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Inauguration Day Throughout History

By Olivia Ma

YouTube News & Politics

Today, Barack Obama will be inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States. Here at YouTube, we've seen the two-year-long presidential campaign unfold through video -- with hundreds of thousands of videos produced by the campaigns, created by voters, and re-mixed and mashed-up by the community in innumerable ways.


Obama inspired people all over the world to take ownership over his campaign with messages of hope and change, and as the first African-American to assume this office, he will make history today when he is sworn in on the steps of the Capitol at noon in Washington, D.C.

In honor of the historic nature of today's inauguration, we are dedicating the YouTube homepage to past presidential inaugural addresses. We partnered with C-SPAN to retrieve these speeches from its digital archives. From Franklin Delano Roosevelt's speech during the Great Depression in 1933 to George W. Bush's first inaugural address in 2001, just months before the September 11 attacks, today's homepage provides a comparative view of American presidents on the day each took office.

We hope that history geeks, political buffs, and everyday citizens alike will enjoy remembering these remarkable events. If you miss Obama's address at noon Eastern, you can find it here on YouTube soon afterward.


Happy Inauguration Day!


Cheers,

Olivia M.
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