Actor Sam Waterston will recite Abraham Lincoln’s inaugural address to mark the 150th anniversary of his swearing-in as President of the United States on March 4, 1861. The oath of office will be re-enacted and Lincoln scholar Harold Holzer will deliver remarks. As was the sequence in 1861, the swearing-in follows the reading of the inaugural address.

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Fifty years ago, on January 17, 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered a farewell address to the nation in which he warned against the influence of the “military industrial complex”. The speech took place just days before his successor, John F. Kennedy, was sworn in as the 35th president of the United States. We’ll hear first from President Eisenhower – and then, after his 15 minute speech, we’ll see footage from JFK’s inauguration day.

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Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1933 Presidential Inauguration was the last one held in March. The 20th Amendment fixed inauguration day in January.

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In this program from our 1999 "American Presidents: Life Portraits" series we focused on Rutherford B. Hayes' life and career. Author Ari Hoogenboom and the director of the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center, Roger Bridges, talked about President Hayes as a lawyer, soldier, and politician during the contested election of 1876 in which Congress appointed Hayes president despite his loss to Samuel Tilden in the national election. The guests also explored the grounds of the Hayes Presidential Center, highlighting the various landmarks there. 

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In this program, Georgetown University professor Michael Kazin teaches a class on 1920s culture and society. He discusses Prohibition and the exploits of the gangster Al Capone, who eventually went to prison on tax evasion charges. Professor Kazin also talks about the motion picture industry and the new production codes that sought to tamp down on sexuality in films. In addition, he addresses the 1925 Scopes Trial, in which a high school teacher faced charges of unlawfully teaching evolution in a state-funded school. Georgetown University is in Washington, DC.

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David Coleman, Director of the Presidential Recordings Program at the University of Virginia's Miller Center, talks about audio recordings made of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, his last year in office. We recorded the interview at the annual meeting of the Organization of American Historians in San Francisco.

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On March 25th, 1911, a fire at New York City’s Triangle Shirtwaist Factory took the lives of 146 garment workers, most of them young immigrant women. The tragedy led to many changes in New York’s labor laws and building regulations. From New York’s Lower East Side Tenement Museum, journalist & novelist Kevin Baker talks with four relatives of Triangle Shirtwaist garment workers about how their ancestors died or survived, and about efforts to memorialize the victims. This program was co-hosted by the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition.

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Matthew Wasniewski, U.S. House of Representatives Historian, talks about the book he edited, “Black Americans in Congress, 1870-2007.”  It examines the role African Americans played in Congress after Reconstruction and during the 1960s Civil Rights Movement.  The book includes comprehensive biographies of members including Joseph Rainey, Oscar De Priest, Adam Clayton Powell, and Shirley Chisholm.  This program was recorded in the Rayburn House Office Building.

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