On January 20, 1945, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was sworn in as President of the United States for an unprecedented fourth term. Due to rationing, the inauguration was held at the South Portico of the White House rather than at the capital. No other festivities were held. Chief Justice Harlan F. Stone administered the oath, and FDR’s inauguration speech was the shortest on record.
FDR’s fourth inauguration was also the fortieth inauguration of a President. It was also the inauguration of Harry S. Truman as vice president, his only term serving as such. Truman was sworn in by Vice President Henry Wallace, the man he replaced. Truman’s swearing-in serves as the most recent inauguration in which an outgoing vice president sort in his successor.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s presidency was the longest in American history. Who would pass away on April 12, 1945, leaving Truman to take over the presidency. Two years later, on March 21, 1947, Congress approved the Twenty-Second Amendment, which limited the number of times a person is eligible for election to the office of President of the United States to two terms. The states officially ratified the amendment on February 27, 1951. Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first and only third and fourth term president.
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