On January 28, President Bill Clinton visited the University of Illinois the day after making his State of the Union address before Congress in Washington, D.C., seven days after the Washington Post first published a story about the Monica Lewinsky scandal, and two days after Clinton denied having "sexual relations with that woman, Monica Lewinsky." 

In Champaign, Clinton repeated many of the themes that he addressed in his State of the Union: the importance of education, the need to shore up Social Security, the need to increase medical and scientific funding.

As the president was aboard Air Force One, and the plane was preparing for take-off, its right wheel  stuck in the mud at Willard Airport in Champaign.

The presidential party transferred to Air Force Two and departed. It was the last time that plane, which flew John F. Kennedy to Dallas before he was assassinated, was flown before being placed in an air museum.