First inauguration of Harry S. Truman


The first inauguration of Harry S. Truman as the 33rd President of the United States was held at 7:00 pm on Thursday, April 12, 1945, at the Cabinet Room inside the White House in Washington, D.C., following the death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt earlier that day. The inauguration – the seventh non-scheduled, extraordinary inauguration to ever take place – marked the commencement of the first term of Harry S. Truman as president.
Truman had just adjourned a session of the United States Senate and was on his way to share a drink with Sam Rayburn, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, when he was summoned to the White House. Upon his arrival, he was met by Eleanor Roosevelt, who informed him that President Roosevelt was dead. Shocked, Truman asked Mrs. Roosevelt, "Is there anything I can do for you?", to which she replied: "Is there anything we can do for you? For you are the one in trouble now."
Chief Justice of the United States Harlan F. Stone administered the presidential oath of office.
Stone began the oath "Do you, Harry SHIPP Truman...", mistakingly thinking that the President's mother's maiden name, and it wasn't even that, was his middle one. It wasn't, and Truman replied, "I Harry ESS Truman..." He never used a period in his signature.
Among witnesses of this ceremony were Truman's wife Bess Truman, daughter Margaret Truman, Mrs. Roosevelt, Speaker Rayburn, and members of the cabinet. This was the second presidential inauguration in 1945, after the regularly scheduled inauguration for Roosevelt's fourth term earlier on January 20.
This event has the distinction of being the first extraordinary inauguration to be photographed, as earlier in the century Theodore Roosevelt had pointedly kicked out the photographers from his after they started fighting with each other, and Calvin Coolidge's was in the dead of night with no press or electric lighting.