Video: 'Millard Fillmore: Last of the Whigs (1850 - 1853)'

(Wednesday, July 10, 1850, 12 noon local time) — Vice President Millard Fillmore was formally sworn in as the 13th President of the United States today at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., following the death of President Zachary Taylor the previous evening from a severe intestinal illness.

William Cranch, chief judge of the U.S. Circuit Court, administered the presidential oath of office to Fillmore in the chamber of the House of Representatives.

Cranch had also administered the oath to John Tyler in 1841, when Tyler succeeded to the presidency upon William Henry Harrison’s death.