TORONTO – President Barack Obama is set to deliver the annual State of the Union address on Tuesday.
This will be the 224th annual address to be given by a president in the United States.
Global News takes a brief ‘by the numbers’ look at the SOTU.
1: Number of times the SOTU annual message has been postponed. On January 28, 1986, President Ronald Reagan was set to make his address-the same day the space shuttle Challenger exploded. His speech was then postponed to February 4.
3: Number of countries President George W. Bush identified as “axis of evil” in his 2002 SOTU speech. They included Iran, Iraq and North Korea.
12: Number of SOTU messages President Franklin Roosevelt gave-the most of any other president.
2: Number of presidents who never prepared any type of SOTU or annual message. William Henry Harrison died only after 32 days in office while James Garfield died after 199 days.
1 hour, 28 minutes and 49 seconds: The length of Bill Clinton’s 2000 address-the longest on record.
833 words: The shortest message ever given was by George Washington in 1790.
25,000: The number of words in President Harry Truman’s speech in 1946. Truman’s message was also the first to be broadcast on radio.
2002: The year the first SOTU was webcast live on the Internet.
89: The number of applause interruptions during Obama’s SOTU message on January 27, 2010.
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