1789

March 4

The House met for the first time in Federal Hall in New York City. It attained its first quorum on April 1 and promptly elected Frederick A.C. Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania as Speaker.

 June 8

Representative James Madison of Virginia introduced a series of amendments to the Constitution providing a first draft of what would eventually become the Bill of Rights.

July 24

The House formed the Committee on Ways and Means as a select committee. It became a permanent standing committee in the 4th Congress (1795–1797) and remains the oldest such committee.

 

1790

December 6

The House began meeting in Congress Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

 

1792

March 27

The House authorized a select committee to investigate the rout of a military force under the command of Major General Arthur St. Clair by various Indian tribes in the Northwest Territory. The subsequent hearings and reports constituted the first congressional investigation.

 

1793

September 18

President George Washington laid the cornerstone for the U.S. Capitol. After numerous renovations and additions to the building, the cornerstone’s exact location remains a present-day mystery.

 

1797

July 7

The House first exercised its power to remove federal officials by impeaching Senator William Blount of Tennessee on the grounds that he had conspired to incite Native-American tribes to help the British conquer Spanish territory in then-West Florida. The Senate dismissed the impeachment charges against Blount after it expelled him on July 8, 1797.

 

November 23

William C.C. Claiborne of Tennessee became the youngest individual ever to serve in the House. Claiborne took his seat despite being just 22 years old, three years younger than the minimum age requirement set by the Constitution.

 

1798

February 15

The first major altercation in the House occurred when a fight broke out between Matthew Lyon of Vermont and Roger Griswold of Connecticut. The event highlighted the development of political factions in Congress.

July 10

In one of the first tests of freedom of speech, the House passed the Sedition Act in the summer of 1798, permitting the deportation or imprisonment of anyone deemed a threat or publishing “false, scandalous, or malicious writing” against the government of the United States.

 

1800

November 17

Per the conditions of the 1790 Residence Act, the House moved to the City of Washington in the District of Columbia. The House Chamber was temporarily established within the North Wing of the Capitol—designed for the Senate—the only completed part of the building.

 

1801

February 17

To break a tie in the Electoral College between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, the House, voting by state delegations, elected Jefferson as President and Burr as Vice President after 36 ballots. The event inspired the Twelfth Amendment reforms to the Electoral College.

 

1807

October 26

On the opening day of the 10th Congress (1807–1809), the House first met in its new chamber in the completed South Wing. The chamber was designed by architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe with extensive advice from President Thomas Jefferson.

 

1811

November 4

Henry Clay of Kentucky, one of the 19th century’s most influential Speakers of the House, was elected to that office on his first day in the House. Clay greatly enhanced the Speaker’s power. A popular presiding officer, he served five intermittent terms as Speaker before resigning the position in 1824.

 

1814

August 24

British troops occupied Washington, D.C., and badly damaged much of the Capitol. They also destroyed the President’s House and other public buildings. Five years later, the House returned to a rebuilt chamber in the South Wing of the Capitol, the site of the present-day Statuary Hall.

 

1820

March 1

The House passed the Missouri Compromise which stipulated that new states and territories north of the 36'30 boundary were free of slavery. The measure helped to stave off sectional conflict for a generation.

 

1822

September 30

Joseph Marion Hernandez, a Delegate from the Florida Territory, became the first Hispanic American to serve in Congress.

 

1824

December 10

Marquis de Lafayette—the French general who aided the Continental Army in the American Revolution—became the first foreign dignitary to address the House.

 

1825

February 9

The House, voting by state delegations, elected John Quincy Adams as President after the electoral count determined that no one had received a majority. Under the provisions of the 12th Amendment, the House chose the President from the top three candidates.

 

1828

April 22

The House passed its highest protective tariff to date—labeled the “Tariff of Abominations” by opponents. The steep tax on foreign imports lowered the relative value of southern agricultural products in the international market, inspiring South Carolina to defy the federal law. The ensuing sectional crisis served as prelude to the Civil War.

 

1848

February 21

Representative John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts, former President and ardent abolitionist, suffered a fatal stroke at his desk on the House Floor. He died two days later on February 23, 1848, in the Speaker’s room just off the Hall of the House.

 

1857

December 16

The House convened for the first time in its new chamber in the recently extended South Wing of the Capitol, the site of the present-day chamber.

 

1862

February 28

The House passed the Homestead Act which granted up to 160 acres of western public land to any citizen who would occupy and improve it for five years, further spurring settlement in the western United States.

 

1865

January 31

The House passed the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery. The states ratified the amendment in December 1865.

 

1866

June 13

The House passed the 14th Amendment to protect the civil rights of freed slaves. Ratified in 1868, it asserted that states could not deny the rights of any citizen without due process of law, providing the basis for future expansions of civil rights.

 

1868

February 24

The House impeached President Andrew Johnson for violating the Tenure of Office Act. The Senate acquitted him on May 26, 1868.

 

1870

December 12

Joseph Rainey of South Carolina became the first African American sworn in as a House Member.

 

1877

March 4

Romualdo Pacheco of California became the first Hispanic American to serve as a full-fledged U.S. Representative.

 

1889

December 2

The House elected Representative Thomas Brackett Reed of Maine Speaker of the House for the first time. “Czar” Reed ruled the House for three non-consecutive terms with an iron fist, streamlining the legislative process by blocking the minority’s ability to stall legislation.

 

1899

December 4

Speaker David Henderson of Iowa selected Representative Sereno Payne of New York as the first Majority (Republican) Floor Leader. Minority candidate for Speaker James Richardson of Tennessee served as the first Minority (Democratic) Floor Leader. Their new positions signified an increased interest in enforcing party unity on the House Floor.

 

1903

November 9

Representative Joseph Gurney Cannon of Illinois was elected Speaker for the first time. “Uncle Joe” Cannon became one of the House’s most powerful Speakers as a proponent of less legislative intrusion on growing American industry.

 

1908

January 9

With the completion of the first House Office Building construction, Members drew numbers to occupy personal offices for the first time. As a result, five years later, the House approved new theater seating in its chamber to replace Members’ individual desks.

 

1910

March 19

Nearly 200 Members of the House banded together to strip Speaker Joseph Cannon of his power to appoint Members to the influential Committee on Rules. Known as the Cannon Revolt, the action greatly curtailed the Speaker’s absolute control over the House Chamber and proceedings.

 

1917

April 2

Representative Jeannette Rankin of Montana became the first woman sworn in as a Member of Congress.

 

1919

May 21

After the Senate failed to pass the 19th Amendment in the prior Congress, the House again passed the measure which granted women the right to vote. Before it was sent to the President, Speaker Frederick Gillett of Massachusetts signed the approved final version of the bill. The states ratified the law in 1920.

 

1929

June 11

The House passed the Permanent Apportionment Act of 1929, setting the number of Representatives at 435. After each decennial census since 1930, seats have been apportioned among the states using the formula established in that act.

 

1930

June 14

In an attempt to jumpstart the domestic economy, the House passed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, raising duties once again to extremely high levels. The tariff backfired, severely inhibiting foreign trade and sending the American economy deeper into the Great Depression.

November 4

The Republicans won a narrow majority of House seats in the fall elections, but the deaths of 19 Members-elect before the opening of the 72nd Congress (1931–1933) allowed the Democrats to gain a majority after a series of special elections. Texas Representative John Nance Garner was elected Speaker of the House.

 

1940

September 16

The House elected Representative Sam Rayburn of Texas Speaker for the first time. The longest-serving Speaker, Rayburn later was instrumental in expanding the Committee on Rules to dilute the power of racial conservatives opposed to social legislation.

 

1941

December 8

Representative Jeannette Rankin of Montana cast the sole vote against the declaration of war on Japan. By her vote Rankin became the only Member of Congress to oppose U.S. participation in both world wars.

 

1944

May 18

The House unanimously passed the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act (GI Bill of Rights) which provided far reaching educational aid, employment assistance, medical care, and housing opportunities for returning World War II veterans. Edith Nourse Rogers of Massachusetts, a long time advocate for U.S. veterans, helped craft many of the bill’s provisions.

 

1946

August 2

The House passed the first Legislative Reorganization Act, a sweeping set of internal procedural and structural reforms which limited the number of committees, increased office allowances, and required lobbyist registration.

 

1948

August 25

Based on testimony by former Communist Party member Whittaker Chambers, the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC), chaired by J. Parnell Thomas of New Jersey, grilled former State Department official Alger Hiss as part of an investigation into his alleged work as a Soviet spy. The Hiss–Chambers hearings dominated headlines and epitomized wide-ranging congressional anti-communist investigations during the early Cold War.

 

1954

March 1

A group of armed Puerto Rican nationalists fired onto the House Chamber while in session, wounding five Members before being subdued by police and public visitors in the House Gallery.

 

1957

January 3

Representative Dalip Singh Saund of California became the first Asian American to serve in Congress.

 

1962

May 24

The cornerstone for the new Rayburn House Office Building was laid. Two days prior, President John F. Kennedy signed legislation to rename the old and new House office buildings as the Cannon and Longworth buildings, respectively.

 

1964

July 2

The House passed the final version of the Civil Rights Act, which expanded federal power to protect African-American voting rights and to penalize states that failed to desegregate public schools and accommodations.

 

1969

January 3

Representative Shirley Chisholm of New York became the first African-American woman to serve in Congress.

 

1973

January 23

As a result of the 1970 Legislative Reorganization Act, the first electronic voting system was utilized in the House Chamber, streamlining the roll call vote process.

 

1974

July 27

Led by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Peter Rodino of New Jersey, the committee approved the first of three articles of impeachment against President Richard M. Nixon stemming from the Watergate Scandal. Facing impeachment articles of obstruction of justice, abuse of presidential power, and contempt of Congress, Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974.

 

1979

March 19

For the first time, the House began live television broadcasts of its complete floor proceedings.

 

1987

July 16

The House participated in a ceremonial Joint Session of Congress in Congress Hall and Independence Hall in Philadelphia. The session commemorated the bicentennial of the Great Compromise at the Constitutional Convention of 1787.

 

1995

January 4

Organized under a series of campaign promises dubbed “The Contract with America,” the Republican Party assumed the majority in the House of Representatives for the first time in 40 years. The new majority elected Georgia Representative Newt Gingrich Speaker of the House.

 

1998

July 24

Two United States Capitol Police officers, Jacob Chestnut and John Gibson, were shot to death by a deranged gunman entering the Capitol. Both men lay in honor in the Capitol Rotunda on July 28 prior to burial at Arlington National Cemetery.

December 19

The House impeached President William J. Clinton for obstruction of justice and perjury. The Senate acquitted him on February 12, 1999.

 

2000

June 20

Congressional leaders ceremonially broke ground on the Capitol Visitor Center. The center was designed to better educate the public on the legislative branch and the people behind it.

 

2002

September 6

The House participated in a ceremonial Joint Session of Congress in Federal Hall in New York City. The session was held in remembrance of the victims and events of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

 

2005

January 4

In response to the 2001 terrorist attacks, the House created a new permanent standing committee, the Committee on Homeland Security. The standing committee replaced the Select Committee on Homeland Security.

September 22

The House formally received a statue of Po’Pay, a Pueblo religious leader, from the State of New Mexico. The event marked the first time each state was represented by two statues in the National Statuary Hall Collection.

October 30–31

Rosa Parks, an African-American seamstress whose act of civil disobedience in 1955 galvanized the U.S. civil rights movement, became the first woman and the second black American to lie in honor in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol.

 

2007

January 4

Representative Nancy Pelosi of California was elected as the first woman Speaker of the House.