Inauguration addresses from 1789 to present
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/01/17/washington/20090117_ADDRESSES.html?hp

“We Are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial.” http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/19/arts/music/19weareone.html?_r=1

Until 1937, Inauguration Day was March 4th. But it was changed in 1937 by the 20th Amendment, because there was no reason to have that much time between November elections and the inauguration. The shortest inaugural address was the first one, delivered by George Washington. It was 135 words long. The longest inaugural address was by William Henry Harrison — it was 8,495 words.
About a month ago, Barack Obama announced his inaugural poet: Elizabeth Alexander, a professor at Yale. Obama knows Alexander from the days when they both taught at the University of Chicago. The Writer’s Almanac

Quotes
"Traditionally, Indonesians practiced a tolerant, almost syncretic brand of faith, infused with the Buddhist, Hindu, and animist traditions of earlier periods."
Barack Obama; The Audacity of Hope; Crown Publishers; 2006.
I happen temporarily to occupy this big White House. I am living witness that any one of your children may look to come here as my father's child has. -Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the U.S. (1809-1865) A.Word.A.Day

Bowling Green is a small public park in Lower Manhattan at the foot of Broadway next to the site of the original Dutch fort of New Amsterdam. The park has long been a center of activity in the city going back to the days of New Amsterdam, when it served as cattle market between 1638 and 1647 and parade ground. In 1675, the Common Council designated the "plaine afore the forte" for an annual market of "graine, cattle and other produce of the country". In 1677 the city's first public well was dug in front of the old fort at Bowling Green. In 1733, the Common Council leased a portion of the parade grounds to three prominent neighboring landlords for a peppercorn a year, upon their promise to create a park that would be "the delight of the Inhabitants of the City" and add to its "Beauty and Ornament"; the improvements were to include a "bowling green" with "walks therein".
In August 21, 1770, the British government erected a 4,000 pound (1,800 kg) gilded lead equestrian statue of King George III in Bowling Green; the king was dressed in Roman garb in the style of the Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius. The statue had been commissioned in 1766, along with a statue of William Pitt, from the prominent London sculptor Joseph Wilton. With the rapid deterioration of relations with the mother country after 1770, the statue became a magnet for the Bowling Green protests; in 1773, the city passed an anti-graffiti and anti-desecration law to counter vandalism against the monument, and a protective cast-iron fence was built around it (which still exists as of 2008). On July 9, 1776, after the Declaration of Independence was read to Washington's troops at the current site of City Hall, local Sons of Liberty rushed down Broadway to Bowling Green, where they toppled the statue. The cast-iron crowns that topped sections of the surrounding fence were knocked off, as well.
In 1989, the sculpture Charging Bull by Arturo Di Modica was installed in the park by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation after it had been confiscated by the police following its illegal installation on Wall Street. The sculpture has become one of the beloved and recognizable landmarks of the Financial District.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling_Green_(New_York_City)

Federal Register Announces New “Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents”
January 16th, 2009 Source: NARA
The Office of the Federal Register (OFR), which is part of the National Archives, has created a new publication, to be called the Daily Compilation of Presidential Documents. The Daily Compilation will appear on the Government Printing Office’s (GPO) new Federal Digital System (FDsys) January 20, 2009, to coincide with the incoming President’s term of office. The web site will be accessible via www.presidentialdocuments.gov by January 20. The online Daily Compilation will replace the printed Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents.

United States Mint Changes Strategy for Pricing Precious Metals Numismatic Products Source: U.S. Mint
The United States Mint is implementing a new strategy for pricing numismatic products containing gold and platinum effective January 12, 2009. Non-precious metal products and bullion coins will not be affected by the new pricing strategy. The United States Mint published a Federal Register notice on January 6, 2009, that included an itemized pricing structure for gold and platinum numismatic products. (This notice does not affect gold commemorative coin pricing.) Product prices will fluctuate within the new structure, which is based on a range of the average market price for gold and platinum. For gold numismatic products, the range will be within $50 and, for platinum numismatic products, the range will be within $100.
Pricing of gold and platinum numismatic products will be directly related to the average weekly London fix prices for these metals. If the market value of gold and platinum moves to a higher or lower range, the price of each product will be increased or decreased in corresponding increments. For example, if the weekly average price of gold rises to the next $50 price range, the United States Mint will increase the price of gold numismatic products by $50 for each ounce of gold in the product. Under this scenario, the price of a one-tenth ounce gold uncirculated coin would increase by $5. Previously, the United States Mint published a Federal Register notice each time the price of a product was changed. Under the new policy, the notice will be in effect throughout 2009.
+ Pricing tables for numismatic products containing gold and platinum coins

New Fact Sheets from the Federal Aviation Administration
January 17th, 2009 Source: FAA
+ Airbus A320 Characteristics & Emergency Operations
+ Fact Sheet: Improvements to Cabin Safety
+ Wildlife Hazard Mitigation Requirements and Programs

In 1999, United States Patent 6,004,596 was issued to Len Kretchman and David Gesked. This patent disclosed an improved crustless peanut butter and jelly sandwich.. The J.M. Smucker Company (“Smucker’s”) licensed the patent, and introduced the “Uncrustables™” brand of frozen no crust sandwiches. The brand was an instant success, and Smucker’s, according to their website, invested close to $20 million to start up a factory in Scottsville, Kentucky to produce the product. In 2005, Smucker’s sold $60 million worth of “Uncrustables™. The trouble started when Smucker’s began sending out cease and desist letters to enforce their purported intellectual property rights. In 2001, Albie’s Food, Inc., a small grocery and caterer in Gaylord, Michigan, received such a cease and desist letter. Albie’s took the matter to federal court and further filed a request for ex parte reexamination with the USPTO. After extensive reexamination proceedings where the claims of the PB&J patent were rejected, amended, rejected again and appealed to the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences, the BPAI reversed the examiner’s rejections but found new reasons for rejection. A quick look at the public file history in Public PAIR shows that a Notice of Intent to issue an ex parte reexamination certificate was mailed on December 8, 2006, which shows that all pending claims have been cancelled. http://www.ipfrontline.com/depts/article.asp?id=14617&deptid=3

Michael J. Owens invented the first mechanical bottle-making machine. In 1903 Edward Drummond Libbey formed the Owens Bottle Machine Company to make and lease these machines and, by the 1920s, 94 out of every 100 bottles made in the world were produced on Owens machines. In 1929 Owens Bottle Company merged with Illinois Glass to form Owens-Illinois. In 1930 the company merged its sheet glass-making operations into Libbey-Owens-Ford.
On August 1, 1907, Harney Lucas successfully sent voice messages from the Nicholas Building to Frank Butler in the Ohio Building on Madison Avenue, sending the first radio broadcast from building to building.
You Will Do Better in Toledo: From Frogtown to Glass City, a Toledo Retrospective in Postcards, 1893-1929