9. William Henry Harrison gave the longest inaugural oration – in the rain
Presidents were inaugurated in March when William Henry Harrison was elevated to the office in 1841, and the day chosen was commented on by attendees as particularly cold, wet, and raw. The weather did not deter the incoming president from delivering an address which was reported as lasting over two hours (some say nearly three), and some credit the weather as exacerbating the cold which Harrison soon exhibited, which worsened into pneumonia and took his life 30 days later, which brought about a constitutional crisis regarding the presidential succession. Harrison gave the longest inauguration speech as he entered what remains the shortest presidency in American history.