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The U.S. Constitution spells it out clearly in Article II, Section 3: The president \u201cshall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the modern State of the Union address \u2014 the pageantry, the televised address and the agenda-setting message \u2014 is a far more recent tradition.<\/p>\n
A look at some State of the Union history as President\u00a0Joe Biden<\/a>\u00a0prepares to give his address to Congress:<\/p>\n George Washington on Jan. 8, 1790, in New York.<\/p>\n No. For his first address on Dec. 8, 1801, Thomas Jefferson sent written copies to both houses of Congress to be read by each chamber\u2019s clerks. Jefferson wanted to simplify what he believed was an aristocratic imitation of the British monarch\u2019s speech from the throne, which he thought ill-suited for a republic. The practice of sending written copies to Congress continued for more than a century.<\/p>\n Woodrow Wilson later resumed the tradition of delivering the annual message in person on April 8, 1913. He\u2019s also credited with transforming the speech from a report on executive branch activity into a blueprint for the president\u2019s legislative agenda for the year.<\/p>\n Franklin D. Roosevelt applied the constitutional phrase \u201cState of the Union\u201d to both the message and the event. It became the popular terminology from then on.<\/p>\n Calvin Coolidge delivered the first speech broadcast on radio in 1923. Harry Truman\u2019s address in 1947 was the first broadcast on television. Lyndon B. Johnson recognized the importance of having a national audience when he moved the speech from midafternoon to 9 p.m. in 1965 to attract the largest number of TV viewers. George W. Bush\u2019s 2002 speech was the first available as a live webcast on the White House website.<\/p>\n No. Recent presidents \u2014 Reagan in 1981, George H.W. Bush in 1989, Bill Clinton in 1993, George W. Bush in 2001, Barack Obama in 2009, Trump in 2017 and Biden in 2021 \u2014 did not give an official State of the Union address their first year in office. That speech would have come soon after their inaugural addresses. However, many of them still gave a major speech to Congress soon after their inauguration.<\/p>\n No. Truman sent his final message in print, as did Eisenhower in 1961 and Carter in 1981. As Eisenhower recovered from a heart attack in 1956, he prepared a seven-minute, filmed summary of the message from his retreat in Key West, Florida, that was broadcast nationwide. Richard Nixon sent a printed message in 1973; his staff said an oral message would have come too soon after his second inaugural address.<\/p>\n William Henry Harrison, who died 32 days after his inauguration in 1841, and James A. Garfield, who was assassinated in 1881 after 199 days in office.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nWho delivered the first State of the Union address?<\/h2>\n
Does it have to be a speech?<\/h2>\n
When did it become known as the \u201cState of the Union\u201d address?<\/h2>\n
How has the speech been affected by technology?<\/h2>\n
Is there a State of the Union speech every year?<\/h2>\n
Has it always been delivered in person since Wilson resumed it?<\/h2>\n
Which presidents didn\u2019t deliver a State of the Union message?<\/h2>\n
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