The Twentieth Amendment to the Constitution changed the presidential inauguration date from March 4 to January 20; that change was first instituted in 1937, when President Roosevelt was inaugurated after being reelected in 1936. The date change was made to shorten the amount of time between the election and Inauguration Day. This eliminated what was roughly a four-month lame-duck period for an outgoing president. The longer time frame between outgoing and incoming presidents had been needed earlier in history, when the means of communication and travel were more modest.