January 20 or March 4-Inauguration Days that made a difference.

PaxxAmericanus

Franklin D Roosevelt was sworn in for his 2nd term on January 20, 1937, as have all Presidents since then. However, for his 1st term 4 years earlier he was sworn in on March 4, 1933, as had been all Presidents back to George Wahington. So, what would have been different for good or bad if those Inaugurations days had been different? Suppose the Constriction was never amended, and the day remained March 4 until the present or conversely it became January 20 in say 1861 or was from the beginning? 
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How could something as little as a different date have changed American or world history?
 
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Don Corleone

PaxxAmericanus said:
Is he pressed to take much stronger action than Bill Clinton did?
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He didn't really seem to care if he left problems for Clinton. See the Waco siege and Somalia.

But he also has less than a week to mount a response, there isn't a state actor like the Taliban, and the attack was largely a failure.
 

PaxxAmericanus

Don Corleone said:
He didn't really seem to care if he left problems for Clinton. See the Waco siege and Somalia.

But he also has less than a week to mount a response, there isn't a state actor like the Taliban, and the attack was largely a failure.
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Yes, I have always thought it was pretty shady of him to do that. Making it a trifecta by actively involving the US in the Middle East again doesn't seem beneath him.
 

GSD310

FDR 1945:
If the Yalta Conference remains at the same dates, this means FDR makes the trip during the last weeks of his third term rather than the first weeks of his fourth. Perhaps a lot more attention is drawn about how long FDR has left if he goes to Yalta before his fourth inauguration rather than after? FDR gets adviseto spill the beans to Truman about atomic bomb?

Eisenhower 1953:
An interesting one. Stalin has his stroke on the final days of Truman Administration and passes away on the second day of the Eisenhower administration. The leadership baton is being passed in the two superpower countries at the same time.

Kennedy 1961:
Any chance Eisenhower tries to overthrow Castro as an outgoing president? Otherwise Bay of Pigs gets delayed as other matters like Berlin takes up Kennedy’s attention.

Reagan 1985:
Another moment where the two superpowers passing the leadership baton at (nearly) the same time. Reagan takes office on 4th March, Chernenko passes away on 10th March.

Bush 2001:
Clinton finds it more difficult to counter the argument that he left behind a recession when he left office because he was still in office until March.

Obama 2009:
A situation develops where the US economy is deep in crisis and cannot wait for the constitutional niceties to be observed for action to be taken. Does Bush 43 say “I took over Fannie and Mae, sure why the hell not?” to a stimulus package, perhaps with input from Obama, on his way out?
 
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aaronupright

GSD310 said:
Reagan 1985:
Another moment where the two superpowers passing the leadership baton at (nearly) the same time. Reagan takes office on 4th March, Chernenko passes away on 10th March.
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Reagan would have been the President before anyway.
GSD310 said:
Obama 2009:
A situation develops where the US economy is deep in crisis and cannot wait for the constitutional niceties to be observed for action to be taken. Does Bush 43 say “I took over Fannie and Mae, sure why the hell not?” to a stimulus package, perhaps with input from Obama, on his way out?
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Obama having a lot of input during the transition happened in OTL.
 

PaxxAmericanus

Anarch King of Dipsodes said:
Greatly; but this belongs in pre-1900.
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Well, I split the difference here since the date was amended from March 4th to January 20the in 1937.We have still had the majority of Inauguration dates on March 4th (1789-1933) but January 20th (1937 to present) is catching up. To me since the thread question has to cover both dates it makes more sense to set it post 1900 when the change actually occurred.
BTW feel free to elaborate on the changes you see if it was January 20, 1861.
 
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Galba Otho Vitelius

Unfortunately this is current politics, but assuming no butterflies from earlier effects, having four months between when ordinary people vote, and Inauguration Day, instead of two and a half months, makes a big difference in the transitions both to and from the Trump Administration. Both elections were contested, the second more so.
 

PaxxAmericanus

Galba Otho Vitelius said:
Unfortunately this is current politics, but assuming no butterflies from earlier effects, having four months between when ordinary people vote, and Inauguration Day, instead of two and a half months, makes a big difference in the transitions both to and from the Trump Administration. Both elections were contested, the second more so.
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Its only politics if we talk about it like that. This is a huge one I hadn't even considered.
 

Galba Otho Vitelius

This is before 1900, but the1876 presidential election was contested, and Congress did not certify the result until March 2nd. The resolution required a special commission and what seems to be a deal between the Democrats and Republicans trading the White House for the end of reconstruction. A January 20th Inauguration affects this timeline. At the least, Thomas Ferry (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_W._Ferry) would have been Acting President between January 20th and March 2nd.
 

PaxxAmericanus

Galba Otho Vitelius said:
This is before 1900, but the1876 presidential election was contested, and Congress did not certify the result until March 2nd. The resolution required a special commission and what seems to be a deal between the Democrats and Republicans trading the White House for the end of reconstruction. A January 20th Inauguration affects this timeline. At the least, Thomas Ferry (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_W._Ferry) would have been Acting President between January 20th and March 2nd.
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Could this have devolved into Civil War 2.0 or at least 1.5?
 

Codae

Galba Otho Vitelius said:
This is before 1900, but the1876 presidential election was contested, and Congress did not certify the result until March 2nd. The resolution required a special commission and what seems to be a deal between the Democrats and Republicans trading the White House for the end of reconstruction. A January 20th Inauguration affects this timeline. At the least, Thomas Ferry (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_W._Ferry) would have been Acting President between January 20th and March 2nd.
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One probable effect to the timeline given greater urgency would be to accelerate it, though, so his Acting Presidency (if any) would likely wrap up before OTL's certification date.
 
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