Ronald Reagan started a tradition as he prepared to leave office after two terms as president: Write a note congratulating your successor and leave it in the Oval Office desk drawer.

In 1265, Britain's House of Commons, which became a model for parliamentary bodies, met for the first time. In 1778, James Cook became the first European to step foot on the Hawaiian Islands. He called them the Sandwich Islands.

America made its history as the first Black person, Barack Obama, was sworn in as the 44th president of the country. In front of record-breaking crowds, the young senator became the commander-in-chief of the United States,

It will be the coldest Inauguration Day since former President Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration in 1985, when the noon temperature was 7 degrees.

The worst weather for an inaugural came in March 1909, when 10 inches of snow forced William H. Taft to move indoors to be sworn in.

Washington, D.C., will experience a high of 21 degrees and a low of 11 degrees around noon when the inauguration is set to begin.

The weather forecast is expected to be quite cold, likely the coldest since former President Ronald Reagan was sworn into office in 1985.

A federal appeals court has ruled against an Obama-era policy shielding hundreds of thousands of immigrants who have long lived in the United States from deportation.

The second Presential inauguration of Donald Trump averaged 24.3 million viewers, a audience lower than Biden in 2021 (33.8 million) and Trump in 2017 (30.6 million).

Overall, the country that Trump is inheriting from Biden is in pretty good shape on everything from the economy to democracy, but Americans remain unhappy due to issues such as inflation and home prices, and long-term problems remain.

As Donald Trump insists on reading Joe Biden's letter in private, here's a look at what previous United States presidents wrote in their letters to their successors.