United States Senate Timeline of Events

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United States Senate

The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each U.S. state is represented by two senators, regardless of population...

Timeline of Events

1794

2.11.1794

First session of United States Senate open to the public.

1803

10.20.1803

The United States Senate ratifies the Louisiana Purchase.

1804

11.30.1804

The Democratic-Republican-controlled United States Senate begins an impeachment trial against Federalist-partisan Supreme Court of the United States Justice Samuel Chase.

1834

3.28.1834

The United States Senate censures President Andrew Jackson for his actions in de-funding the Second Bank of the United States.

1837

2.8.1837

Richard Johnson becomes the first Vice President of the United States chosen by the United States Senate.

1841

2.18.1841

The first ongoing filibuster in the United States Senate begins and lasts until March 11.

1848

3.10.1848

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is ratified by the United States Senate, ending the Mexican-American War.

1850

3.7.1850

Senator Daniel Webster gives his "Seventh of March" speech endorsing the Compromise of 1850 in order to prevent a possible civil war.

1856

5.22.1856

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").

5.22.1856

1861

1.21.1861

American Civil War: Jefferson Davis resigns from the United States Senate.

1867

4.9.1867

Alaska purchase: Passing by a single vote, the United States Senate ratifies a treaty with Russia for the purchase of Alaska.

1868

2.24.1868

Andrew Johnson becomes the first President of the United States to be impeached by the United States House of Representatives. He is later acquitted in the Senate.

3.5.1868

A court of impeachment is organized in the United States Senate to hear charges against President Andrew Johnson.

5.16.1868

President Andrew Johnson is acquitted in his impeachment trial by one vote in the United States Senate.

1870

2.25.1870

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

1.20.1887

The United States Senate allows the Navy to lease Pearl Harbor as a naval base.

1899

2.6.1899

Spanish-American War: The Treaty of Paris, a peace treaty between the United States and Spain, is ratified by the United States Senate.

1900

1.16.1900

The United States Senate accepts the Anglo-German treaty of 1899 in which the United Kingdom renounces its claims to the Samoan islands.

1903

3.14.1903

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

1.23.1907

Charles Curtis of Kansas becomes the first Native American U.S. Senator.

1911

8.14.1911

United States Senate leaders agree to rotate the office of President pro tempore of the Senate among leading candidates to fill the vacancy left by William P. Frye's death.

1913

4.8.1913

The 17th Amendment to the United States Constitution, requiring direct election of Senators, becomes law.

1920

1.19.1920

The United States Senate votes against joining the League of Nations.

3.19.1920

The United States Senate rejects the Treaty of Versailles for the second time (the first time was on November 19, 1919).

1922

11.21.1922

Rebecca Latimer Felton of Georgia takes the oath of office, becoming the first female United States Senator.

1932

1.12.1932

Hattie W. Caraway becomes the first woman elected to the United States Senate.

6.17.1932

Bonus Army: around a thousand World War I veterans amass at the United States Capitol as the U.S. Senate considers a bill that would give them certain benefits.

1935

9.8.1935

US Senator from Louisiana, Huey Long, nicknamed "Kingfish", is fatally shot in the Louisiana capitol building.

1937

7.22.1937

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

12.4.1945

By a vote of 65 to 7, the United States Senate approves United States participation in the United Nations (the UN was established on October 24, 1945).

1947

6.23.1947

The United States Senate follows the United States House of Representatives in overriding U.S. President Harry Truman's veto of the Taft-Hartley Act.

1948

9.13.1948

Margaret Chase Smith is elected senator, and becomes the first woman to serve in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the United States Senate.

9.18.1948

Margaret Chase Smith of Maine becomes the first woman elected to the US Senate without completing another senator's term, when she defeats Democratic opponent Adrian Scolten.

1949

7.21.1949

The United States Senate ratifies the North Atlantic Treaty.

1950

2.9.1950

Second Red Scare: Senator Joseph McCarthy accuses the United States Department of State of being filled with Communists.

1951

5.3.1951

The United States Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees begin their closed door hearings into the dismissal of General Douglas MacArthur by U.S. President Harry Truman.

1952

3.20.1952

The United States Senate ratifies a peace treaty with Japan.

1954

6.9.1954

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 giving McCarthy the famous rebuke, "You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"

12.2.1954

Red Scare: The United States Senate votes 65 to 22 to condemn Joseph McCarthy for "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute".

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