinton, was denied what was considered to be her "coronation" as our first woman President. However, corruption in the Democratic National Committee brought her down from such a pedestal on Election Day (November 8th, 2016) when an unconventional Republican nominee, Donald Trump, upset her plans to become the next occupant of the White House. Though I chose not to vote for Ms. Clinton or Mr. Trump, my decision to vote for Jill Stein of the Green Party turned out to be an "unconscious" vote for the Republican candidate, as our Republic is designed to fall into a two party system (though not originally intended by the framers). No party affiliation was attributed to George Washington at the start of his first term, yet by the time his second term began supporters of the 1789 Constitution were called "Federalists" and those in opposition were "Anti-Federalists." John Adams, first U.S. President to live in the White House, was also a Federalist, and his successor, Thomas Jefferson, was the first opposition candidate, a "Democratic" Republican, to whom power was passed peacefully on March 4th, 1801. Two parties have been the norm ever since, however some of them have gone into history, such as the Federalists and the Whigs. Jefferson's party is still in existence as the Democratic Party, and an abolitionist party formed in 1854 by Abraham Lincoln is the Republican Party of today whose nominee is now the 45th President of the United States of America... ~ JDHWB-R