Two Major Events in One Day – January 20th

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On this auspicious day there is so much to say and happily Wikipedia is there to teach, share and guide. Today the  inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47th president of the United States is expected to take place. Due to temperatures expected to be in single digits and high winds, it will be held inside the United States Capitol rotunda in Washington, D.C.  While it is the 60th U.S. presidential inauguration and the second inauguration of Trump as U.S. president, it marks the commencement of his second and final non-consecutive term as U.S. president, the term of JD Vance as the vice president, and the only non-consecutive re-inauguration for a U.S. president after the second inauguration of Grover Cleveland in 1893.[1] It is also the first presidential inauguration to take place indoors since Ronald Reagan’s public ceremony in 1985. Trump’s first inauguration was eight years earlier, in January 2017.

Included at this event is a swearing-in ceremony, a signing ceremony, an inaugural luncheon, a pass-in-review, a procession, and a parade. Inaugural balls are held at various venues before and after the inaugural ceremonies. Several Democratic members of Congress have decided to boycott Trump’s inauguration.

Since it is held on the third Monday of January, the inauguration will occur on the same day as Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which marks the second time an inauguration has occurred on the same date as the holiday following the second inauguration of Bill Clinton in 1997.[2][3]  The inauguration ceremony is to take place in the Capitol rotunda, a first since the public second inauguration of Ronald Reagan on January 21, 1985.[4][5]

In May 2024, both houses of Congress appointed a Joint Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies to oversee the construction of the platform and other temporary structures that would be necessary for the ceremonies and celebrations.[6]

Construction of the inaugural platform ceremonially began on September 18, 2024, with the driving of the first nail by United States Senator Amy Klobuchar using a nail made from iron ore mined and processed from the Iron Range in Minnesota.[7]

More Inauguration details

Martin Luther King Jr. Day (officially Birthday of Martin Luther King Jr.,[1] and often referred to shorthand as MLK Day) is a federal holiday in the United States observed on the third Monday of January each year. King was the chief spokesperson for nonviolent activism in the Civil Rights Movement, which protested racial discrimination in federal and state law and civil society. The movement led to several groundbreaking legislative reforms in the United States.

Born in 1929, Martin Luther King Jr.‘s actual birthday is January 15 (which in 1929 fell on a Tuesday). The earliest Monday for this holiday is January 15 and the latest is January 21. The Monday observance is similar for those federal holidays which fall under the Uniform Monday Holiday Act.

The campaign for a federal holiday in King’s honor began soon after his assassination in 1968. President Ronald Reagan signed the holiday into law in 1983, and it was first observed three years later on January 20, 1986. At first, some states resisted observing the holiday as such, giving it alternative names or combining it with other holidays. Official observance in each state’s law as well as federal law occurred in 2000. There

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Day of Service

The national “Martin Luther King, Jr., National Day of Service”[37] was started by former Pennsylvania U.S. Senator Harris Wofford and Atlanta Congressman John Lewis, who co-authored the King Holiday and Service Act. The federal legislation challenges Americans to transform the King Holiday into a day of citizen action volunteer service in honor of King. The federal legislation was signed into law by President Bill Clinton on August 23, 1994. Since 1996, Wofford’s former state office director, Todd Bernstein, has been directing the annual Greater Philadelphia King Day of Service,[38] the largest event in the nation honoring King.[39]

Since 1994, the day of service has been coordinated nationally by AmeriCorps, a federal agency, which provides grants to organizations that coordinate service activities on MLK Day

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