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United States Senate

upper house of the United States Congress

80 dated entries naming United States Senate, drawn from 61 separate years between 1733 CE and 2021 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 Senate of the United States, U.S. Senate, U.S. Senator, U.S. senate, U.S. senator, US Senate, US Senator, United State Senate in the source articles; Wikipedia redirects those to the same subject, so their entries are on this page.

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18th century

  • 1733November 20 – Philip Schuyler, general in the American Revolution, United States Senator from New York, father of Angelica Schuyler Church and Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton (died 1804)source
  • 1789April 6 – At Federal Hall, the United States Senate attains its first quorum, and elects John Langdon of Pennsylvania as its first president pro tempore. Later that day, the Senate and the House of Representatives meet in joint session for the first time, and the electoral votes of the first U.S. presidential election are counted. General George Washington is certified as president-elect, and John Adams is certified as vice-president elect.source
  • 1794February 11 – The first session of the United States Senate is open to the public.source
  • 1795June 8 – George Washington submits the Jay Treaty to the United States Senate for ratification.source

19th century

  • 1804November 18 – Philip Schuyler, general in the American Revolution, a United States senator from New York, father of Angelica Schuyler Church and Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, father-in-law of Alexander Hamilton (born 1733)source
  • 1804November 30 – The Democratic-Republican-controlled United States Senate begin an impeachment trial against Federalist-partisan Supreme Court of the United States Justice Samuel Chase (he was charged with political bias but was acquitted by the United States Senate of all charges on March 1, 1805).source
  • 1804November 30 – The Democratic-Republican-controlled United States Senate begins an impeachment trial against Federalist-partisan Supreme Court of the United States Justice Samuel Chase, on charges of political bias (he is acquitted by the United States Senate of all charges on March 1, 1805).source
  • 1805March 1 – Justice Samuel Chase is acquitted of impeachment charges by the United States Senate.source
  • 1828February 11 – DeWitt Clinton, 6th Governor of New York, United States Senator (born 1769)source
  • 1834March 28 – The United States Senate censures President Andrew Jackson for his actions in defunding the Second Bank of the United States (censure expunged in 1837).source
  • 1834April 14 – The Whig Party is officially named by United States Senator Henry Clay.source
  • 1837February 8 – Richard Johnson becomes the only vice president of the United States chosen by the United States Senate.source
  • 1837September 24 – Mark Hanna, United States Senator from Ohio (died 1904)source
  • 1841February 18–March 11 – First ongoing filibuster in the United States Senate.source
  • 1841February 18 – The first ongoing filibuster in the United States Senate begins, and lasts until March 11.source
  • 1850March 7 – United States Senator Daniel Webster gives his "Seventh of March" speech, in which he endorses the Compromise of 1850, in order to prevent a possible civil war.source
  • 1856May 22 – Caning of Charles Sumner: United States Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina beats Senator Charles Sumner with a cane in the hall of the United States Senate for a speech Sumner had made attacking pro-slavery Southerners, especially elderly South Carolina Senator Andrew Butler, a relative of Brooks. Sumner is unable to return to duty for three years while he recovers; Brooks becomes a hero across the South.source
  • 1856May 22 – Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina beats Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts with a cane in the hall of the United States Senate, for a speech Sumner had made attacking Southerners who sympathized with the pro-slavery violence in Kansas ("Bleeding Kansas"). Sumner is unable to return to duty for 3 years while he recovers; Brooks becomes a hero across the South.source
  • 1858March 4 – A speech by fire-eater James Henry Hammond of South Carolina in the United States Senate promotes the idea of "King Cotton" and the "mudsill theory" in support of slave labor.source
  • 1858June 16 – Abraham Lincoln accepts the Republican Party nomination for a seat in the United States Senate, delivering his House Divided speech in Springfield, Illinois.source
  • 1868February 24 – Impeachment of Andrew Johnson: Three days after his action to dismiss United States Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, the United States House of Representatives votes 126–47 in favor of a resolution to impeach Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, the first of three Presidents to be impeached by the full House. Johnson is later acquitted by the United States Senate.source
  • 1868May 16 and 26 – President Andrew Johnson is acquitted during his impeachment trial by one vote in the United States Senate.source
  • 1870February 25 – Hiram Rhodes Revels, a Republican from Mississippi, is sworn into the United States Senate, becoming the first African American to sit in the U.S. Congress.source
  • 1875February 27 – Newton Booth, 11th Governor of California, resigns, having been elected Senator. Lieutenant Governor of California Romualdo Pacheco becomes acting Governor. He is later replaced by elected governor William Irwin.source
  • 1885May 19 – After a three-month legislative battle in the Illinois General Assembly, John A. Logan is re-elected to the United States Senate.source
  • 1887January 20 – The United States Senate allows the United States Navy to lease Pearl Harbor as a naval base.source
  • 1891January 13 – In California, Leland Stanford (Rep.) re-elected Senator.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
  • 1899February 6 – By a vote of 57 to 27, a peace treaty between the United States and Spain is ratified by the United States Senate to end the Spanish–American War.source
  • 1900January 14 – The U.S. Senate accepts the British-German Treaty of 1899, in which the United Kingdom renounces its claims to the American Samoa portion of the Samoan Islands.source

20th century

  • 1903March 14 – The Hay–Herrán Treaty, granting the United States the right to build the Panama Canal, is ratified by the United States Senate. The Colombian senate later rejects the treaty.source
  • 1904February 15 – Mark Hanna, United States Senator from Ohio (born 1837)source
  • 1912April 19 – The United States Senate initiates an official inquiry into the RMS Titanic disaster, hastily issuing subpoenas for White Star personnel before they can return to the United Kingdom.source
  • 1920November 2 – 1920 United States presidential election: Republican U.S. senator Warren G. Harding defeats Democratic governor of Ohio James M. Cox and Socialist Eugene V. Debs, in the first national U.S. election in which women have the right to vote.source
  • 1922November 21 – Rebecca Felton of Georgia takes the oath of office, formally becoming the first woman United States Senator.source
  • 1924November 4 – 1924 United States presidential election: Republican Calvin Coolidge defeats Democrat John W. Davis and Progressive Wisconsin Senator, Robert M. La Follette Sr.source
  • 1932January 12 – Hattie W. Caraway of Arkansas becomes the first woman to be elected to the United States Senate, succeeding her late husband, Thaddeus Caraway, in a special election,source
  • 1933February 17 – Repeal of Prohibition in the United States: The Blaine Act passes the United States Senate, submitting the proposed Twenty-first Amendment to the Constitution to the states for ratification. The amendment is ratified on December 5, ending prohibition in the United States.source
  • 1933February 17 – Repeal of Prohibition in the United States: The Blaine Act passes the Senate, submitting the proposed Twenty-first Amendment to the Constitution to the states for ratification to end prohibition in the United States.source
  • 1935September 8 – Carl Weiss fatally wounds Huey Long, U.S. Senator from Louisiana ("The Kingfish"), in a shooting at the Louisiana Capitol Building in Baton Rouge.source
  • 1936August 29 – John McCain, American politician, U.S. Senator (R-Az.) (died 2018)source
  • 1937July 22 – New Deal: The United States Senate votes down President Franklin D. Roosevelt's proposal to add more justices to the Supreme Court of the United States.source
  • 1941September 8 – Bernie Sanders, American politician, U.S. Senator (D-Vt.) and 2016 presidential candidatesource
  • 1947February 3 – P.L. Prattis becomes the first African American news correspondent allowed in the United States House of Representatives and Senate press galleries.source
  • 1947March 12 – Mitt Romney, American businessman, politician, Governor of Massachusetts, 2012 presidential candidate, and US Senator (R-UT)source
  • 1947June 23 – The United States Senate follows the House of Representatives, in overriding President Harry S. Truman's veto of the Taft–Hartley Act.source
  • 1947October 26 – Hillary Clinton, American politician, First Lady, US Senator (D-Ny.), Secretary of State, and 2016 Democratic presidential candidatesource
  • 1948September 13 – Margaret Chase Smith of Maine is elected United States Senator, becoming the first woman to serve in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the United States Senate.source
  • 1949June 22 – Elizabeth Warren, American academic and politician, U.S. Senator (D-Mass.) since 2013source
  • 1952March 20 – The United States Senate ratifies a peace treaty with Japan.source
  • 1952December 1 – Rick Scott, American politician, 45th Governor of Florida, U.S. Senator (Florida)source
  • 1954April 22 – Senator Joseph McCarthy begins hearings investigating the United States Army for being "soft" on Communism.source
  • 1954June 9 – McCarthyism: Joseph N. Welch, special counsel for the United States Army, lashes out at Senator Joseph McCarthy, during hearings on whether Communism has infiltrated the Army, saying, "Have you, at long last, no decency?" The exchange results in the decline of McCarthy's popularity.source
  • 1954December 2 – Red Scare: The United States Senate votes 67–22 to censure Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy, for "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute."source
  • 1955July 9 – Lindsey Graham, American politician, lawyer, U.S. Army soldier, U.S. Senator (R-Sc.) and unsuccessful 2016 presidential candidate (died 2026)source
  • 1963September 24 – The United States Senate ratifies the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.source
  • 1968June 6 – Robert F. Kennedy, American lawyer, politician (United States Senator, U.S. Attorney General) and a leading 1968 Democratic presidential candidate (born 1925)source
  • 1969January 28 – 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill: A blowout on Union Oil's Platform A spills 80,000 to 100,000 barrels of crude oil into a channel and onto the beaches of Santa Barbara County in Southern California; on February 5 the oil spill closes Santa Barbara's harbor. The incident inspires Wisconsin Senator Gaylord Nelson to organize the first Earth Day in 1970.source
  • 1970December 22 – Ted Cruz, Canadian-American politician, U.S. Senator (R-Tx.) from 2013 and 2016 presidential candidatesource
  • 1973July 16 – Watergate scandal: Former White House aide Alexander Butterfield informs the United States Senate Watergate Committee that President Richard Nixon had secretly recorded potentially incriminating conversations.source
  • 1973November 27 – The United States Senate votes 92–3 to confirm Gerald Ford as Vice President of the United States.source
  • 1978February 8 – United States Senate proceedings are broadcast on radio for the first time.source
  • 1979December 31 – Josh Hawley, American politician, U.S. Senator (R-MO) from 2019source
  • 1983November 7 – 1983 U.S. Senate bombing: A bomb explodes in the United States Senate with the intent to kill Republican senators; no one is injured. The perpetrators are members of the May 19th Communist Organization.source
  • 1986February 19 – The United States Senate approves a treaty outlawing genocide.source
  • 1986February 27 – The United States Senate allows its debates to be televised on a trial basis.source
  • 1987October 23 – On a vote of 58–42, the United States Senate rejects President Ronald Reagan's nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court.source
  • 1990October 6 – White supremacist David Duke receives 44% of the vote in the Louisiana Senate race, but ultimately loses the vote to Bennett Johnson.source
  • 1991April 4 – U.S. Senator John Heinz and six other people are killed when a helicopter collides with their plane over Merion, Pennsylvania.source
  • 1991April 5 – Former U.S. Senator John Tower and 22 others are killed in an airplane crash in Brunswick, Georgia.source
  • 1993March 11 – Janet Reno is confirmed by the United States Senate and sworn in the next day, becoming the first female Attorney General of the United States.source
  • 1994November 8 – "Republican Revolution": Georgia Representative Newt Gingrich leads the United States Republican Party in taking control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate in midterm congressional elections, the first time in 40 years the Republicans secure control of both houses of Congress. George W. Bush is elected Governor of Texas.source
  • 1997January 23 – Madeleine Albright becomes the first female Secretary of State of the United States, after confirmation by the United States Senate.source
  • 1999February 12 – U.S. President Bill Clinton is acquitted in impeachment proceedings in the United States Senate.source

21st century

  • 2012October 14 – Arlen Specter, 82, American politician, U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania (1981–2011), complications of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.source
  • 2012October 21 – George McGovern, 90, American politician and USAAF pilot, U.S. Representative (1957–1961) and Senator (1963–1981), 1972 Democratic Party presidential nominee.source
  • 2016December 8 – John Glenn, 95, American astronaut (Mercury-Atlas 6) and politician, U.S. Senator from Ohio (1974–1999).source
  • 2018August 25 – John McCain, 81, American politician and Navy officer, member of the U.S. Senate (since 1987) and House of Representatives (1983–1987), glioblastoma.source
  • 2020January 16 – The first impeachment trial of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, begins in the U.S. Senate. He was acquitted on February 5.source
  • 2021June 26 – Mike Gravel, 91, American politician, senator (1969–1981), member (1963–1967) and speaker (1965–1967) of the Alaska House of Representatives, myeloma.source

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