George Washington took the first U.S. presidential oath on April 30, 1789, at Federal Hall in New York City.
The ceremony occurred nearly two months after the Constitution’s new federal government began operating. New York was then the nation’s capital, and Federal Hall hosted the first Congress. Chancellor of New York Robert Livingston administered the oath on the building’s second-floor balcony.
Washington traveled to the ceremony from his New York residence in a formal suit and was greeted by crowds. Vice President John Adams had already assumed his duties in the Senate on April 21, making Washington’s inauguration the first presidential one rather than the first inauguration of both offices.
This date is sometimes confused with March 4, which was the traditional inauguration date for many later presidents. Washington’s second inauguration took place on March 4, 1793. The January 20 schedule was established much later by the Twentieth Amendment, beginning with Franklin D. Roosevelt’s second inauguration in 1937.