Video: 'President Franklin Roosevelt 1933 Inauguration'
(Saturday, March 4, 1933, 1:06 p.m. EST) — Former Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt of New York took the oath of office today as the 32nd President of the United States at the East Portico of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.
Roosevelt, a Democrat, succeeded President Herbert Hoover, ending a 12-year era of Republican rule at the White House.
65 minutes earlier, at 12:01 p.m. EST, former U.S. Speaker of the House John Nance Garner of Texas was sworn in as the 32nd vice president of the United States, succeeding Vice President Charles Curtis.
Video: 'Franklin D. Roosevelt Inaugural Address March 4, 1933. the Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear...'
The Roosevelt-Garner ticket had defeated Hoover-Curtis, Republicans seeking a second term in the 1932 United States presidential election, by 472-59 votes in the Electoral College.
With the nation in the grips of the Great Depression, the new president’s inaugural speech was awaited with great anticipation.
After taking the oath of office, Roosevelt proceeded to deliver his 1,883-word, 20-minute-long inaugural address, best known for his famously pointed reference to “fear itself” in one of its first lines:
Video: 'Franklin D. Roosevelt Inauguration 1933'
So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is…fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and of vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. And I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days.
Following the inauguration, former President Hoover caught a train to New York City.
It was the last presidential inauguration to be held on the prescribed date of March 4; under the terms of the Twentieth Amendment, all subsequent inaugurations have taken place on January 20.
