This won't be the first State of the Union speech given during a crisis

No moment in America's yearly political calendar is so grand or so daunting as the State of the Union address, a speech the president usually delivers to a joint session of Congress early in the year.

This year, President Biden is due to deliver his first State of the Union address on Tuesday. The Constitution requires the president to report on "the state of the union" and to do it from "from time to time." It has been customary for more than a century for the president to do this with a live speech before a joint session of Congress. Nearly all the members of the Cabinet and Supreme Court attend as well.

Now and then, the timing set by tradition has coincided with a period of high stress for the nation — and especially for the president himself. And when things are especially fraught, the tension and drama in the chamber in the Capitol can be almost palpable.

But even when under maximum pressure, presidents have viewed the speech as a