• March 4, 1789 - Convened for the first time.


• November 17, 1800 – Took up residence in the north wing of the unfinished Capitol in Washington D.C.


• November 16, 1818 – 28-year-old member John H. Eaton is sworn in bucking the Constitution’s requirement of members being at least 30. Eaton still holds the record as the youngest senator.


• March 28, 1834 – Censures President Andrew Jackson for usurping congressional power.


• June 24, 1834 – The Senate rejects a cabinet nomination for the first time. Roger Taney was denied treasury secretary.


• July 1, 1845 – David Levy Yulee (D-FL) becomes the first Jewish senator to serve.


• September 16, 1859 – Senator David Broderick becomes the first and only sitting senator to die in a duel.


• January 21, 1861 – Jefferson Davis gives his farewell address to the Senate before becoming President of the Confederacy.


• April 9, 1867 – The Alaska purchase treaty was approved.


• February 23, 1870 – Hiram Revels of Mississippi becomes the first African-American senator.


• March 4, 1875 – Andrew Johnson becomes the first former president to serve as a senator.


• February 14, 1879 – Blanche K. Bruce became the first African-American to preside over the Senate.


• In 1907 – Charles Curtis of Kansas became the first Native American senator.


• October 3, 1922 – Rebecca Felton (D-GA) became the first woman appointed to the Senate.


• December 7, 1928 – Octaviano Larrazolo (R-NM) became the fist Hispanic senator.


• October 19, 1943 – Hattie Caraway (D-AR) became the first woman to preside over the Senate.


• January 2, 1947 – Armed Services Committee is established.


• February 9, 1950 – Senator Joseph McCarthy (R-WI) raised charges that Communists had infiltrated federal government agencies.


• December 2, 1954 – The Senate condemns McCarthy.


• August 28-29, 1957 – Senator Strom Thurmon (R-SC) delivers the longest speech in Senate history. He filibustered against the 1957 Civil Rights Act, speaking for 24 hours, 18 minutes.


• July 29, 1959 – Hiram L. Fong (R-HI) becomes the first senator of Chinese-American ancestry.


• June 6, 1968 – Senator Robert F. Kennedy was killed by an assassin’s bullet while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination.


• November 2, 1970 – Warren G. Harding becomes the first incumbent senator to be elected President.


• In 1975 – Senator Mike Mansfield (D-MT) sets the record for longest-serving Majority Leader, having held the post for 16 years.


• January 5, 1993 – Carol Moseley-Braun of Illinois becomes the first African-American female to serve in the Senate.


• In 1998 – Senator John Glenn returns to space aboard Space Shuttle Discovery.


• In 1999 – The Senate holds an impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton. The trial would last from January 14 through February 12 ending with an acquittal after articles of impeachment were voted upon.


• November 7, 2000 – Hillary Clinton becomes the first former First Lady to be elected to the Senate.


• October 25, 2002 – Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone is killed along with his wife, daughter and three staff members after the plane they were campaigning in crashes.


• December 5, 2002 – Strom Thurmond celebrates his 100th birthday. He’s the only sitting senator to reach the century mark.


• November 4, 2008 – Illinois Senator Barack Obama becomes just the third sitting senator to be elected President of the United States. Fifteen senators had also served as president.

Source: United States Senate