Making the decision to forego the monarchical pomp of such a formal speech, Jefferson penned his State of the Union Addresses, which a clerk read aloud to Congress.

And Jefferson was perfectly within his rights in doing so.

After all, Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution never said anything about a speech, only that the President "shall from time to time give to Congress information of the state of the Union and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient."

But before Jefferson put the tradition on hold, George Washington gave the first State of the Union Address in a speech that took place in January 1790 at Federal Hall in New York City. Washington's address is the shortest on record at 833 words; The honor of the longest address goes to Harry Truman's 25,000-word marathon in 1946.

The average State of the Union speech hits around 5,000 words.

Woodrow Wilson brought the practice of a formal speech in front of Congress back to life with his 1913 State of the Union Address. Since Wilson, 22 presidents have delivered their addresses in the form of a written State of the Union report. However, most of Wilson's successors chose to go the route of the traditional speech.

But regardless of how a president chose to deliver his address, State of the Union Addresses didn't become truly public events until the arrival of television. Truman's 1947 speech was the first televised State of the Union Address. However, Lyndon B. Johnson's 1965 speech - an evening affair - had more viewers.

The State of the Union Address has evolved into a splashy public event, and everyone who's anyone in Washington will convene at the Capitol to hear Obama address the nation tonight. 

Everyone, that is, except for one member of the president's cabinet, who will spend the evening holed up on an undisclosed location. A throwback to the Cold War era, a "designated survivor" always skips major government gatherings such as the State of the Union Address in case of a disaster or attack occurs during the proceedings.

After all, someone has to run the nation if the unthinkable happens. How else would we have a State of the Union Address next year?

Information in this article was culled from mental_floss blog.