Fun facts and trivia about the annual State of the Union address

According to archives.gov, President George Washington gave the first presidential report on January 8, 1790, addressing Congress at the Senate Chamber of Federal Hall in New York City.

President John Adams also gave his annual message in person, but President Thomas Jefferson, the third president, broke that brief tradition and began his own, sending a written message to Congress instead.

A 2006 Senate report said Jefferson had his private secretary deliver copies of his messages to both houses of Congress, to be read by clerks in the House and Senate.

"Jefferson's change was intended to simplify a ceremony that he believed to be an aristocratic imitation of the British monarch's Speech from the Throne, and thus unsuitable to a republic," the report said.