Story highlights
- Quiet official ceremonies for Obama, Biden precede Capitol swearing-in on Monday
- Chief Justice and Obama perform oath flawlessly this time
- Public events will attract large crowds, but smaller than Obama's first inaugural
- Obama has vowed to press for overhaul of immigration policies, find new ways to boost economy
With the official business of the 57th inauguration out of the way, Washington began preparing Sunday for a day of revelry -- and for the challenges facing President Barack Obama over the next four years.
Satisfying the constitutional obligation to be sworn in on January 20, Obama and Vice President Joe Biden took quiet oaths the day before the public ceremony at the Capitol, which is expected to attract a crowd of up to 800,000 on the National Mall.
Obama will become only the 17th U.S. president to deliver a second inaugural address before leading the traditional parade up Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House.
Monday's events will be smaller than Obama's first inauguration in 2009, when nearly two million people witnessed the swearing-in of the country's first African-American president.
2009: Obama inauguration makes history 04:48
The role of music at the inauguration 03:15
Photos: Presidential inaugurations since 1789
Photos: Presidential inaugurations since 1789
Donald Trump is sworn in as the 45th president of the United States by Chief Justice John Roberts. Trump is joined by his wife, Melania, and his five children: from right, Tiffany, Eric, Ivanka, Donald Jr. and Barron. See a panoramic Gigapixel from his inauguration
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Barack Obama takes the oath of office in 2009. His wife, Michelle, is holding the Bible, and they are joined by their daughters, Malia and Sasha. An estimated 1.5 million people attended the inauguration as Obama became the nation's first African-American president.
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George W. Bush takes the oath of office from Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist in 2001. Standing with Bush, from left, are daughter Jenna, wife Laura and daughter Barbara. Bush, the eldest son of former President George H.W. Bush, served two terms.
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Bill Clinton addresses the crowd at the US Capitol after being inaugurated in 1993. He was re-elected in 1996.
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President George H.W. Bush, left, shakes the hand of his son George W. Bush after being sworn in to office in 1989. The elder Bush had been vice president under President Ronald Reagan, whose two terms were up.
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President Ronald Reagan delivers his inaugural address at the US Capitol in 1981. As the ceremony was being held, Iran was releasing 52 American hostages.
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Jimmy Carter is joined by his wife, Rosalynn, as he takes the oath of office in 1977. He was the first president to walk from the Capitol to the White House in the post-inauguration parade.
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Gerald Ford takes the oath in 1974 next to his wife, Betty. He became president in August of that year after Richard Nixon resigned because of the Watergate scandal.
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Richard Nixon delivers his inaugural address in 1969. He was re-elected in 1972 but resigned two years after that.
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Lyndon B. Johnson takes the oath of office aboard Air Force One after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in November 1963. Standing on the right is Kennedy's widow, Jackie.
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John F. Kennedy is sworn in by Chief Justice Earl Warren in 1961. Kennedy, at 43, was the youngest ever to be elected president. This was the first inauguration ceremony to be televised in color.
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A crowd watches the inauguration ceremony of Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1953. Eisenhower, who served two terms, recited his own prayer after taking the oath of office.
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Harry S. Truman holds the Bible as he takes the oath of office in 1945. Standing beside him are his wife, Bess, and his daughter, Margaret. Truman was the vice president under Franklin D. Roosevelt, who died in office. Truman won re-election in 1948.
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Franklin D. Roosevelt is sworn in for his first term in 1933. He won four presidential elections and served in office until his death in 1945. The 22nd Amendment, ratified in 1951, ensured that he would be the last US president to serve more than two terms.
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People attend the inauguration of Herbert Hoover in 1929. Later that year, a stock market crash led to the Great Depression.
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Calvin Coolidge takes the oath of office in Plymouth, Vermont, in August 1923. President Warren G. Harding had just died, and Coolidge was vice president. Coolidge's father, John, administered the oath. He was a notary public.
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President Warren G. Harding waves to the crowd from the US Capitol's east portico in 1921. It was the first inauguration where an automobile was used to transport the president-elect to the Capitol.
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Woodrow Wilson gives his inaugural speech in 1913. Wilson broke with tradition and did not host any inaugural balls.
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William Howard Taft stands on the inaugural platform after taking the oath of office in 1909. His inauguration was held indoors because of a blizzard the day before.
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Theodore Roosevelt takes the oath of office in 1901. He was vice president to William McKinley, who died in office. Roosevelt, a distant cousin of future President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was the youngest president in history at 42 years of age. He was re-elected in 1904.
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William McKinley delivers his inaugural address in 1897. His inauguration was the first to be recorded on a movie camera. He died in office shortly after being re-elected in 1900.
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This engraved illustration of Benjamin Harrison's inauguration appeared on the cover of Harper's Weekly in 1889. It was raining during the ceremony.
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Grover Cleveland was the only president to serve two non-consecutive terms. He was inaugurated in 1885 (seen here) and 1893.
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Chester A. Arthur became the nation's 21st president after the death of James A. Garfield. There have been eight times in US history when a vice president has assumed the presidency because the president died in office.
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President James A. Garfield views the inauguration ceremonies in 1881. He was the first to watch the parade from a stand built in front of White House.
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Chief Justice Morrison R. Waite administers the oath of office to Rutherford B. Hayes. The usual inauguration day back then, March 4, fell on a Sunday in 1877. So the public ceremony was held on a Monday.
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Ulysses S. Grant takes the oath of office in front of a large crowd in 1869. Grant, the former Army general who helped the Union win the Civil War, served two terms.
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After the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson assumed the presidency in a Washington hotel in 1865.
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Abraham Lincoln gives his inaugural address in 1861. The nation was on the brink of the Civil War, so Lincoln was heavily protected during his procession to the Capitol.
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The 1857 inauguration of James Buchanan was the first inauguration ceremony known to be photographed.
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Military units precede Franklin Pierce's carriage down Pennsylvania Avenue during his inauguration day parade in 1853. Pierce broke the tradition of kissing the Bible during the swearing-in ceremony. He placed his left hand on it instead.
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Millard Fillmore, seen here, became president after Zachary Taylor's death in 1850.
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Zachary Taylor delivers his inaugural speech on the steps of the Capitol in 1849.
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People gather for the inauguration of James K. Polk in 1845. It was the first inauguration ceremony to be reported by telegraph and shown in a newspaper illustration.
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John Tyler, seen here, took the oath of office after the 1841 death of William Henry Harrison. Harrison died after just 32 days in office.
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This lithograph shows the inauguration of William Henry Harrison in 1841. Harrison delivered the longest inaugural address in history (about 8,500 words). He caught a cold and died from pneumonia a month later.
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Martin Van Buren was inaugurated in 1837. For the first time in history, the president-elect and the outgoing president rode to the inauguration together.
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Andrew Jackson was inaugurated at the US Capitol in 1829. He was re-elected in 1833.
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John Quincy Adams, son of former President John Adams, was inaugurated in 1825. He is one of only three presidents who did not use a Bible at his inauguration. He opted for a volume of law. Theodore Roosevelt used no Bible or book at his first inauguration in 1901. Lyndon B. Johnson used John F. Kennedy's Roman Catholic Missal during his hastily arranged swearing-in aboard Air Force One.
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James Monroe's inauguration in 1817 was the first time that the swearing-in ceremony was held outside. The Capitol building was still under repair from its damage in the War of 1812.
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James Madison, the fourth US president, was inaugurated in 1809 and was the first to hold an inaugural ball to celebrate.
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Thomas Jefferson arrives on horseback for his inauguration in 1801. It was the first one held at the US Capitol.
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John Adams, the second US president, took the oath of office at the House Chamber Congress Hall in Philadelphia.
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George Washington delivers his inaugural address at New York's Federal Hall in April 1789. It was 13 years after the Declaration of Independence and more than a year and a half after the Constitution was ratified.
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Less intensity this time reflects the reality of second-term presidencies, when the novelty and expectations of a new leader have been replaced with the familiarity and experiences of the first four years.
For Obama, that difference is even sharper.
His historic ascent to the White House in 2008 came with soaring public hopes and expectations for a new kind of governance that would close the vast partisan gulf developed in recent decades.
However, a list of challenges that included an inherited economic recession and repeated battles with congressional Republicans over budgets and spending only hardened the opposing positions in Washington.
Obama's signature achievements, including major reforms of the health care industry and Wall Street, became symbols of political division, with opponents constantly accusing him of hindering needed economic recovery.
A second-term Obama has vowed to press for an overhaul of the nation's immigration policies and new ways to boost the sputtering economy -- proposals that are bound to spark battles with his Republican rivals -- and oversee the implementation of Obamacare.
And the shootings at a Connecticut elementary school last month put the divisive issue of gun control on his immediate agenda.
CNN polling released Sunday showed a majority of Americans -- 54% -- believe Obama will be an outstanding or above average president in his second term, while 43% said he'd be poor or below average.
And while overall, seven in 10 Americans hope the president's policies succeed, only four in 10 Republicans feel that way, with 52% hoping that Obama will fail.
Obama's senior adviser, David Plouffe, said on Sunday that "the challenges and opportunities are enormous" in the president's second term, and that those challenges would be confronted as soon as the inaugural celebrations play out.
The tone of Obama's inaugural address on Monday will be "hopeful," Plouffe told CNN on Sunday, explaining that Obama would "remind the country that our founding principles and values still can guide us in a changing and modern world."
100 years of inaugurations in 2 minutes 01:53
"He's going to talk about the fact that our political system doesn't require us to resolve all of our disputes or settle all of our differences but it doesn't compel us to act where there shouldn't and is common ground," Plouffe added. "He's going to make that point very clearly."
Plouffe underscored that Obama's State of the Union address, to take place February 12, will present a more specific "blueprint" of the next four years.
Obama's swearing-in on Sunday took place in the ornate Blue Room, an oval-shaped reception space in the president's official residence, where he was joined by his wife, Michelle, and his two daughters.
Obama placed his left hand on a Bible held by Mrs. Obama that was from her family. He then raised his right hand.
Chief Justice John Roberts administered the oath - his third time to hold that honor. After Roberts flubbed the order of words during the public ceremony in 2009, a do-over took place in the White House Map Room the next day to erase any question that Obama was officially the president.
Roberts didn't have any trouble with the oath this time around. He read from a white note card. Slash marks where Roberts paused to have Obama repeat the words were clearly visible.
The event took less than a minute and Obama didn't make any formal remarks or statements.
He did take a moment to hug his wife and daughters, exclaiming: "I did it!"
Justice Sonia Sotomayor performed the honors for Biden at his home at the Naval Observatory in Washington, where the vice president's extended family and a few Cabinet officials gathered to watch the ceremony.
Both Obama and Biden went to Arlington National Cemetery after Biden's swearing-in for a traditional wreath laying.
The president and his family also attended services celebrating the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. at Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, one of the most historic churches in Washington.
Inauguration activities kicked off on Saturday with Obama and Mrs. Obama and Biden and his wife, Jill, leading volunteers across the country in National Day of Service Activities.
Later Saturday, singer Katy Perry headlined a concert for children of military families and Washington schoolchildren, hosted by Michelle Obama and Jill Biden. Singer Usher and the cast of the TV show "Glee" were among others who performed.
Sunday evening, the Obamas will watch Latino acts at "In Performance at the Kennedy Center," which is followed by the Let Freedom Ring concert. The Red, White and Blue Inaugural Ball and Hip-Hop Inaugural Ball are also scheduled in the capital.
