The Forum

Jan. 20, 2025 was the third time in history that Inauguration Day landed on Martin Luther King Jr. Day Monday, the two coinciding for inaugurations of Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and now Donald Trump. But, why have there only been three? Let’s look at the history of the two celebrations.

Inauguration Day didn’t take place on Jan. 20 until Franklin D. Roosevelt’s second inauguration in 1937, following the 1933 ratification of the 20th Amendment, which standardized the start and end of the presidential term to that day. Before FDR’s second term, presidents generally took their oath of office in early March, with the exceptions of George Washington’s first inauguration and inaugurations following the death of the sitting president. Washington’s oath of office for his first term, the first inauguration of the new nation, took place on April 30, 1789, six years after the end of the American Revolutionary War.

There have been exceptions to the Jan. 20 rule since 1937, though. Then-Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in aboard Air Force One at Dallas Love Field on Nov. 22, 1963, two hours and eight minutes after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, and then-Vice President Gerald Ford was inaugurated on Aug. 9, 1974 minutes after President Richard Nixon officially resigned amid the Watergate scandal, which he had announced the previous day. Additionally, when Jan. 20 falls on Sunday during an inauguration year, a private swearing-in is held that day, and a public inauguration is held the following day, Monday, Jan. 21, which was the case when Obama’s second public inauguration took place on MLK Day, Jan. 21, 2013.

MLK day was declared an official federal holiday in 1983 when President Ronald Reagan signed the King Holiday Bill into law 15 years after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated; the bill was first introduced four days after his assassination. The law didn’t take effect until 1986. It wasn’t until 2000 that all 50 states observed the holiday.

The next time MLK Day and Inauguration Day will land on the same day will be Jan. 20, 2053, so we’ll have to wait nearly 30 years to see what the next joint celebration of these two holidays holds.