Tonight’s speech is technically not a ‘State of the Union.’ They usually eschew that title this time around, since the president has only been in office a few weeks.
Interestingly, nothing in the Constitution requires a speech.
Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution says the ‘President Shall from time to time give Congress information on the State of the Union.’
President George Washington gave the first such address in New York, but President Thomas Jefferson discontinued the practice. He viewed it as too much like a speech from the crown.
The ‘State of the Union’ was a written document until the early 20th century. That’s when President Woodrow Wilson revived the speech custom after 112 years of dormancy.
President Calvin Coolidge was the first to deliver a State of the Union speech over the radio in 1923.
However, the tradition of radio really found its footing in the 1930s.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt mastered radio with his ‘Fireside Chats’ during the Great Depression and World War II. That continued during his State of the Union messages.
President Harry Truman was the first to have the speech broadcast on television in 1947.
President Lyndon Baines Johnson moved the speech to prime time in 1965.
President Bill Clinton had his speeches streamed on the internet in the mid-1990s.
Sometimes the speech itself isn’t what’s remembered – it’s the extracurriculars.
In January 1982, Air Florida Flight 90 crashed into the 14th Street Bridge shortly after takeoff.
Congressional Budget Office employee Lenny Skutnik famously dove into the freezing water to rescue a passenger.
Two weeks later, President Ronald Reagan recognized Skutnik by inviting him to the State of the Union as a guest. Presidents – and lawmakers – have continued this practice.
President Barack Obama spoke to a Joint Session of Congress in September 2009 about Obamacare. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-SC, infamously heckled the president, shouting ‘You lie!’
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, ripped up President Donald Trump’s speech after she presided over his State of the Union speech in February 2020.
Police arrested Steve Nikoui after he repeatedly disrupted President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address last year. Nikoui was upset after his son Kareem was killed in Afghanistan. Prosecutors later dropped the charges.