Death of Lyndon B. Johnson
Former president Lyndon B. Johnson, whom Nixon replaced in the White House in 1969, died two days after the inauguration. Johnson thus became the sixth president who died during his immediate successor's administration, following George Washington (1799), James K. Polk (1849), Andrew Johnson (1875), Chester A. Arthur (1886) and Calvin Coolidge (1933), who died during the administrations of John Adams, Zachary Taylor, Ulysses S. Grant, Grover Cleveland (1st term), and Herbert Hoover, respectively. Many of the ceremonies that the Armed Forces Inauguration Committee had planned during the ten days had to be canceled to allow for a full state funeral.
Many of the military men who participated in the inauguration took part in the funeral. Johnson's casket traveled the entire length of the Capitol, entering through the Senate wing when taken into the rotunda to lie in state, and exiting through the House wing; this was due to construction on the East Front steps.
Read more about this topic: Second Inauguration Of Richard Nixon
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