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United States Secretary of State

head of the United States Department of State

38 dated entries naming United States Secretary of State, drawn from 35 separate years between 1790 CE and 2023 CE. Nothing here is written by us: each line is the sentence a Wikipedia year article used, and the link beside it opens the exact revision.

Also written as American Secretary of State, U.S Secretary of State, U.S. Secretary of State, US Secretary of State, United States secretary of state in the source articles; Wikipedia redirects those to the same subject, so their entries are on this page.

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18th century

  • 1790March 21 – Thomas Jefferson reports to President George Washington in New York, as the new United States Secretary of State.source

19th century

  • 1801May 16 – William H. Seward, 24th United States Secretary of State (died 1872)source
  • 1817August 4 – Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen, 29th United States Secretary of State (died 1885)source
  • 1830January 31 – James G. Blaine, 28th and 31st United States Secretary of State (died 1893)source
  • 1838October 8 – John Hay, diplomat, private secretary to Abraham Lincoln, 37th United States Secretary of State (died 1905)source
  • 1844February 28 – The "Peacemaker", the largest naval gun in the world, explodes during a demonstration aboard the USS Princeton on the Potomac River, killing six, including Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur and Secretary of the Navy Thomas Walker Gilmer.source
  • 1844April 22 – Lewis Powell, attempted assassin of United States Secretary of State William H. Seward, conspirator with John Wilkes Booth (died 1865)source
  • 1865April 14 – United States Secretary of State William H. Seward and his family are attacked in his home, by Lewis Powell.source
  • 1865December 18 – Secretary of State William H. Seward declares the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution ratified by three-quarters of the states, including those in secession. As of December 6, slavery is legally outlawed in the last two slave states of Kentucky and Delaware, and the remaining 45,000 slaves are freed.source
  • 1867March 30 – Alaska Purchase: Alaska is purchased for US$7.2 million from Alexander II of Russia, about 2 cents/acre ($4.19/km 2 ), by United States Secretary of State William H. Seward. Newspapers call this Seward's Folly.source
  • 1871October 2 – Cordell Hull, United States Secretary of State, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (died 1955)source
  • 1872October 10 – William H. Seward, 24th United States Secretary of State (born 1801)source
  • 1880December 31 – George C. Marshall, United States Secretary of State, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (died 1959)source
  • 1893January 27 – James G. Blaine, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, U.S. Senator, and U.S. Secretary of State (born 1830)source
  • 1900January 2 – U.S. Secretary of State John Hay announces the Open Door Policy to promote American trade with China.source

20th century

  • 1923May 27 – Henry Kissinger, German-born United States Secretary of State, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (died 2023)source
  • 1930April 28 – James Baker, former United States Secretary of State and United States Secretary of the Treasurysource
  • 1941November 26 – The Hull note (Outline of Proposed Basis for Agreement Between the United States and Japan), named for Secretary of State Cordell Hull, is delivered to the Empire of Japan by the United States.source
  • 1943December 11 – John Kerry, American politician, 68th U.S. Secretary of Statesource
  • 1944December 1 – Edward Stettinius, Jr. becomes the last United States Secretary of State of the Roosevelt administration, filling the seat left by Cordell Hull.source
  • 1947October 26 – Hillary Clinton, American politician, First Lady, US Senator (D-Ny.), Secretary of State, and 2016 Democratic presidential candidatesource
  • 1954November 14 – Condoleezza Rice, American politician, 66th United States Secretary of Statesource
  • 1955July 23 – Cordell Hull, United States Secretary of State, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (born 1871)source
  • 1959February 5 – The U.S. State Department released tapes that showed that Soviet jets had shot down an unarmed American Lockheed C-130 transport plane on September 2, 1958. Transmissions between the two fighter planes, identified as "201" and "218", had been intercepted in Turkey. The Soviets denounced the tapes as a "clumsy fake". On the same day, Soviet Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev invited U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower to visit Moscow, adding that he could bring anyone, and go anywhere, he chose. In his speech, Khrushchev referred to U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and proclaimed, "Mr. Dulles, if you so desire, then for the sake of ending the Cold War, we are even prepared to admit your victory in this war that is unwanted by the peoples. Regard yourselves, gentlemen, as victors in this war, but end it quickly."source
  • 1959October 16 – George C. Marshall, United States Secretary of State, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (born 1880)source
  • 1960December 16 – Secretary of State Christian Herter announces that the United States will commit five nuclear submarines and eighty Polaris missiles to the defense of the NATO countries by the end of 1963.source
  • 1976February 16 - Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State of the United States, visits the country on an official diplomatic tour.source
  • 1991January 9 – Gulf War: U.S. Secretary of State James Baker meets with Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz but fails to produce a plan for the withdrawal of Iraqi troops from Kuwait.source
  • 199320 August – The first agreement in the Oslo Accords is signed in Oslo, between by Foreign Minister Shimon Peres for Israel, Mahmoud Abbas for the Palestine Liberation Organization and Secretary of State Warren Christopher for the United States.source
  • 1996March 26 – Edmund Muskie, 81, American statesman, political leader, and U.S. Secretary of State, heart failure.source

21st century

  • 2001United States Secretary of State Colin Powell confirmed that Osama bin Laden was a suspect, but not the only suspect, for the September 11th attacks. Powell was in contact with Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf to build cooperation in fighting terrorism and to discuss the possibility of U.S. usage of Pakistani air space. Powell also announced that U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage would soon travel to Moscow for talks with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Trubnikov about Afghanistan.source
  • 2004September 9: United States Secretary of State Colin Powell declares that the actions of the Janjaweed Arab militia in Darfur constitute genocide. Powell holds the government of Sudan responsible. Up to 50,000 ethnic Africans have been killed and 2.2 million displaced into refugee camps in neighboring Chad by ethnic Arab militias.source
  • 2008August 25 – Israel releases 199 Palestinian Arab prisoners as a goodwill gesture to the President of the Palestinian National Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, as the United States Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, visits the area.source
  • 2012November 14–21 – Israel launches Operation Pillar of Defense against the Palestinian-governed Gaza Strip, killing Hamas military chief Ahmed Jabari. In the following week 140 Palestinians and five Israelis are killed in an ensuing cycle of violence. A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is announced by Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after the week-long escalation in hostilities in Southern Israel and the Gaza Strip.source
  • 2016November 8 – 2016 United States presidential election: Businessman and television personality Donald Trump is elected the 45th President of the United States in a surprise upset against his opponent, former Secretary of State and First Lady Hillary Clinton.source
  • 2021October 18 – Colin Powell, 84, American general and politician, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1989–1993) and secretary of state (2001–2005), complications from COVID-19.source
  • 202228 March–The foreign ministers of Israel, Egypt, Morocco, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, as well as the United States Secretary of State, meet in Sde Boker, Israel, and agree to hold regular meetings about regional security and commit to further expanding economic and diplomatic cooperation.source
  • 2023November 29 – Henry Kissinger, 100, German-born American diplomat and politician, national security advisor (1969–1975), secretary of state (1973–1977) and Nobel Prize laureate (1973), heart failure.source

Named in the same entries