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

1966

11.8.1966

Former Massachusetts Attorney General Edward Brooke becomes the first African American elected to the United States Senate.

1968

6.6.1968

Senator Robert F. Kennedy dies from his wounds after he was shot the previous night.

1972

8.3.1972

The United States Senate ratifies the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

1973

5.17.1973

Watergate scandal: Televised hearings begin in the United States Senate.

5.31.1973

The United States Senate votes to cut off funding for the bombing of Khmer Rouge targets within Cambodia, hastening the end of the Cambodian Civil War.

7.13.1973

Alexander Butterfield reveals the existence of the Nixon tapes to the special Senate committee investigating the Watergate break in.

7.16.1973

Watergate Scandal: former White House aide Alexander P. Butterfield informs the United States Senate that President Richard Nixon had secretly recorded potentially incriminating conversations.

11.27.1973

The Twenty-fifth Amendment: The United States Senate votes 92 to 3 to confirm Gerald Ford as Vice President of the United States (on December 6, the House confirmed him 387 to 35).

12.6.1973

The Twenty-fifth Amendment: The United States House of Representatives votes 387 to 35 to confirm Gerald Ford as Vice President of the United States (on November 27, the Senate confirmed him 92 to 3).

1978

2.8.1978

Proceedings of the United States Senate are broadcast on radio for the first time.

1986

2.27.1986

The United States Senate allows its debates to be televised on a trial basis.

1993

3.11.1993

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.

11.20.1993

Savings and loan crisis: 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.

1998

12.19.1998

Lewinsky scandal: The United States House of Representatives forwards articles I and III of impeachment against President Bill Clinton to the Senate.

1999

2.12.1999

President Bill Clinton is acquitted by the United States Senate in his impeachment trial.

10.13.1999

The United States Senate rejects ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

2000

11.7.2000

Hillary Rodham Clinton is elected to the United States Senate, becoming the first former First Lady to win public office in the United States, although actually she still was the First Lady.

2005

9.29.2005

United States Senate confirms John Roberts as Chief Justice of the United States.

2008

12.9.2008

The Governor of Illinois, Rob Blagojevich, is arrested by federal officials for a number of alleged crimes including attempting to sell the United States Senate seat being vacated by President-elect Barack Obama's election to the Presidency.

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