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1794 1st session of the United States Senate is open to the publi
1804 The Jeffersonian 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 Senate
of all charges on March 1, 1805).
1841 The first ongoing filibuster in the United States Senate begins and lasts until March 11.
1848 The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
, ending the Mexican-American War, is ratified by the United States Senate. (cf. February 2, above.)
1850 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
.
1856 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 Southerners who sympathized with the pro-slavery
violence in Kansas
("Bleeding Kansas
"). Sumner was unable to return to duty for three years while he recovered. Brooks became a hero across the South.
1856 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 Southerners who sympathized with the pro-slavery
violence in Kansas
("Bleeding Kansas
"). Sumner was unable to return to duty for three years while he recovered. Brooks became a hero across the South.
1861 American Civil War
: Jefferson Davis
resigns from the United States Senate
1868 After Andrew Johnson
tried to dismiss United States Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, he becomes the first President of the United States
to be impeached
by the United States House of Representatives
. Johnson would later be acquitted by the United States Senate.
1868 A court of impeachment
is organized in the United States Senate to hear charges against President Andrew Johnson
.
1868 President
Andrew Johnson
is acquitted during his impeachment
trial, by one vote in the United States Senate.
1870 Hiram Rhodes Revels, a Republican from Mississippi
, is sworn into the United States Senate, becoming the first African American
ever to sit in the U.S. Congress
1887 The United States Senate allows the Navy
to lease Pearl Harbor
as a naval base.
1899 Spanish-American War
: A peace treaty between the United States
and Spain
is ratified by the United States Senate.
1903 The Hay-Herran Treaty, granting the United States
the right to build the Panama Canal
, is ratified by the United States Senate. The Colombian Senate would later reject the treaty.
1907 Charles Curtis from Kansas
, becomes the first Native American
US Senator
.
1912 United States Senate inquiry into the ''Titanic''
sinking begins.
1917 The United States Senate adopts the cloture rule in order to limit filibusters.
1920 The United States Senate votes against joining the League of Nations
.
1922 Rebecca Felton of Georgia
takes the oath of office, becoming the first woman United States Senator
.
1926 By a vote of 45 to 41, the United States Senate unseats Iowa
Senator Smith W. Brookhart and seats Daniel F. Steck, after Brookhart had already served for over one year.
1930 Bonus Army: Around a thousand World War I
veterans mass at the United States Capitol
as the U.S. Senate
considers a bill that would give them certain benefits.
1932 Hattie W. Caraway becomes the first woman elected to the United States Senate
1935 Senator
Huey Long
of Louisiana
makes the longest speech on Senate record. The speech took 15½ hours and was filled by 150,000 words.
1935 Carl Weiss fatally shoots US Senator
from Louisiana
, Huey Long
, nicknamed "Kingfish", in the Louisiana
capitol building in Baton Rouge.
1937 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
.
1945 By a vote of 65 to 7, the United States Senate approves the entry of the United States
into the United Nations
.
1947 Percival Prattis becomes the first black news correspondent allowed in the United States House of Representatives
and Senate
press gallery.
1947 The United States Senate follows the United States House of Representatives
in overriding U.S. President Harry S. Truman
's veto
of the Taft-Hartley Act.
1950 Red scare
: In his speech to the Republican Women's Club at the McClure Hotel in Wheeling, West Virginia, Senator
Joseph McCarthy
accuses the United States Department of State
of being filled with 205 Communists
.
1952 The United States Senate ratifies a peace treaty
with Japan
.
1954 Senator
Joseph McCarthy
begins hearings investigating the United States Army
for being "soft" on Communism
.
1954 McCarthyism: Joseph Welch, special counsel for the United States Army
, lashes out at Senator
Joseph McCarthy
during hearings on whether Communism
has infiltrated the Army
1954 Red Scare
: The United States Senate votes 67 to 22 to condemn Joseph McCarthy
for "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute."
1964 Thirteen years after its proposal and nearly two years after the measure had been passed by the United States Senate 77-16, the 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution
, prohibiting the use of poll tax
es in national elections, is ratified.
1966 Former Massachusetts
Attorney General Edward Brooke becomes the first African American
elected to the United States Senate since Reconstruction
.
1970 The United States Senate repeals the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.
1973 Watergate scandal
: Televised hearings begin in the United States Senate.
1973 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.
1973 The United States Senate votes 92-3 to confirm Gerald Ford
as Vice President of the United States
.
1977 United States Senate hearings on MKULTRA are held.
1978 United States Senate proceedings are broadcasted on radio
for the first time.
1986 After waiting 37 years, the United States Senate approves a treaty outlawing genocide
.
1986 The United States Senate allows its debates to be televised
on a trial basis.
1986 Democrats
regain control of the United States Senate for the first time in 6 years. In California
, Chief Justice Rose Bird and two colleagues are removed by voters from the Supreme Court of California for their opposition to capital punishment
.
1987 On a vote of 58-42, the United States Senate rejects President
Ronald Reagan
's nomination of Robert Bork
to the U.S. Supreme Court.
1991 Following a bitter confirmation hearing that involved allegations of sexual misconduct, the United States Senate votes 52-48 to confirm Judge Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court of the United States
.
1992 Kent Conrad of North Dakota
resigns his seat in the United States Senate and is sworn into the other seat from North Dakota, becoming the only U.S. Senator ever to have held two seats on the same day.
1993 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.
1993 Louis Freeh is confirmed by the United States Senate as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
.
1993 Savings and Loan scandal: The United States Senate Ethics Committee issues a stern censure of California
senator Alan Cranston for his dealings with savings-and-loan executive Charles Keating.
1994 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 secured control of both houses of U.S. Congress. George W. Bush
is elected Governor of Texas.
1997 Madeleine Albright
becomes the first female secretary of state after confirmation by the United States Senate.
1997 Strom Thurmond
becomes the longest serving member in the history of the United States Senate (41 years and 10 months).
1998 Iraq disarmament crisis
: The United States Senate passes Resolution 71, urging U.S. President Bill Clinton
to "take all necessary and appropriate actions to respond to the threat posed by Iraq
's refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs."
1999 President
Bill Clinton
is acquitted by the United States Senate in his impeachment | 
Timeline
