A Gallup poll taken shortly after the speech has Bush's approval rating at 82 percent.

1988: President Ronald Reagan criticizes Congress for passing last-minute, catch-all spending bills, and as a visual aid, hoists 3,296 pages of budget legislation documents weighing 43 pounds onto his podium.

1986: Reagan had planned to mention teacher-in-space Christa McAuliffe during his address, but the speech is postponed when the Space Shuttle Challenger explodes after launch that morning, killing McAuliffe and six others.

1974: President Richard Nixon calls for an end to the Watergate investigation, saying, "One year of Watergate is enough." He also declares he will not resign from office, saying, "I have no intention whatever of ever walking away from the job that the people elected me to do."

He resigns six months later.

1965: President Lyndon Johnson announces his Great Society programs. He also calls for a Voting Rights Act as well as air and water purification. The audience applauds 80 times during the address.

This is the first State of the Union address to be broadcast on prime-time TV.

1964: Johnson pledges to continue much of the work begun by President John F. Kennedy, who had been assassinated two months before. Johnson warns the Soviet Union that the U.S. remains a worthy adversary.

"We intend to bury no one, and we do not intend to be buried," he says, referring to a statement by Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. Although Johnson's speech is relatively brief (3,059 words), it took 24 writers six weeks and 10 to 16 major revisions to craft the final version.

1944: Ill after an overseas trip, President Franklin Roosevelt delivers his State of the Union as a "fireside chat" on the radio instead of before a joint session of Congress.

1941: Roosevelt speaks about the "Four Freedoms": Freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want and freedom from fear.

He warns of a "foreign peril" in Europe and urges support for England against Germany.

1862: With the Civil War not yet a year old, President Abraham Lincoln calls for the emancipation of the slaves.

1823: President James Monroe discusses the centerpiece of his foreign policy, now known as the Monroe Doctrine, which calls on European countries to end Western colonization.