SANDY KOZEL

President Jimmy Carter granting an unconditional pardon to draft
dodgers.

On January 21, 1977, U.S. President Jimmy Carter grants an unconditional pardon to hundreds of thousands of men who
evaded the draft during the Vietnam War.

In total, some 100,000 young Americans went abroad in the
late 1960s and early ’70s to avoid serving in the war. Ninety
percent went to Canada, where after some initial controversy
they were eventually welcomed as immigrants. Still others
hid inside the United States. In addition to those who avoided
the draft, a relatively small number—about 1,000—of deserters
from the U.S. armed forces also headed to Canada.

On January 20, 1961, on the newly renovated east front of the
United States Capitol, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was inaugurated
as the 35th president of the United States.

The ceremony began with a religious invocation and prayers, and then 
African American opera singer Marian  Anderson sang “The Star-
Spangled Banner,” and Robert Frost recited his poem “The Gift
Outright.” Kennedy was administered the oath of office by 
Chief Justice Earl Warren.

During his famous inauguration address, Kennedy, the youngest candidate
ever elected to the presidency and the country’s first Catholic president, 
declared  that “the torch has been passed to a new generation of 
Americans” and appealed to Americans to “ask not what your
country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”

On January 14, 1943, Franklin D. Roosevelt (left) became the first president to travel on official business by airplane. Crossing the
Atlantic by air, Roosevelt flew in a Boeing 314 Flying Boat dubbed
the Dixie Clipper (below) to a World War II strategy meeting with
Winston Churchill at Casablanca in North Africa.

Franklin D. Roosevelt (left) with Winston Churchill at the
Casablanca Conference, January 22, 1943.

Congress sets January 7, 1789 as the date by which states are
required to choose electors for the country’s first presidential
election. A month later, on February 4, George Washington was
elected president by state electors and sworn into office on
April 30, 1789.