HERBERT HOOVER, 31ST PRESIDENT - Herbert Hoover was inaugurated as President on March 4, 1929. His was the first inauguration to be recorded by a talking newsreel. Soon after becoming President, the country experienced a collapse of the stock market and entered into the Great Depression. For this reason, he is often associated with the Great Depression. In fact, however, as Secretary of Commerce under Calvin Coolidge, Hoover had warned of the financial market excesses that led to the Stock Market Collapse and the Great Depression. He also was one of the greatest, if not the greatest, humanitarian in our nation's history. Having used his mining engineering education to make himself a multi-millionaire at a young age, during World War I he spearheaded and personally financed much of the Belgium relief effort for civilians displaced by the war. He was also an organizational genius so that, even after his presidency, future presidents sought him out for his advice and help. Unfortunately, he was not a great public communicator with the result that with the beginning of the Great Depression he was unable to provide the public, morale leadership that the nation's needed at the time.

WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON, 9TH PRESIDENT - William Henry Harrison was sworn in as the 9th U.S. President on March 4, 1841. His campaign slogan - "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" - referred to his defeat of the Native Americans under the leadership of Tecumseh and his brother The Prophet at the Battle of Tippecanoe, and was the first presidential campaign to use a campaign slogan. He was the first President-elect to arrive in Washington, D.C. for his inauguration by train, while his was the longest of all inaugural speeches (10,000 words). His inaugural address was unusual in that he began it before taking the oath of office, then took the oath of office, and then resumed his speech. His presidency was the shortest of all U.S. Presidents, dying not long after his inauguration from pneumonia that he caught from giving such a long inauguration speech in the bitter cold.