Democratic National Party Headquarters

Democratic Party National Headquarters (donkey.gif) - logo first pictured in a January 15, 1870 political cartoon by Thomas Nast in Harper's Weekly.

 

 

Image:republicanlogo.jpg

Republican National Committee (http://en.wikipedia.org/ upload/e/ ed/Republicanlogo.jpg) - first important use  of logo pictured in a November 7, 1874 political cartoon by Thomas Nast in Harper's Weekly.

  American Political Tradition

Interesting Dates

February 11, 1254 - The British Parliament first convened.

April 25, 1507 - German cartographer Martin Waldseemueller first used term "America" on a world map to refer to the huge mass of land in the Western Hemisphere, in honor of Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci.

August 18, 1587 - Virginia Dare became the first child of English parents to be born on American soil, on what is now Roanoke Island, NC.

April 26, 1607 - An expedition of English colonists went ashore at Cape Henry, VA to establish the first permanent English settlement in the Western Hemisphere.

May 13, 1607 - The English colony at Jamestown, VA was settled. Some 100 English colonists settle along the west bank of the James River in Virginia to found Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America. Dispatched from England by the London Company, the colonists had sailed across the Atlantic aboard the Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery. first colonial council was held by seven settlers whose names had been chosen and placed in a sealed box by King James I. The council, which included Captain John Smith, an English adventurer, chose Edward Wingfield as its first president. During the next two years, disease, starvation, and more Native American attacks wiped out most of the colony, but the London Company continually sent more settlers and supplies. 1609-1610 - severe winter, colonists referred to as "starving time," killed most of the Jamestown colonists, leading the survivors to plan a return to England in the spring. June 10, 1610 - Thomas West De La Warr, newly appointed governor of Virginia, arrived with supplies and convinced the settlers to remain at Jamestown. 1612 - John Rolfe cultivated the first tobacco at Jamestown, introducing a successful source of livelihood. April 5, 1614 -  Rolfe married Pocahontas, thus assuring a temporary peace with Chief Powhatan.

July 30, 1619 - Governor Sir George Yeardley convened first elected legislative assembly in the New World--the House of Burgesses ("citizens") --convenes in the choir of the town's church in Jamestown, VA. First law, which, like all of its laws, would have to be approved by the London Company, required tobacco to be sold for at least three shillings per pound. Other laws passed during its first six-day session included prohibitions against gambling, drunkenness, and idleness, and a measure that made Sabbath observance mandatory.

November 11, 1620 - Forty-one Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower, anchored off Plymouth, Massachusetts; signed the Mayflower Compact calling for the establishment of a "Civil Body Politick" to enact "just and equal laws" for the governance of the first English colony in New England.

March 25, 1634 - Maryland was founded by English colonists sent by the second Lord Baltimore; first colonists to Maryland arrive at St. Clement's Island on Maryland's western shore and found the settlement of St. Mary's; 1632 - King Charles I of England granted a charter to George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore, yielding him proprietary rights to a region east of the Potomac River in exchange for a share of the income derived from the land; named Maryland in honor of Henrietta Maria, the queen consort of Charles I.

March 29, 1638 - Swedish colonists (Swedish Lutherans) settled in present-day Delaware.

January 14, 1639 - In Hartford, Connecticut, the first constitution in the American colonies, the "Fundamental Orders," is adopted by representatives of Wethersfield, Windsor, and Hartford; a binding and compact frame of government that put the welfare of the community above that of individuals; first written constitution in the world to declare the modern idea that "the foundation of authority is in the free consent of the people"; 1662 - Charter of Connecticut superseded the Fundamental Orders; though the majority of the original document's laws and statutes remained in force until 1818.

March 7, 1644 - Massachusetts establishes 1st 2-chamber legislature in colonies.

March 24, 1664 - Roger Williams was granted a charter to colonize Rhode Island.

March 4, 1681 - England's King Charles II granted a charter to William Penn for an area of land that later became Pennsylvania.

March 14, 1743 - The first recorded town meeting in America was held, at Faneuil Hall in Boston.

May 19, 1749 - King George II of England granted the Ohio Company (founded primarily by Virginian planters in 1747) a charter of several hundred thousand acres of land around the forks of the Ohio River, promoted westward settlement by American colonists from Virginia. France had claimed the entire Ohio River Valley in the previous century, but English fur traders and settlers contested the claims. The royal chartering of the Ohio Company directly challenged the French claim to Ohio and was a direct cause of the outbreak of the French and Indian War in 1754. With the defeat of the French in 1763, the Ohio River and the Great Lakes areas were placed within the boundaries of Canada, and the Ohio Company was merged with another land company to better exploit the region. Settlers in Ohio resented these acts and joined the patriots in their struggle against the British in the American Revolution. In 1783, Ohio was ceded to the United States with the signing of the Treaty of Paris. In 1788, Marietta became the first permanent American settlement in what was known as the Old Northwest. During the next decade, Native Americans were suppressed and British traders were pushed out, and in 1799 Ohio became a U.S. territory. In 1803, it entered the Union as the 17th state.

March 17, 1756 - St. Patrick's Day 1st celebrated in New York City at Crown and Thistle Tavern; March 17, 1762 - First St. Patrick's Day parade in New York City as Irish soldiers serving in the British army held the first parade honoring St. Patrick, in New York City; March 17, 1989 - Dorothy Cudahy is 1st female grand marshal of St. Patrick Day Parade; March 17, 1991 - Irish Lesbians and Gays march in St. Patrick Day parade.

October 19, 1765 - The Stamp Act Congress, meeting in New York, drew up a declaration of rights and liberties.

November 1, 1765 - The Stamp Act went into effect, prompted stiff resistance from American colonists; taxation measure designed to raise revenue for British military operations in America (French and Indian War [1754-63] and Pontiac's Rebellion [1763-64] were costly for Great Britain, Prime Minister George Grenville hoped to recover some of these costs by taxing the colonists); passed without debate by Parliament in March 1765, the Stamp Act was designed to force colonists to use special stamped paper in the printing of newspapers, pamphlets, almanacs, and playing cards, and to have a stamp embossed on all commercial and legal papers. October 1765 - nine colonies sent representatives to New York to attend a Stamp Act Congress, where resolutions of "rights and grievances" were framed and sent to Parliament and King George III; colonists greeted the arrival of the stamps with violence and economic retaliation; March 1766 - Parliament voted to repeal the Stamp Act after months of protest and economic turmoil, and an appeal by Benjamin Franklin before the British House of Commons; the same day, Parliament passed the Declaratory Acts, asserting that the British government had free and total legislative power over the colonies; Parliament would again attempt to force unpopular taxation measures on the American colonies in the late 1760s, leading to a steady deterioration in British-American relations that culminated in the outbreak of the American Revolution in 1775.

November 23, 1765 - Frederick County, MD repudiated the British Stamp Act.

March 4, 1766 - The British Parliament repealed the Stamp Act, the cause of bitter and violent opposition in the colonies.

September 5, 1774 - The first Continental Congress assembled in Philadelphia.

October 26, 1774 - The First Continental Congress adjourned in Philadelphia.

1775 - Continental Congress appointed Michael Hillegas and George Clymer as joint treasurers. 1777 - Hillegas assumed the role on his own. 1789 - Congress officially established the Treasury Department, which was led by Alexander Hamilton.

January 11, 1775 - Francis Salvador, the first Jew to be elected in the Americas, takes his seat on the South Carolina Provincial Congress; known as the "Southern Paul Revere" when he warned Charleston, South Carolina, of the approaching British naval fleet; August 1, 1776 - first recorded Jewish soldier killed in the American War for Independence.

April 14, 1775 - Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage, the first American society dedicated to the cause of abolition, is founded in Philadelphia by Quaker educator and abolitionist Anthony Benezet; 1784 - The society changes its name to the Pennsylvania Society for Promoting the Abolition of Slavery and the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage; 1787 - Benjamin Franklin lent his prestige to the organization, served as its president.

May 24, 1775 - John Hancock is elected president of the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia; served adoption of Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, and, as such, was the first member of the Congress to sign the historic document.

July 26, 1775 - Congress establishes the United States Post Office and names Benjamin Franklin the first United States postmaster general. October 5, 1774 - William Goddard, a Patriot printer frustrated that the royal postal service was unable to reliably deliver his Pennsylvania Chronicle to its readers or deliver critical news for the paper to Goddard, laid out a plan for a "Constitutional Post" before the Continental Congress; November 7, 1776 - Franklin’s son-in-law, Richard Bache, took over the position when Franklin became an American emissary to France.

October 13, 1775 - The Continental Congress ordered the construction of a naval fleet; November - the Continental Navy was formally organized; December - Esek Hopkins was appointed the first commander-in-chief; first fleet consisted of seven ships: two 24-gun frigates, the Alfred and the Columbus; two 14-gun brigs, the Andrea Doria and the Cabot; and three schooners, the Hornet, the Wasp, and the Fly; April 1798 - United States Navy was formally established with the creation of the Department of the Navy.

January 10, 1776 -  Thomas Paine publishes 47-page pamphlet "Common Sense", set forth his arguments in favor of American independence (sold some 500,000 copies): "Europe, and not England, is the parent country of America. This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe. Hither they have fled, not from the tender embraces of the mother, but from the cruelty of the monster; and it is so far true of England, that the same tyranny which drove the first emigrants from home, pursues their descendants still."

January 25, 1776 - The Continental Congress authorizes the first national Revolutionary War memorial in honor of Brigadier General Richard Montgomery, who had been killed during an assault on Quebec on December 31, 1775. When word of his death reached Philadelphia, Congress voted to create a monument to Montgomery's memory and entrusted Benjamin Franklin to secure one of France’s best artists to craft it. Franklin hired King Louis XV’s personal sculptor, Jean Jacques Caffieri, to design and build the monument. 1778 - Upon its completion the Montgomery memorial was shipped to America and arrived at Edenton, North Carolina, where it remained for several years. Although originally intended for Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Congress eventually decided to place the memorial in New York City. 1788 - it was installed under the direction of Major Pierre Charles L'Enfant beneath the portico of St. Paul's Chapel, which served as George Washington’s church during his time in New York as the United States’ first president in 1789, and where it remains to this day. 1818 - Montgomery’s body, which was originally interred on the site of his death in Quebec, was moved to St. Paul’s.

June 7, 1776 - Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposed to the Continental Congress a resolution calling for a Declaration of Independence. John Adams seconds the motion. Lee’s resolution declared: "That these United Colonies are, and of right out to be, free and independent States, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; that measures should be immediately taken for procuring the assistance of foreign powers, and a Confederation be formed to bind the colonies more closely together." Congress agreed to delay the vote on Lee’s Resolution until July 1. In the intervening period, Congress appointed a committee to draft a formal declaration of independence. Its members were John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Robert R. Livingston of New York and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. June 28, 1776 - presented to Congress for review. July 2 - final vote; July 4, 1776 - declaration adopted.

June 11, 1776 - The Continental Congress selects Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Roger Sherman of Connecticut and Robert R. Livingston of New York to draft a declaration of independence.

June 12, 1776 - Virginia's colonial legislature, assembled in Williamsburg, became the first to adopt a Bill of Rights; unanimously adopted George Mason’s declaration of rights. The assembled slaveholders of Virginia promised to "the good people of VIRGINIA… and their posterity" the equal right to life, liberty and property, with the critical condition that the "people" were white men. These same white men were guaranteed that "all power" would be "vested in, and consequently derived from" them. Should a government fail to represent their common interest, a majority of the same held the right to "reform, alter or abolish" the government. Roots in the English Bill of Rights, drafted in 1689 upon the overthrow of Catholic King James II by Protestant Queen Mary and her husband King William III. Virginia’s Declaration of Rights later became the basis for the Bill of Rights amended to the federal Constitution.

July 2, 1776 - The Second Continental Congress, assembled in Philadelphia, formally adopts Richard Henry Lee's resolution for independence from Great Britain; unanimously (New York abstaining) passed a resolution that ''these United Colonies are, and of right, ought to be, Free and Independent States.'' Congress had appointed a committee to draft a formal declaration of independence: John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Robert R. Livingston of New York and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia; declaration was presented on June 28, 1776.

July 4, 1776 - The Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, 442 days after the first volleys of the American Revolution were fired at Lexington and Concord in Massachusetts and marked an ideological expansion of the conflict that would eventually encourage France's intervention on behalf of the Patriots.

July 8, 1776 - In Philadelphia, Colonel John Nixon rang the Liberty Bell  from the tower of the Pennsylvania State House (now Independence Hall), summoning citizens to the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence.

August 2, 1776 - Members of the Continental Congress began attaching their signatures to the Declaration of Independence. Fifty-six congressional delegates in total signed the document, including some who were not present at the vote approving the declaration. The delegates signed by state from North to South, beginning with Josiah Bartlett of New Hampshire and ending with George Walton of Georgia. John Dickinson of Pennsylvania and James Duane, Robert Livingston and John Jay of New York refused to sign. Carter Braxton of Virginia; Robert Morris of Pennsylvania; George Reed of Delaware; and Edward Rutledge of South Carolina opposed the document but signed in order to give the impression of a unanimous Congress. Five delegates were absent: Generals George Washington, John Sullivan, James Clinton and Christopher Gadsden and Virginia Governor Patrick Henry. August 10 - news of the Declaration of Independence arrived in London. January 18, 1777- draft bearing the delegates’ signatures was first printed by Baltimore printer Mary Katharine Goddard.

September 9, 1776 - The second Continental Congress made the term ''United States'' official, replacing ''United Colonies.''

June 14, 1777 - The Continental Congress in Philadelphia adopted a resolution stating that "the flag of the United States be thirteen alternate stripes red and white" and that "the Union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation." The national flag, which became known as the "Stars and Stripes," was based on the "Grand Union" flag, a banner carried by the Continental Army in 1776 that also consisted of 13 red and white stripes. According to legend, Philadelphia seamstress Betsy Ross designed the new canton for the Stars and Stripes, which consisted of a circle of 13 stars and a blue background, at the request of General George Washington. Historians have been unable to conclusively prove or disprove this legend.

July 2, 1777 - Vermont becomes first American colony to abolish slavery.

September 19, 1777 - The Continental Congress fled the capital in Philadelphia for the more secure site of York, Pennsylvania, upon learning of the approach of General William Howe and the British forces.

November 15, 1777 - After 16 months of debate, the Continental Congress, sitting in its temporary capital of York, Pennsylvania, agrees to adopt the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union (precursor to the Constitution). 1781 - last of the 13 states ratified the agreement; March 4, 1789 - the modern United States was established when the U.S. Constitution formally replaced the Articles of Confederation.

November 17, 1777 - Congress submits the Articles of Confederation to the states for ratification. The Articles had been signed by Congress two days earlier, after 16 months of debate. Bickering over land claims between Virginia and Maryland delayed final ratification for almost four more years. Maryland became the last state to approve the Articles on March 1, 1781, affirming them as the outline of the official government of the United States. The nation was guided by the document until the implementation of the current U.S. Constitution in 1789. Between 1776 and 1787, Americans went from living under a sovereign king, to living in sovereign states, to becoming a sovereign people. That transformation defined the American Revolution.

December 18, 1777 - United States celebrates its first national day of thanksgiving, commemorate the American victory at the Battle of Saratoga after the surrender of General John Burgoyne and 5,000 British troops in October 1777.

January 30, 1781 - Maryland becomes the 13th and final state to ratify the Articles of Confederation, almost three years after the official deadline given by Congress of March 10, 1778 (Virginia was the only state to ratify the Articles by the 1778 deadline); only ratified after Virginia relinquished its claims on land north of the Ohio River to Congress; March 1, 1781 - Articles took effect.

March 1, 1781 - The Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation as the outline of the official government of the United States; nation was guided by the Articles until the implementation of the current U.S. Constitution in 1789; November 15, 1777 - signed by Congress and sent to the individual states for ratification; difference between a collection of sovereign states forming a confederation and a federal government created by a sovereign people lay at the heart of debate as the new American people decided what form their government would take; 1776 -1787 -  Americans went from living under a sovereign king, to living in sovereign states, to becoming a sovereign people. That transformation defined the American Revolution.

January 15, 1782 - Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris went before Congress to deliver a report on the young nation's finances. Morris recommended establishing a national mint and outlined plans for decimal coinage.

June 20, 1782 - Congress approved the Great Seal of the United States; front of the seal depicted a bald eagle clutching an olive branch in its right talon and arrows in its left. On its breast appeared a shield marked with 13 vertical red and white stripes topped by a bar of blue. The eagle’s beak clutcheed a banner inscribed, E pluribus unum, a Latin phrase meaning "Out of Many One." Above the eagle’s head, golden rays burst forth, encircling 13 stars. Charles Thomas outlined the symbolic connotations of the seal’s elements when he presented his design to Congress. The bottom of the shield (or pale) represents the 13 states united in support of the blue bar at the top of the shield (or chief), "which unites the whole and represents Congress." The motto E Pluribus Unum serves as a textual representation of the same relationship. The colors used in the shield are the same as those in the flag: alternating red and white for the important balance between innocence and valor, topped by the blue of "vigilance, perseverance and justice." The eagle’s talons hold symbols of Congress’ power to make peace (the olive branch) and war (arrows). The constellation of stars indicates that "a new State [is] taking its place and rank among other sovereign powers." The reverse side of the seal bears the familiar Masonic motif of a pyramid, which Thomas proposed as a symbol of "Strength and Duration." The pyramid, like the new nation, is unfinished and frequently depicted as having 13 steps for the original states. The disembodied eye floating above the structure is that of providence, which Thomas believed had acted "in favour of the American cause." Beneath the pyramid, the number 1776 appears in Roman numerals as a reminder of the year of independence. The phrase Annuit Coeptis or "Providence has Favored Our Undertakings" appears above the providential eye; Novus Ordo Seclorum or "A New Order of the Ages" appears beneath the pyramid.

September 16, 1782 - George Washington first used the Great Seal of the United States on a document.

February 3, 1783 - Spain recognized United States' independence.

January 14, 1784 - At the Maryland State House in Annapolis, the Continental Congress ratifies the Treaty of Paris. The document, negotiated in part by future President John Adams, contained terms for ending the Revolutionary War and established the United States as a sovereign nation. The treaty outlined America’s fishing rights off the coast of Canada, defined territorial boundaries in North America formerly held by the British and forced an end to reprisals against British loyalists. Two other future presidents, Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe, were among the delegates who ratified the document.

April 23, 1784 - Continental Congress passed first of Northwest Ordinances; established a process for the settlement of the Northwest Territory—the lands west of Pennsylvania, east of the Mississippi River, north of the Ohio River, and south of the Great Lakes; May 1785 - second ordinance enacted; September 1786 - committee of Congress, led by William Johnson (Connecticut) and Nathan Dane of Massachusetts (for whom Dane County, Wisconsin, is named) and Rufus King (Massachusetts), drafted a new ordinance; July 13, 1787 - Congress passed ordinance; replaced 1784 ordinance. Ohio(1803) was the first state to be created from the territory, followed by Indiana (1816), Illinois(1818), Michigan (1837), and Wisconsin (1848). Ordinances provided: 1) framework for the creation of territories in the western lands, 2) provided a predictable path to statehood and representative government on an equal, rather than a subservient, basis with the original states (five states created from the Northwest Territory and precedent for the admission of other states), 3) guarantees of civil and religious liberties for the territories established a precedent for what would later become the Bill of Rights (first ten amendments to the new federal constitution).

August 19, 1785 - Congress empowered the U.S. Treasury Board to standardize the nation's weights and measures.

November 23, 1785 - John Hancock was elected president of the Continental Congress for the second time.

January 16, 1786 - The legislature of Virginia adopted a religious freedom statute, drafted by Thomas Jefferson and introduced by James Madison;  model for the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America.

September 11, 1786 - Annapolis Convention, in which 12 delegates met to discuss commercial matters of interest between the states, convened; led to the Constitutional Convention.

May 14, 1787 - Delegates began gathering in Philadelphia for a convention to draw up the U.S. Constitution.

May 25, 1787 - The Constitutional Convention was convened in Philadelphia with 55 delegates (a quorum) to compose the Constitution of the United States of America. The Articles of Confederation, ratified several months before the British surrender at Yorktown in 1781, provided for a loose confederation of U.S. states, which were sovereign in most of their affairs. Delegates representing every state except Rhode Island convened at Philadelphia's Pennsylvania State House for the Constitutional Convention. The building, which is now known as Independence Hall, had earlier seen the drafting of the Declaration of Independence and the signing of the Articles of Confederation. George Washington, a delegate from Virginia, was elected convention president. During three months of debate, the delegates devised a brilliant federal system characterized by an intricate system of checks and balances. Connecticut Compromise, which proposed a bicameral legislature with proportional representation in the lower house (House of Representatives) and equal representation of the states in the upper house (Senate). September 17, 1787 - Constitution of the United States of America was signed by 38 of the 41 delegates present at the conclusion of the convention. December 7, 1787 - five states (of 13 required to ratify) --Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, and Connecticut--ratified it in quick succession. June 21, 1788 - New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the document, and it was subsequently agreed that government under the U.S. Constitution would begin on March 4, 1789. September 25, 1789 - the first Congress of the United States adopted 12 amendments to the U.S. Constitution--the Bill of Rights--and sent them to the states for ratification. May 29, 1790 - Rhode Island voted by two votes to ratify the document, and the last of the original 13 colonies joined the United States. Today the U.S. Constitution is the oldest written constitution in operation in the world.

July 13, 1787 - The US Congress, under the Articles of Confederation, enacts the Northwest Ordinance, establishing rules for governing the Northwest Territory, for admitting new states to the Union and limiting the expansion of slavery.

August 6, 1787 - In Philadelphia, delegates to the Constitutional Convention begin debating the first complete draft of the proposed Constitution of the United States. The delegates devised a brilliant federal system characterized by an intricate system of checks and balances. The convention was divided over the issue of state representation in Congress, as more-populated states sought proportional legislation, and smaller states wanted equal representation. The problem was resolved by the Connecticut Compromise, which proposed a bicameral legislature with proportional representation in the lower house (House of Representatives) and equal representation of the states in the upper house (Senate).

September 17, 1787 -  38 of 41 delegates present at the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia signed the Constitution of the United States of America. Supporters of the document waged a hard-won battle to win ratification by the necessary nine out of 13 U.S. states. On May 25, 1787 - delegates representing every state except Rhode Island convened at Philadelphia's Pennsylvania State House for the Constitutional Convention.

September 28, 1787 - Congress voted to send the just-completed Constitution of the United States to state legislatures for their approval.

October 27, 1787 - The first of the Federalist Papers, a series of essays calling for ratification of the U.S. Constitution, was published in a New York newspaper, "Independent Journal."

December 7, 1787 - Delaware became the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution as all 30 delegates to the Delaware Constitutional Convention voted in favor (Delaware the first state of the modern United States). Constitution would become binding once nine of the former 13 colonies had ratified the document; June 21, 1788 - New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the Constitution, making federal democracy the law of the land; March 4, 1789 - government under the U.S. Constitution took effect.

December 12, 1787 - Pennsylvania becomes the second state to ratify the Constitution, by a vote of 46 to 23. Pennsylvania was the first large state to ratify, as well as the first state to endure a serious Anti-Federalist challenge to ratification. Pennsylvania was the most ethnically and religiously diverse state in the new nation. One-third of Pennsylvania’s population was German-speaking, and the Constitution was printed in German for the purposes of involving that population in the debate. The chairman of the Pennsylvania ratifying convention, Reverend Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg, was the son of the leading German Lutheran minister and grandson to Conrad Weiser (1696-1760), who had been a leading colonial Indian interpreter and German-speaking political leader. The leader of the Anti-Federalist opposition was the Delaware-born Scots-Irishman Thomas McKean. Future Supreme Court Justice and Scottish immigrant James Wilson was the most articulate defender of the Federalist cause.

January 2, 1788 - Georgia became the fourth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. Named after King George II, Georgia was first settled by Europeans in 1733, when a group of British debtors led by English philanthropist James E. Oglethorpe traveled up the Savannah River and established Georgia's first permanent settlement--the town of Savannah.

June, 21, 1788 - The U.S. Constitution went into effect as New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify it; subsequently agreed that government under the U.S. Constitution would begin on March 4, 1789. September 25, 1789 - first Congress of the United States adopted 12 amendments to the U.S. Constitution--the Bill of Rights--and sent them to the states for ratification.

September 13, 1788 - The Congress of the Confederation authorized the first national election, for the first Wednesday in February 1789, and declared New York City the temporary national capital.

September 30, 1788 - The Pennsylvania Legislature elected the first two members of the U.S. Senate - William Maclay of Harrisburg and Robert Morris of Philadelphia.

November 1, 1788 - The U.S. Continental Congress closed.

December 23, 1788 - Maryland voted to cede a 100-square-mile area for the seat of the national government; about two-thirds of the area became the District of Columbia.

January 7, 1789 - The first U.S. presidential election was held. Americans voted for electors who, a month later, chose George Washington to be the nation's first president; was sworn into office on April 30, 1789. Only white men who owned property were allowed to vote.

February 4, 1789 - Electors unanimously chose George Washington to be the first president of the United States.

March 4, 1789 - The Constitution of the United States went into effect as the first Congress met in New York City; of 22 senators and 59 representatives called to represent the 11 states who had ratified the document, only nine senators and 13 representatives showed up to begin negotiations for its amendment.

April 1, 1789 - The U.S. House of Representatives held its first full meeting in New York City; elected Frederick Augustus Conrad Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania, minister and former president of the Pennsylvania convention to ratify the U.S. Constitution, the first speaker. 1779-1780 - member of the Continental Congress; 1780-1783 - speaker of Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives; 1787 - presided over the Pennsylvania ratifying convention; 1789-1797 - served in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was speaker during the first and third Congresses.

April 6, 1789 - First U.S. Congress begins regular sessions, Federal Hall, New York City.

June 4, 1789 - U.S. constitution goes into effect.

June 8, 1789 - James Madison first proposed the Bill of Rights.

September 25, 1789 - The first United States Congress adopted 12 amendments to the Constitution and sent them to the states for ratification. (Ten of the amendments became the Bill of Rights - influenced by the English Bill of Rights of 1689, also drawn from Virginia's Declaration of Rights, drafted by George Mason in 1776); designed to protect the basic rights of U.S. citizens: 1) Freedom of religion, speech and assembly; 2) Right to keep and bear arms for the purpose of a well-regulated militia; 3) No forcible quartering of soldiers during peacetime; 4) Freedom from unreasonable search and seizure; 5) Right to a grand jury for capital crimes and due process. Protection from double jeopardy, self-incrimination and public confiscation of private property without "just compensation"; 6) Right to "speedy and public" trial by jury and a competent defense; 7) Right to trial by jury for monetary cases above $20; 8) Protection against "excessive" bail or fines and "cruel and unusual" punishments; 9) Rights not enumerated are "retained by the people"; 10) Rights not given to the federal government or prohibited the state governments by the Constitution, "are reserved to the States... or to the people".

November 20, 1789 - New Jersey became the first state to ratify the Bill of Rights.

February 1, 1790 - The Supreme Court of the United States meets for the first time, with Chief Justice John Jay of New York presiding, at the Royal Exchange Building on New York City's Broad Street; March 1789 - U.S. Supreme Court was established by Article Three of the U.S. Constitution took effect - granted the Supreme Court ultimate jurisdiction over all laws, especially those in which constitutionality was at issue; court was also designated to rule on cases concerning treaties of the United States, foreign diplomats, admiralty practice, and maritime jurisdiction; September 1789 - The Judiciary Act was passed, implementing Article Three by providing for six justices who would serve on the court for life; President George Washington appointed John Jay to preside as chief justice, and John Rutledge of South Carolina, William Cushing of Massachusetts, John Blair of Virginia, Robert Harrison of Maryland, and James Wilson of Pennsylvania to serve as associate justices. Two days later, all six appointments were confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

March 1, 1790 - Congress authorized the first U.S. census; August 1, 1790 - first U.S. census was completed, showed population of nearly 4 million people.

May 29, 1790 - Rhode Island became the last of the original 13 colonies to ratify the United States Constitution.

July 16, 1790 - Congress declares that a swampy, humid, muddy and mosquito-infested site on the Potomac River between Maryland and Virginia will be the nation’s permanent capital. It was George Washington who saw the area’s potential economic and accessibility benefits due to the proximity of navigable rivers.

December 6, 1790 - Congress moved from New York City to Philadelphia.

March 3, 1791 - The District of Columbia was organized, establishing a non-partisan home for the federal government.

December 15, 1791 - The Bill of Rights took effect as Virginia became the 10th of 14 states to ratify 10 of 12 amendments to the U.S. Constitution (two-thirds majority of state ratification necessary to make it legal); September 1789 - first Congress of the United States approved 12 amendments to the U.S. Constitution and sent them to the states for ratification; amendments designed to protect the basic rights of U.S. citizens, guarantee the freedom of speech, press, assembly, and exercise of religion; the right to fair legal procedure and to bear arms; and that powers not delegated to the federal government would be reserved for the states and the people (influenced by the English Bill of Rights of 1689 and Virginia's Declaration of Rights, drafted by George Mason in 1776). Not ratified: 1) first concerned the population system of representation (never ratified), 2) prohibited laws varying the payment of congressional members from taking effect until an election intervened (ratified in 1992).

February 21, 1792 - Congress passes President Succession Act.

June 10, 1793 - Washington replaced Philadelphia as U.S. capital.

January 13, 1794 - President George Washington approved a measure adding two stars and two stripes to the American flag, following the admission of Vermont and Kentucky to the union.

February 11, 1794 - First session of U.S. Senate open to the public.

March 8, 1796 - Supreme Court handed down an early decision on taxation in the case of Hylton v. United States; ruled that a carriage tax was an indirect tax, deemed constitutional = first time in U.S. history that Court had weighed in on the constitutionality of legislation that had been passed by Congress.

July 14, 1798 - Congress passed the Sedition Act, making it a federal crime to publish false, scandalous or malicious writing about the U.S. government.

November 17, 1800 - Congress held its first session in Washington, DC, in the partially completed Capitol building.

February 27, 1801 - The District of Columbia was placed under the jurisdiction of Congress.

March 7, 1801 - Massachusetts enacts 1st state voter registration law.

January 26, 1802 - Congress passed an act calling for a library to be established within the U.S. Capitol.

May 3, 1802 - Washington, DC was incorporated as a city.

February 24, 1803 - The Supreme Court ruled itself the final interpreter of constitutional issues. The Court voided an Act of Congress in the case of Marbury v. Madison. It was the first time a law passed by Congress was deemed unconstitutional. This established the Supreme Court's power to rule on constitutionality questions.

September 25, 1804 - The Twelfth Amendment was ratified, changing the procedure of choosing the president and vice-president.

February 20, 1809 - The US Supreme Court ruled the power of the federal government is greater than that of any individual state.

April 12, 1811 - First U.S. colonists on Pacific coast arrive at Cape Disappointment, WA.

February 11, 1812 - Massachusetts Gov. Elbridge Gerry signed a redistricting law that favored his party - giving rise to the term ''gerrymandering.''

September 7, 1813 - United States gets its nickname, Uncle Sam; linked to Samuel Wilson, a meat packer from Troy, NY, who supplied barrels of beef to the United States Army during the War of 1812; stamped the barrels with "U.S." for United States, but soldiers began referring to the grub as "Uncle Sam's." The local newspaper picked up on the story and Uncle Sam eventually gained widespread acceptance as the nickname for the U.S. federal government. 1860s - 1870s - political cartoonist Thomas Nast began popularizing the image of Uncle Sam; July 1916 - James Montgomery Flagg created most famous image of Uncle Sam in a tall top hat and blue jacket, pointing straight ahead at the viewer for the cover of Leslie's Weekly with the title "What Are You Doing for Preparedness?"; portrait with the words "I Want You For The U.S. Army" was used during World War I as a recruiting poster; September 1961 - U.S. Congress recognized Samuel Wilson as "the progenitor of America's national symbol of Uncle Sam."

September 14, 1814 - Francis Scott Key wrote ''The Star-Spangled Banner'' after witnessing the British bombardment of Fort McHenry in Maryland during the War of 1812. Key, an American lawyer, watched the siege while held on a British ship and wrote famous words after observing that the U.S. flag over Fort McHenry was still waving after an 1,800-bomb assault. The lyrics were set to the tune of "To Anacreon in Heaven," an English drinking song written by the British composer John Stafford Smith. September 20, 1814published in the Baltimore Patriot newspaper. 1916 -  President Woodrow Wilson signed an executive order formally designating song as national anthem. 1931 - President Herbert Hoover signed a Congressional act confirming Wilson's presidential order.

January 5, 1815 - Federalists from all over New England, angered over the War of 1812, drew up the Hartford Convention, demanded several important changes in the Constitution of the United States of America.

March 20, 1816 - The Supreme Court affirmed its right to review state court decisions.

April 4, 1818 - Congress decided the U.S. flag would consist of 13 red and white stripes and 20 stars, with a new star to be added for every new state.

May 21, 1832 - The first Democratic National Convention got under way, in Baltimore.

July 4, 1832 - "America", written by Dr Samuel Francis Smith, was sung in public for the first time, at the Park Street Church in Boston.

July 8, 1835 - The Liberty Bell cracked when it was rung in honor of Chief Justice John Marshall, who had recently died.

March 3, 1837 - Congress increases Supreme Court membership from 7 to 9.

January 23, 1845 - Congress decided all national elections would be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

November 4, 1845 - Americans observed the first national election day in accordance with Congressional legislation passed earlier in the year.

July 19, 1848 - Elizabeth Stanton and Lucretia Mott (abolitionists who met at the 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention in London) open first women's rights convention at the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, NY with almost 200 women in attendance; July 14, 1848 - published announcement in the Seneca County Courier: "A Convention to discuss the social, civil, and religious condition and rights of women will be held in the Wesleyan Chapel, at Seneca Falls, N.Y., on Wednesday and Thursday, the 19th and 20th of July current; commencing at 10 o'clock A.M." Convention was followed two weeks later by an even larger meeting in Rochester, NY. Thereafter, national woman's rights conventions were held annually, provided an important focus for the growing women's suffrage movement. 1920 - 19th Amendment was adopted, granted American women the constitutionally protected right to vote.

March 31, 1850 - U.S. population hits 23,191,876 (Black population: 3,638,808 (15.7%).

March 13, 1852 - "Uncle Sam" made his debut as a cartoon character in the New York Lantern.

February 22, 1854 - First meeting of Republican Party in Michigan.

February 28, 1854 - Some 50 slavery opponents met in Ripon, WI, to call for creation of a new political group, which became the Republican Party.

March 20, 1854 - Former members of the Whig Party (formed in 1834 to oppose the "tyranny" of President Andrew Jackson; dissolved when Kansas-Nebraska Bill of 1854 passed, repealed the terms of the Missouri Compromise and allowed slave or free status to be decided in the territories by popular sovereignty) met in Ripon, Wisconsin, to establish a new party to oppose the spread of slavery into the western territories; founding meeting of the Republican Party. 1856 - first presidential candidate, John C. Fremont, won 11 of the 16 Northern states.

July 6, 1854 - The first official meeting of the Republican Party took place in Jackson, Mich.

February 10, 1855 - U.S. citizenship laws amended, all children of U.S. parents born abroad granted U.S. citizenship.

February 22, 1856 - First national meeting of Republican Party in Pittsburgh.

June 17, 1856 - The Republican Party opened its first convention, in Philadelphia; June 19, 1856 - In Music Fund Hall in Philadelphia, the first national convention of the Republican Party, founded two years before, comes to its conclusion. John Charles Fremont of California, the famous explorer of the West, was nominated for the presidency, and William Dewis Dayton of New Jersey was chosen as the candidate for the vice presidency. March 20, 1954 - generally remembered as the founding meeting of the Republican Party in Ripon, WI. Fremont, won 11 of the 16 Northern states. The Civil War firmly identified the Republican Party as the official party of the victorious North. After the war, the Republican-dominated Congress forced a radical Reconstruction policy on the South, which saw the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution, abolishing slavery and granting voting rights to African American men in the South.  1876 - Republican Party had lost control of the South, but it continued to dominate the presidency, with a few intermissions, until the ascendance of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933.

February 1, 1862 - "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," by Julia Ward Howe, was first published in "Atlantic Monthly."

July 12, 1862 - Congress authorized the Medal of Honor.

April 22, 1864 - Congress authorized the use of the phrase ''In God We Trust'' on U.S. coins.

January 8, 1867 - Congress overrides (by a vote of 29 to 10 in the Senate and by a vote of 112 to 38 in the House of Representatives) President Andrew Johnson's veto of a bill granting all adult male citizens of the District of Columbia the right to vote, and the bill becomes law; first law in American history that granted African-American men the right to vote; 1870 - 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, prohibiting all states from discriminating against potential male voters because of race or previous condition of servitude.

March 29, 1867 - Congress approves Lincoln Memorial.

July 28, 1868 - The Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing due process and the equal protection of the laws to former slaves, was declared in effect.

October 30, 1868 - John W. Menard of Louisiana is first black elected to Congress.

January 20, 1869 - Elizabeth Cady Stanton becomes first woman to testify before Congress.

February 6, 1869 - Harper's Weekly publishes 1st picture of Uncle Sam with chin whiskers.

April 10, 1869 - Congress increases number of Supreme Court judges from 7 to 9.

May 15, 1869 - National Woman Suffrage Association formed.

June 1, 1869 - Thomas A. Edison, of Boston, MA, received a patent for an "Improvement in Electrographic Vote-Recorder" ("an apparatus which records and registers in an instant, and with great accuracy, the votes of legislative bodies, thus avoiding loss of valuable time consumed in counting and registering the votes and names, as done in the usual manner"); first Edison patent; first device of its kind, enabled legislator to register a vote either for or against an issue by turning a switch to the right or left.

December 10, 1869 - Wyoming territorial legislators pass a bill that is signed into law granting women the right to vote; first territory or state in the history of the nation to grant women right of citizenship; most Wyoming legislators supported William Bright and Edward Lee's bill because they thought it would win the territory free national publicity and might attract more single marriageable women to the region (territory had over 6,000 adult males and only 1,000 females).

December 28, 1869 - Knights of Labor, a labor union of tailors in Philadelphia established in 1869, hold the first Labor Day ceremonies in American history; 1884 - American Federation of Labor observes first annual observance of Labor Day - resolved in a convention in Chicago that "the first Monday in September be set aside as a laborer's national holiday"; 1887- Oregon became the first state to designate Labor Day a holiday; 1894 - Congress designated the first Monday in September a legal holiday for all federal employees and the residents of the District of Columbia.

1870 - Wyoming territorial governor, John Campbell, appointed Esther Morris first woman judge in American history (worked nine months as a justice of the peace, handled the 26 cases); November 1870 - retired.

January 15, 1870 - The Democratic Party was represented as a donkey in a cartoon by Thomas Nast in Harper's Weekly; cartoon is entitled "A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion." The jackass (donkey) is tagged "Copperhead Papers," referring to the Democrat-dominated newspapers of the South, and the dead lion represents the late Edwin McMasters Stanton, President Abraham Lincoln's secretary of war during the final three years of the Civil War. In the background is an eagle perched on a rock, representing the postwar federal domination in the South, and in the far background is the U.S. Capitol.

February 12, 1870 - Women in the Utah Territory gained the right to vote.

February 25, 1870 - Hiram R. Revels, R-Miss., became the first black member of the United States Senate as he was sworn in to serve out the unexpired term of Jefferson Davis.

March 30, 1870 - The 15th Amendment to the Constitution, granting African-American men the right to vote, went into effect; March 31, 1870 - Thomas P. Mundy of Perth Amboy New Jersey was first black to vote in U.S.

December 12, 1870 - Joseph H. Rainey of South Carolina took his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, becoming the first black congressman.

March 22, 1871 - William Holden of North Carolina becomes first governor removed by impeachment.

May 10, 1872 - Equal Rights Party nominated Victoria Woodhull for President; first woman nominated for U.S. president.

December 11, 1872 - America's first black governor took office as Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback became acting governor of Louisiana.

June 18, 1873 - Suffragist Susan B. Anthony was fined $100 for attempting to vote in the 1872 presidential election.

November 7, 1874 - Thomas Nast symbolized The Republican Party as an elephant for the first time in a cartoon in Harper's Weekly magazine.

June 15, 1876 - Sara Spencer (R), Secretary of National Woman Suffrage Association, addressed 1876 Republican National Convention; first woman to address a U.S. presidential convention.

June 14, 1877 - First Flag Day observance was held on the 100th anniversary of the adoption of the Stars and Stripes. As instructed by Congress, the U.S. flag was flown from all public buildings across the country. In the years after the first Flag Day, several states continued to observe the anniversary, and in 1949 Congress officially designated June 14 as Flag Day, a national day of observance.

March 3, 1879 - Belva Ann Bennett Lockwood became the first woman to be admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court.

March 22, 1882 - Congress outlawed polygamy.

September 5, 1882 - The nation's first Labor Day parade was held in New York City; initiated by Peter J. McGuire, a carpenter and labor union leader who co-founded the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions; intended to be a tribute to the toil and achievements of the nation's workers. The holiday was also a testament to the strength of the burgeoning labor movement, which helped push the event onto the national stage; 1894 - Labor Day became an official holiday.

March 13, 1884 - Standard Time was adopted throughout the United States.

June 24, 1884 - John Lynch is first black elected chairman of Republican convention.

December 6, 1884 - Army engineers completed construction of the Washington Monument; February 21, 1885 - The Washington Monument was dedicated; 555-foot-high marble obelisk was first proposed in 1783, and Pierre L'Enfant left room for it in his designs for the new U.S. capital; Architect Robert Mills' hollow Egyptian obelisk design was accepted for the monument, and on July 4, 1848, the cornerstone was laid. Work on the project was interrupted by political quarreling in the 1850s, and construction ceased entirely during the American Civil War. Finally, in 1876, Congress, inspired by the American centennial, passed legislation appropriating $200,000 for completion of the monument.

June 19, 1885 - Statue of Liberty, a gift of friendship from the people of France to the people of the United States, arrives in New York City's harbor, enclosed in more than 200 packing cases. Originally known as "Liberty Enlightening the World," the statue was proposed by French historian Edouard Laboulaye to commemorate the Franco-American alliance during the American Revolution. Designed by French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, the 151-foot statue was the form of a woman with an uplifted arm holding a torch. February 1877 - Congress approved the use of a site on New York Bedloe's Island, which was suggested by Bartholdi. May 1884 - statue was completed in France, and three months later the Americans laid the cornerstone for its pedestal in New York. October 28, 1886 - last rivet of the monument was fitted on during a dedication presided over by U.S. President Grover Cleveland. 1924 - made a national monument.

October 29, 1886 - The ticker-tape parade is invented in New York City when office workers spontaneously throw ticker tape into the streets as the Statue of Liberty is dedicated.

April 4, 1887 - Susanna Medora Salter became the first woman elected mayor of an American community - Argonia, KS.

September 30, 1889 - Wyoming state convention approves a constitution that includes a provision granting women the right to vote - first state in the history of the nation to allow its female citizens to vote. 1848 - the legislature in Washington Territory became the first to introduce a women's suffrage bill (narrowly defeated); 1870 - Utah Territory; 1883 -  Washington Territory when these territories became states they preserved women's suffrage. 1914 - All states west of the Rockies had women's suffrage, no state did east of the Rockies, except Kansas.

April 11, 1890 - President Benjamin Harrison designated Ellis Island as the site of the first federal immigration station (named for Samuel Ellis, private owner of the island in the 1770's); January 1, 1892 - Ellis Island opened to immigrants; January 2 - Annie Moore, 15-year-old Irish girl, first immigrant to be processed; 1954 - more than 12 million immigrants entered the U.S. via Ellis Island.

February 12, 1892 - President Abraham Lincoln's birthday was declared a national holiday.

March 15, 1892 - New York State unveils automatic ballot booth (voting machine).

March 1, 1893 - Diplomatic Appropriation Act authorizes the U.S. rank of ambassador.

July 22, 1893 - Katharine Lee Bates writes "America the Beautiful," in Colorado.

November 7, 1893 - Colorado granted women the right to vote.

October 30, 1896 - Martha Hughes Cannon of Utah becomes first female state senator (in Utah State Senate); ran against her husband.

May 14, 1897 - The first public performance of John Philip Sousa's "The Stars and Stripes Forever" occurred, in Philadelphia.

November 1, 1897 - The first Library of Congress building opened its doors to the public; previously housed in the Congressional Reading Room of the United States Capitol building.

February 14, 1899 - Congress approved, and President William McKinley signed, legislation authorizing states to use voting machines for federal elections.

March 20, 1899 - Martha M. Place of Brooklyn, NY became the first woman to be executed in the electric chair.

May 10, 1908 - The first Mother's Day observance took place during church services in Grafton, West Virginia and Philadelphia.

February 4, 1913 - The 16th Amendment to the Constitution, providing for a federal income tax, was ratified.

March 8, 1913 - The Internal Revenue Service began to levy and collect income taxes.

April 8, 1913 - The 17th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified: required direct popular election of senators.

May 31, 1913 - The 17th Amendment to the Constitution, providing for the popular election of U.S. senators, was declared in effect.

May 7, 1914 - U.S. Congress establishes mother's day.

January 12, 1915 - The United States House of Representatives rejected a proposal to give women the right to vote; constitutional amendment giving nation-wide suffrage to women was rejected by the overwhelming vote of 174 - 204; second defeat for the suffrage cause in the national legislature within a year; March 19, 1914 - an equal suffrage constitutional amendment proposed by Senator Chamberlain of Oregon received a vote of 35 to 34 in the Senate, secured bare majority, fell short of necessary two-thirds.

February 12, 1915 - The cornerstone for the Lincoln Memorial was laid in Washington, DC.

October 23, 1915 - Some 25,000 women marched in New York City demanding the right to vote.

September 11, 1916 - First time "Star Spangled Banner" was sung at the beginning of a baseball game (Cooperstown, NY).

October 16, 1916 - Margaret Sanger opened the first birth-control clinic, in New York City at 46 Amboy Street in Brooklyn; clinic was closed by the police, she received a 30-day jail sentence. 1917 - Sanger helped to organize the National Birth Control League (later became the Planned Parenthood Federation of America); 1923 - opened a permanent birth control clinic in New York City; 1885 - Dr. Aletta Jacobs opened the first birth-control clinic in the world in Amsterdam.

November 7, 1916 - Republican suffragist Jeannette Rankin of Montana became the first woman elected to Congress; 1918 - vote against WWI contributed to her defeat in her  reelection bid; 1940 -  again won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives; became the only person in the history of Congress to vote against U.S. entry into both world wars ( sole dissenting vote re: WW II).

March 4, 1917 - Republican Jeanette Rankin of Montana took her seat as the first woman elected to the House of Representatives.

March 8, 1917 - The US Senate voted to limit filibusters by adopting the cloture rule.

April 2, 1917 - Jeannette Pickering Rankin is sworn in as the first woman to serve in the US House of Representatives.

1918 - Irving Berlin, immigrant from what is now Belarus, wrote God Bless America as homage to his adopted homeland; originally intended to include the piece in his World War I "barracks musical" Yip, Yip Yaphank; twenty years later, when World War II threatened the nation, Berlin resurrected the song but altered the lyrics to reflect the mood of the country. updated version was made famous by singer Kate Smith.

March 19, 1918 - U.S. Congress approved Standard Time Act; established Daylight Saving Time, authorized time zones.

March 31, 1918 - U.S. first began daylight saving time on Easter Sunday, when clocks were set ahead by one hour. The idea had been sponsored by the Daylight Savings Association. When New York Senator William M. Calder first introduced the bill to Congress the previous year, 17 Apr 1917, it was initially defeated, but subsequently passed by roll-call on 27 Jun 1917. The concept has already been introduced in Great Britain as a fuel-saving measure during wartime, in order to conserve coal stocks during WW I.

June 4, 1919 - 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, guaranteeing women the right to vote, is passed by Congress and sent to the states for ratification; stated that "the rights of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex," passed both houses of Congress and was sent to the states for ratification. August 18, 1920 - Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the amendment, giving it the two-thirds majority of state ratification necessary to make it the law of the land. Eight days later, the 19th Amendment took effect.

January 5, 1920 - GOP women demanded equal representation at the Republican National Convention.

February 14, 1920 - Carrie Chapman Catt founded the League of Women Voters in Chicago during the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association (held just six months before the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, giving women the right to vote after a 57-year struggle); nonpartisan organization began as a "mighty political experiment" designed to help 20 million women carry out their new responsibilities as voters; encouraged them to use their new power to participate in shaping public policy, to play a critical role in advocacy; first president was Maude Wood Park.

August 26, 1920 - The 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, guaranteeing American women the right to vote, was declared in effect. Women's suffrage movement began in July 1848 in Seneca Falls, NY where 200 woman suffragists, organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, met to discuss women's rights.

May 3, 1921 - West Virginia imposed the first state sales tax.

February 27, 1922 - The Supreme Court unanimously upheld the 19th Amendment to the Constitution that guaranteed the right of women to vote; 1916 - the Democratic and Republican parties endorsed female enfranchisement; June 4, 1919 - Congress passed the 19th Amendment and sent to the states for ratification; August 18, 1920 - Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the amendment, achieving the required three-fourths majority of state ratification; August 26, 1920 - the 19th Amendment officially took effect.

October 3, 1922 - Rebecca L. Felton, D-GA, became the first woman to be seated in the U.S. Senate ; appointed by Governor Thomas W. Hardwick of Georgia to serve out the remaining term of Thomas E. Watson.

November 4, 1922 - The U.S. Postmaster General ordered all homes to get mailboxes or relinquish mail delivery.

November 21, 1922 - Rebecca L. Felton of Georgia was sworn in as the first woman to serve in the U.S. Senate.

April 7, 1923 - Workers Party of America (New York City) becomes official Communist Party.

April 13, 1923 - The Illinois state legislature was the first to vote to allow women to serve on juries.

October 11, 1923 - The first political telecast, sponsored by the Democratic National Committee, aired from New York.

May 15, 1924 - The US Congress instituted immigration quotas.

June 2, 1924 - Congress granted U.S. citizenship to all American Indians.

June 10, 1924 - First political convention broadcast on radio - Republicans at Cleveland.

November 4, 1924 - Nellie Taylor Ross of Wyoming and Miriam Ferguson of Texas were elected the first and second women governors; Ross was chosen to serve the remaining term of her husband, William B. Ross, who died in office.

January 5, 1925 - Nellie T. Ross succeeded her late husband as governor of Wyoming, becoming the first female governor in U.S. history.

March 21, 1925 - The Butler Act became state law in Tennessee; prohibited "the teaching of the Evolution Theory in all the Universities, Normals and all other public schools of Tennessee, which are supported in whole or in part by the public school funds of the State, and to provide penalties for the violations thereof ... that it shall be unlawful ... to teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals"; March 23, 1925 - Austin Peay, Governor of Tennessee, signed the Act; statute tested within a few months as John Scopes became a willing defendant in the "Scopes Monkey Trial."

March 3, 1931 - President Herbert Hoover signed into law a bill making ''The Star-Spangled Banner'' the national anthem of the United States.

January 12, 1932 - Hattie W. (Ophelia Wyatt) Caraway, a Democrat from Arkansas, became the first woman freely elected to the U.S. Senate; appointed to the Senate two months earlier to fill the vacancy left by her late husband, Thaddeus Horatio Caraway. With the support of Huey Long, a powerful senator from Louisiana, Caraway was elected to the seat; 1938 - reelected; 1944 - failed to win re-nomination, appointed to the Federal Employees Compensation Commission by President Franklin Roosevelt.

February 6, 1933 - The 20th Amendment to the Constitution was declared in effect. It moved the start of presidential, vice-presidential and congressional terms from March to January.

February 28, 1933 - First female in cabinet: Francis Perkins appointed Secretary of Labor.

May 15, 1933 - First voice amplification system to be used in U.S. Senate.

May 18, 1933 - The Tennessee Valley Authority was created.

February 22, 1935 - It became illegal for airplanes to fly over the White House.

June 12, 1935 - Senator Huey Long of Louisiana spoke continually for 15 hours in Senate's longest speech on record (150,000 words).

November 8,1938 - Crystal Bird Fauset, of Philadelphia, first black woman elected to a state house of representatives, in Pennsylvania.

March 2, 1939 - The Massachusetts legislature voted to ratify the Bill of Rights, 147 years after the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution had gone into effect.

March 18, 1939 - Georgia finally ratified the Bill of Rights.

August 1, 1944 - Adam Clayton Powell elected first black congressman from East.

July 27, 1945 - U.S. Communist Party forms.

December 28, 1945 - Congress officially recognized the ''Pledge of Allegiance.''

January 3, 1947 - Congressional proceedings were televised for the first time as viewers in Washington, Philadelphia and New York City saw some of the opening ceremonies of the 80th Congress.

September 13, 1948 - Republican Margaret Chase Smith of Maine was elected to the U.S. Senate, becoming the first woman to serve in both houses of Congress.

October 12, 1949 - Eugenie Anderson is first female nominated (by Harry Truman) to be U. S. ambassador (to Denmark from October 28,1949 to 1953 - 184 women ambassadors through 2004). First American woman to serve as the chief of a mission abroad. First woman to sign a treaty on behalf of the United States. American Minister to Bulgaria under Kennedy from 1962 to December, 1964. Ruth Bryan Owen (daughter of William Jennings Bryan, Florida's first Congresswoman) was first female appointed U. S. diplomat - Minister to Denmark by FDR (April 13, 1933-August 30, 1936).

February 9, 1950 - What is known as "McCarthyism" began when Joseph McCarthy, a relatively obscure Republican senator from Wisconsin, announced during a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, that he had in his possession a list of 205 communists who had infiltrated the U.S. State Department. The unsubstantiated declaration, which was little more than a publicity stunt, thrust Senator McCarthy into the national spotlight. These and other equally shocking accusations prompted the Senate to form a special committee, headed by Senator Millard Tydings of Maryland, to investigate the matter. The committee found little to substantiate McCarthy's charges.

February 26, 1951 - The 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, limiting a president to two terms of office, was ratified.

April 5, 1951 - Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death for conspiring to commit espionage for the Soviet Union.

May 18, 1951 - The United Nations moved out of its temporary headquarters in Lake Success, N.Y., for its permanent home in Manhattan.

June 9, 1954 - Climax of the McCarthy hearings when Joseph N. Welch, special attorney for the army, responded to a McCarthy attack on a member of his law firm by facing the senator and tearfully declaring, "Until this moment, senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness. Let us not assassinate this lad further, senator. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you no sense of decency?" The crowded hearing room burst into spontaneous applause.

August 24, 1954 - The Communist Control Act went into effect, virtually outlawing the Communist Party in the United States.

November 12, 1954 - Ellis Island closed after processing more than 20 million immigrants since opening in New York Harbor in 1892.

December 2, 1954 -The Senate voted 67 to 22 to condemn Joseph R. McCarthy, Republican Senator from Wisconsin, for "conduct that tends to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute." In the ultimate action the Senate voted to condemn Senator McCarthy for 1) contempt of a Senate Elections subcommittee that investigated his conduct and financial affairs, for abuse of its members, and 2) for his insults to the Senate itself during the censure proceeding. Equivalent to a censure.

February 20, 1959 - The FCC applies the equal time rule to TV newscasts of political candidates.

July 28, 1959 - Hawaii's first U.S. election sends first Asian-Americans to Congress.

August 24, 1959 - Three days after Hawaiian statehood, Hiram L. Fong was sworn in as the first Chinese-American U.S. senator, while Daniel K. Inouye was sworn in as the first Japanese-American U.S. representative.

March 29, 1961 - The 23rd Amendment, allowing residents of Washington, DC to vote for president, was ratified.

February 14, 1962 - First Lady Jackie Kennedy hosted the first televised tour of the White House.

April 9, 1963 - Winston Churchill becomes first honorary U.S. citizen, posthumously.

January 23, 1964 - The 24th amendment to the Constitution (states voting rights could not be denied due to failure to pay taxes) was ratified; poll tax had been blunt tool for barring poverty-stricken African-Americans and whites from participating in the electoral process and for for stemming the rise of the Populist Party, which had used a racially mixed coalition of poor and lower class voters to gain a place on the national stage; 1949 - Senator Spessard L. Holland of Florida took up the cause of killing the tax forever via a constitutional amendment; January 24, 1964 - 24th Amendment goes into effect.

February 17, 1964 - The Supreme Court ruled in Westberry v. Sanders that congressional districts within each state had to be roughly equal in population.

January 13, 1966 - Robert C. Weaver became the first black Cabinet member as he was appointed Secretary of Housing and Urban Development by President Lyndon B. Johnson; held key positions in several Democratic administrations: under Franklin D. Roosevelt in the mid-to-late 1930s, he advised the secretary of the interior and served as a special assistant with the Housing Authority; 1940 - appointed to the National Defense Advisory Commission and worked to mobilize black workers during World War II; 1955 to 1959 - Weaver served as rent commissioner for the state of New York, then went on to serve as head of the Housing and Home Finance Agency under President John F. Kennedy.

March 25, 1966 - U.S. Supreme Court rules the poll tax unconstitutional.

November 8, 1966 - Edward W. Brooke of Massachusetts became the first black to be elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote.  

January 10, 1967 - Republican Edward W. Brooke of Massachusetts, the first black elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote, took his seat.

April 25, 1967 - The first law legalizing abortion in the U.S. was signed by the Colorado governor.

May 17, 1967 - Governor of Tennessee signed into law the repeal of the 1925 state law, the Butler Act, prohibiting the teaching of evolution. The law had made it "unlawful for any teacher in any of the Universities, Normals and all other public schools of the State which are supported in whole or in part by the public school funds of the State, to teach any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible, and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals." The law had been tested in what became known as the "Scopes monkey trial." Scopes was found guilty, but the law had been undermined. Upon appeal, Scopes was acquitted on a technicality. The law itself remained a Tennessee state statute for 42 years.

November 7, 1967 - Carl Stokes was elected mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, becoming the first black mayor of a major American city.

November 5, 1968 - Shirley Chisholm of New York became the first African-American woman to be elected to the House of Representatives.

March 10, 1971 - Senate approves amendment lowering voting age to 18.

October 12, 1971 - The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Equal Rights Amendment (354-23).

March 21, 1972 - U.S. Supreme Court rules states can't require 1-yr residency to vote.

July 14, 1972 - Jean Westwood is first woman chosen to head Democratic National Committee.

March 22, 1974 - U.S. Senate passed the Equal Rights Amendment, sent to the states for ratification; 1923 - First proposed by the National Woman's political party to provide for the legal equality of the sexes and to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex. October 1971 - under the leadership of U.S. Representative Bella Abzug of New York and feminists Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem, it won the requisite two-thirds vote from the U.S. House of Representative; March 1972 - approved by the U.S. Senate, sent to the states; ultimately failed to achieve ratification by the a requisite 38, or three-fourths, of the states; sexual equality is not protected by the U.S. Constitution.

November 5, 1974 - Ella Grasso was elected governor of Connecticut, becoming the first woman to win gubernatorial office without succeeding her husband.

March 7, 1975 - The Senate revised its filibuster rule, allowed 60 senators to limit debate in most cases, instead of the previously required two-thirds of senators present.

March 2, 1977 - The U.S. House of Representatives adopted a strict code of ethics.

March 15, 1977 - The U.S. House of Representatives began a 90-day test to determine the feasibility of showing its sessions on TV.

February 8, 1978 - Senate deliberations were broadcast on radio for the first time as members opened debate on the Panama Canal treaties.

June 12, 1978 - U.S. House of Representatives allows live radio coverage.

March 19, 1979 - The U.S. House of Representatives began televising its day-to-day business.

February 2, 1980 - Details of ABSCAM, an FBI operation to uncover political corruption in the government, were released to the public. The FBI had conducted a sting operation targeting members of Congress using phony Arab businessmen.

March 23, 1981 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states could require, with some exceptions, parental notification when teenage girls seek abortions.

April 4, 1981 - Henry Cisneros became the first Mexican-American elected mayor of a major U.S. city - San Antonio, Texas.

June 30, 1982 - The Equal Rights Amendment (passed by Congress in 1972), prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex, failed to secure ratification by a sufficient number of states to ensure its inclusion in the Constitution of the United States of America.

June 4, 1985 - The Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling striking down an Alabama law providing for a daily minute of silence in public schools.

November 12, 1985 - Xavier Suarez was elected Miami's first Cuban-American mayor.

February 27, 1986 - The U.S. Senate approved telecasts of its debates on a trial basis.

June 24, 1986 - Guy Hunt elected first Republican governor of Alabama in 112 years.

February 10, 1989 - Ron Brown was elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee, becoming the first black to head a major U.S. political party.

June 21, 1989 - The Supreme Court ruled that burning the American flag as a form of political protest is protected by the First Amendment.

November 7, 1989 - L. Douglas Wilder won the governor's race in Virginia, becoming the nation's first elected black governor (December 1872 - Pinkney Benton Stewart Pinchback, a Reconstruction-era lieutenant general of Louisiana who became the first African American to hold that office; served as acting governor for five weeks while impeachment proceedings were in progress against Governor Henry Clay Warmoth).

November 7, 1989 - David N. Dinkins was elected New York City's first black mayor.

November 21, 1989 - The proceedings of Britain's House of Commons were televised live for the first time.

January 13, 1990 - Lawrence Douglas Wilder of Virginia, a grandson of slaves, became the nation's first elected black governor as he took the oath of office in Richmond.

May 16, 1991 - Queen Elizabeth II became the first British monarch to address the U.S. Congress.

May 7, 1992 - A 203-year-old proposed constitutional amendment barring Congress from giving itself a midterm pay raise was ratified when Michigan became the 38th state to approve it.

May 19, 1992 - The 27th Amendment to the Constitution, which prohibits Congress from giving itself midterm pay raises, went into effect.

November 3, 1992 - Illinois Democrat Carol Moseley-Braun became the first black woman elected to the U.S. Senate.

December 14, 1993 - A Colorado judge struck down as unconstitutional the state's voter-approved ban on gay rights laws.

January 4, 1994 - The 104th Congress convened, the first entirely under Republican control since the Eisenhower era; Newt Gingrich was elected speaker of the House.

March 1, 1994 - Senate rejects a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.

September 27, 1994 - More than 350 Republican congressional candidates signed the ''Contract with America,'' a 10-point platform they pledged to enact if voters sent a GOP majority to the U.S. House: reduce federal taxes, balance the budget, dismantle social welfare programs established during six decades of mostly Democratic rule in Congress.

November 8, 1994 - Republicans gained control of the House of Representatives for the first time in 40 years and won a majority in the Senate in midterm elections; led by Representative Newt Gingrich of Georgia who became speaker of the House; every bill incorporated in the Contract with America (except term-limits constitutional amendment) passed within the first 100 days of the 104th Congress.

January 7, 1997 - Newt Gingrich became the first Republican re-elected House speaker in 68 years.

February 27, 1998 - With the approval of Queen Elizabeth II, Britain's House of Lords agreed to end 1,000 years of male preference by giving a monarch's first-born daughter the same claim to the throne as a first-born son.

March 23, 1998 - The Supreme Court ruled that term limits for state lawmakers are constitutional.

December 20, 1999 - The Vermont Supreme Court ruled that homosexual couples are entitled to the same benefits and protections as wedded couples of the opposite sex.

July 1, 2000 - Vermont's civil unions law went into effect, granting gay couples most of the rights, benefits, and responsibilities of marriage.

November 7, 2000 - Hillary Rodham Clinton became the first first lady to win public office, defeating Republican Rick Lazio for a U.S. Senate seat from New York.

May 24, 2001 - Democrats gained control of the U.S. Senate for the first time since 1994 when Sen. James Jeffords of Vermont abandoned the Republican Party and declared himself an independent.

June 6, 2001 - Democrats assumed control of the U.S. Senate after Sen. James Jeffords's defection from Republican Party.  

September 6, 2002 - Meeting outside Washington D.C., for only the second time since 1800, Congress convened in New York to pay homage to the victims and heroes of Sept. 11, 2001.

November 14, 2002 - Nancy Pelosi of California was elected to succeed Richard Gephardt, who chose to step down, as leader of the Democratic Party in the U.S. House of Representatives; first woman to be named leader of either party in either house of Congress.

January 21, 2003 - The Census Bureau announced that Hispanics had surpassed blacks as America's largest minority group.

November 18, 2003 - The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled 4-3 that the state constitution guarantees gay couples the right to marry.

February 12, 2004 - Defying a California law, San Francisco officials began performing weddings for same-sex couples.

July 14, 2004 - The Senate voted 50-48 against a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

August 12, 2004 - The California Supreme Court voided the nearly 4,000 same-sex marriages sanctioned in San Francisco earlier in the year.

November 7, 2006 - Democrats gained control of the Senate and House of  Repre