/year

United States Senate

upper house of the United States Congress

49 dated entries naming United States Senate, drawn from 42 separate years between 1789 CE and 2020 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.

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18th century

  • 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

19th century

  • 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
  • 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
  • 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, May 26 – President Andrew Johnson is twice 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
  • 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
  • 1893January 27 – James G. Blaine, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, U.S. Senator, and U.S. Secretary of State (b. 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

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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • 1947March 12 – Mitt Romney, American businessman, politician, Governor of Massachusetts, 2012 presidential candidate, and US Senator (R-UT)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
  • 1954April 22 – Senator Joseph McCarthy begins hearings investigating the United States Army for being "soft" on Communism.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
  • 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
  • 1955July 9 – Lindsey Graham, American politician, lawyer, U.S. Army soldier, U.S. Senator (R-Sc.) and unsuccessful 2016 presidential candidate (d. 2026)source
  • 1963September 24 – The United States Senate ratifies the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.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 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
  • 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

  • 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

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