January 20 · This Day in America
Washington is buried in snow. The youngest man ever elected president stands bareheaded in the cold, breath fogging, and speaks for just fourteen minutes. No coat. No notes he leans on. John F. Kennedy hands the torch from one generation to the next out loud, and asks Americans to carry it: to fight tyranny, poverty, disease, and war itself, not for reward but because the work is theirs. Near the end comes the sentence the country will never quite put down — ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. It is the first inaugural broadcast in color. Millions watch a young president dare them to be larger than themselves. Within three years he will be dead in Dallas. But the charge he gave that freezing morning outlived him, and people still measure themselves against it.
Source: www.jfklibrary.org
Also on this day · 1981
For 444 days, 52 Americans have been held captive in Tehran. On this morning Ronald Reagan raises his hand and takes the oath of office — and within minutes, as he delivers his inaugural address, the hostages are wheels-up out of Iran. The timing is not coincidence; it is calculation, down to the minute. One presidency ends, another begins, and a long national ordeal closes in the same breath. The next day Jimmy Carter flies to Germany to meet them.
Source: prologue.blogs.archives.gov
“And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.”John F. Kennedy, 1961