State of the Union Address Timeline of Events

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State of the Union Address

The State of the Union is an annual address presented by the President of the United States to the United States Congress. The address not only reports on the condition of the nation but also allows the president to outline his legislative agenda and his national priorities.The practice arises from a command given to the president in...

Timeline of Events

1790

1.8.1790

George Washington delivers the first State of the Union Address in New York City.

1864

12.1.1864

In his State of the Union Address President Abraham Lincoln reaffirms the necessity of ending slavery as ordered ten weeks earlier in the Emancipation Proclamation.

1943

2.20.1943

''The Saturday Evening Post'' publishes the first of Norman Rockwell's ''Four Freedoms'' in support of United States President Franklin Roosevelt's 1941 State of the Union address theme of Four Freedoms.

1965

1.4.1965

United States President Lyndon B. Johnson proclaims his "Great Society" during his State of the Union address.

2002

1.29.2002

In his State of the Union Address, President George W. Bush describes "regimes that sponsor terror" as an ''Axis of Evil'', in which he includes Iraq, Iran and North Korea.