Harry Flood Byrd, born June 10, 1887, was a U.S. Senator and politician from West Virginia. Byrd served as both governor and senator for the Commonwealth of Virginia. Though a staunch Democrat, Byrd is famously known as the major proponent of "Massive Resistance," or the resistance of desegreation in schools and the support of the societal structures that allowed segregation to continue. Byrd, who coined the term, maintained his desegregationist stance well after the segregation laws were overturned. Byrd retired from the Senate in 1965 and died on October 20, 1966.

The Presidential Inauguration of 1945 was unique in American history. Extending his unprecented length of service, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) won a fourth term of the American presidency in 1944, and was inaugurated on January 20, 1945. However, this success was overshadowed by FDR's visible ill-health, though there were continued efforts to cover it up. Just over two months later on March 29, 1945, the president died from health complications.