taylor. reporter: without twitter, facebook or cnn, news of emergencies travelled a lot slower in 1849. so there was no reason to explore the power vacuum at the time. in fact, atchison slept most of the day, tuckered out bay lot of last-minute business in the senate, some things never change. still, some of atchison s friends reportedly could not resist. that night, some of his colleagues in the senate woke him up in the middle of the night to ask him to appoint them the secretary of state and other members of the cabinet. all in good fun, it seems, but out in kansas they ve got their story and are sticking to it even in you re not a believer in the legend of the 24-hour president of atchison. today of all days you should think of his legacy. that s the reason that president obama isn t taking any chances and is being sworn in on the day of his inauguration. indeed. president obama has been sworn in for his second term and apparently the story of david rice atchiso
ron claiborne is drawing up litigation as we speak. we were able to get an official response from the company overnight. wait till you hear how they are playing this one. we are going to have food on set to test this out. but first new details are emerging this morning about how the deadly stand off at a gas plant in algeria ended. a raid by algerian special forces with dozens dead including militants and hostages, at least one of whom we know is an american. abc s brian ross has been working his sources and joins us more from washington. brian, what do we know right now? reporter: good morning. of the ten americans at the bp facility, seven got out, but at least one died and the fate of two others is of growing concern this morning in the wake of the bloody attempts by the algerian army to rescue them from their al qaeda captors. the algerian army s final assault came after four days in which the hostages were held under the threat of death by the terrorists. the army
duped? i just got mad. and i just went on a rampage. and if there was no girlfriend, who was talking on the other end of the phone? and second time around. on the eve of the president s second inaugural address, can you guess which president delivered the shortest speech? who despite drenching rain insisted on riding in an open car? and whose was the first to be seen by millions? faithfully execute the office of president of the united states good evening. it s great to have you with us here on a saturday night. we do begin with that developing news that terrorists takeover of that natural gas facility in algeria has finally come to an deadly end tonight. the algerian military moving in, leaving many dead. including at least 23 hostages. one american among them. still other americans unaccounted for. for the first time it began, we re getting a first look inside the terrible ordeal. showing workers held inside the plant. hostages kneeling in the sand there, hands
you make me feel like i m living a teenage dream the celebrations have started. are you excited to be here for the inauguration? [ cheers ] but the burning question remains, what and who will the first lady be wearing? my heart stops good morning. burning question. everybody wants to know what she ll be wearingment everyone is talking about that. by the way, this is january 20th. the constitution mandates that every four years on this day a new president must be sworn in so before noon in the blue room at the white house barack obama will take the oath of office in a small private ceremony. tomorrow the big public swearing in. coming up, we re going to talk to george stephanopoulos about how much the president can really get done in a second term. their ceremony will be a bit more subdued than a four years ago. a little smaller. also new details about the alleged mastermind behind the fake dead girlfriend hoax involving college football star manti te o
the other end of the phone? and second time around. on the eve of the president s second inaugural address, can you guess which president delivered the shortest speech? who despite drenching rain insisted on riding in an open car and whose was the first to be seen by millions? good evening. it s great to have you with us here on a saturday night. we begin with that developing news that terrorists takeover of that natural gas facility in algeria has finally come to an end but a deadly end indeed. the algerian military moving in, leaving many dead. s to including at least 23 hostages. still other americans accounted for for the first time it began, we re get act look inside the terrible ordeal. showing workers held inside the plant. hostages feeling in the sand there. hands in the air. this new video reportedly shot by workers as they escaped through the desert. in a moment the stories of the survival. we begin with abc s chief investigative correspondent brian ross tonight