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TimeLines of Liberty
American History - Politics |
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Political Firsts
in the 17th - 18th & 19th Centuries
Last updated September, 2008. |
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2nd Column:
GOP / dem - either directly; served
under; or appointed by Admin. ---
Misc. - unknown, non-partisan or not applicable. |
1641-1644-1650-1707-1752-1764-1775-1777-1778-1787-1788-1789-1793-1794-1794-1802-1803-1812-1815-1822-1824-1826-1831-1832-1836-1837-1841-1845-1849-1856-1859-1861-1864-1866-1868-1869-1870-1871-1872-1874-1875-1877-1879-1881-1883-1884-1885-1887-1888-1891-1893-1895-1896-1897-1898-1899
1900s - 20th Century
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2000s - 21st Century |
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© Copyright 2005,2006,2007,2008 Roger W
Hancock www.PoetPatriot.com |
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1641 |
Misc. |
Massachusetts was the first colony to legalize slavery by statute. |
|
1644 |
Misc. |
The
first legal protest by blacks in America is lodged when 11 slaves
petition the Council of New Netherlands and for their freedom; they win
because of 17+ years of service and having been previously promised
freedom. |
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1650 |
Misc. |
When The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung
Up in America, a book of poems, is published in England in 1650,
Anne Bradstreet becomes first woman writer of the New World. |
|
1707 |
Misc. |
The first professional woman artist
in the Americas was Henreitta Johnston when she begins working in Charles
Town, colonial
South Carolina (Charleston) as a
portrait artist. |
|
1752 |
Misc. |
Pennsylvania Hospital opens as
the first hospital in America. |
|
1755 |
Misc. |
John Adams is the first to become
president who had attended Harvard University, graduating in 1755. |
|
1764 |
Misc. |
Maryland was the first state to try to discourage by law the marriage of
white women to black men. |
|
1775 |
Misc. |
The
first Abolition Society in the United States is founded in
Pennsylvania. |
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1775 |
Misc. |
Mary Katherine Goddard becomes the first woman
publisher in America in 1775 when, with her widowed mother becomes
publishers of the Providence Gazette newspaper and the annual West's Almanack.
See 1777. |
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1775 |
Misc. |
Francis Salvador in colonial
South Carolina is the first Jew elected to
a public office in America. |
|
1777 |
Misc. |
Vermont is the first state to abolish slavery. |
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1777 |
Misc. |
Mary Katherine Goddard is the first publisher to offer
copies of the Declaration of
Independence that included the signers' names.
See 1775. |
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1778 |
Misc. |
The
first Treaty is made with the Delaware Indians by the Continental
Congress. |
|
1787 |
Misc. |
Delaware,
by unanimous vote, is the first state to ratify the Constitution. Doing
so makes
Delaware the first state of the Union.
(c |
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1787 |
Misc. |
The
first Federalist Paper appears in the New York press to inform the
public of the background reasoning and justification for ratification. |
|
1781 |
Misc |
The
Massachusetts legislature enacts the first official state
holiday recognizing the Fourth of July in 1781.
Copyright 2007 Roger W Hancock |
|
1788 |
Misc. |
Under the authority of the new
U.S.
Constitution the first elections of
senators and representatives are held.© |
|
1789 |
Misc. |
The
first session of the
United States Congress convenes in March, in
New York. |
|
1789 |
Misc. |
George Washington is the first President of the United States when
electors cast a clear majority of votes, for him. |
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1789 |
Misc. |
George Washington is the first President to do first, everything he
did as president. ( -: )> |
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1793 |
Misc. |
The
first fugitive Slave Law is passed by the
U.S. Congress |
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© Copyright 2005,2006,2007,2008 Roger W
Hancock www.PoetPatriot.com |
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1801 |
D-Rep |
Thomas Jefferson is
believed to be the first and only President to have walked to
and from his inaugural (March 4, 1801) |
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1801 |
D-Rep |
The
National intelligencer published the first newspaper extra of an
inaugural address. |
|
1801 |
D-Rep |
The
White House holds the first public Fourth of July reception in
1801. |
|
1803 |
Misc. |
Ohio becomes the first state west of
the Alleghenies. |
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1812 |
D-Rep |
The first engineered redistricting
for political advantage is enabled when
Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry signs a redistricting law. The
designing of a district to take in a particular official or candidate or
for other political advantage becomes known as "gerrymandering." |
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1815 |
Misc. |
John Stevens is granted the first
American Railroad Charter by the State of
New Jersey. |
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1822 |
Misc. |
Joseph Marion Hernández Is the first Hispanic to serve in Congress
(1822). He was also the first Delegate from the territory of
Florida. |
|
1822 |
Misc. |
Alexander Lucius Twilight
becomes the first Black American to graduate from an American university
in 1823 when he received his bachelor's degree from Middlebury College. |
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1824 |
Misc. |
Liberia is established by freed American slaves. |
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1824 |
Misc. |
The first political poll published
was in and taken by the Harrisburg Pennsylvanian newspaper in 1824. The
presidential preference "straw poll" was taken in Wilmington,
Delaware. |
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1826 |
Misc. |
Hawaii's first general tax law is enacted to provide revenue for
shipbuilding and other development. |
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1831 |
Anti- |
The Anti-Masonic Party, on September 26, 1830
at the Athenaeum in Baltimore,
Maryland, was first the political party to hold a nominating convention to select its candidates
for president and vice president. |
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1831 |
GOP |
The Republican
Party holds its first nominating convention at the Athenaeum in
Baltimore,
Maryland from December 12th to
the 15th. |
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1832 |
dem |
The Democratic
Party follows the opposition parties holding the 1832 Democratic
National Convention , at the Athenaeum in Baltimore,
Maryland from May 21st to the
25th. This was the first Democratic nominating convention. |
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1832 |
dem |
The first
contested roll-call vote in political convention history occurs at the
1832 Democratic National Convention on May 21st. The convention voted
126 to 153 to not allow
D.C. voting rights at the
convention. |
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1836 |
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The first Black
American is elected to a State office when Alexander Lucius Twilight is
elected to the Vermont legislature in
1836. |
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1836 |
dem |
The election of 1836 was
the first and only where the Vice Presidential race was thrown into the
U.S. Senate. Without a
clear majority of electoral votes, Johnson was chosen by the Senate
(33-14) over Granger. The others were legally out of the running. |
|
1836 |
Whig |
The Whig party was the
first and only political party to run several presidential candidates,
in differing regions of the country, in the hope of splitting the vote
to have the House of Representatives select from their candidates.
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1837 |
dem |
Richard Mentor Johnson is the first
and only candidate for Vice President to be chosen by the Senate of the
United States when the electoral vote
failed to provide a majority to any of the candidates. |
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1837 |
Misc. |
The first Black American
to earn an M.D. degree was James McCune Smith, graduating from the
University of Glasgow in 1837. |
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1841 |
Misc. |
The first prolonged filibuster in
the U.S. Senate began February 18th
continuing until March 11th. |
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1845 |
dem |
David Levy Yulee was the first Jew elected to the U.S.
Senate.
Yulee was a Moroccan Jew and was elected U.S. Senator from
Florida. |
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1849 |
dem |
James Knox Polk is the first sitting president to have his
photograph taken while in New York City,
NY. |
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© Copyright 2005,2006,2007,2008 Roger W
Hancock www.PoetPatriot.com |
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1855 |
Misc. |
John Mercer Langston
becomes the first Black American to be elected to a local office whe he
wins the election for town clerk of Brownhelm Township,
Ohio. |
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1856 |
GOP |
The
Republican Party opens its first national convention on June 17, 1856,
in Philadelphia. |
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1856 |
GOP |
John C. Fremont, the first Republican Party presidential candidate, is
defeated by democrat James Buchanan. |
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1857 |
dem |
James Buchanan is the first
President known to have been photographed. [Obviously in his earlier
life as
Polk was the first sitting president to be photographed. See
1849] |
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1859 |
Misc. |
Oregon is the first State admitted with a slavery exclusion law written
into the state constitution. |
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1859 |
N.dem |
Stephen Douglas of the
Northern Democratic Party was the first Presidential candidate to
conduct a nationwide speaking tour. Traveling the South not expecting
many electoral votes he advocated on behalf of the maintenance of the
Union. |
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1861 |
dem |
Judah Benjamin resigned as U.S. Senator from
Louisiana to accept
Confederate President Jefferson Davis's offer to be the Attorney General
of the new Confederacy. He became the first Jew to hold a
cabinet-level office in either American government. |
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1862 |
Misc. |
Mary Jane Patterson is the
first Black American woman to earn a B.A. degree when she graduated from
Oberlin College in 1862. |
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1864 |
GOP |
Soldiers in the field are
allowed for the first time to vote in presidential elections.
Abraham
Lincoln received 70% of the the Union Army vote in the 1864
election. |
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1864 |
Misc. |
the first Black American
woman to receive an M.D. degree is Rebecca Lee Crumpler when she
graduated from the New England Female Medical College in 1864 |
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1866 |
GOP |
Edward G. Walker and Charles L. Mitchell are the first Blacks to hold
office in an American legislature (Massachusetts
Assembly). |
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1868 |
GOP |
The
South Carolina State House becomes the first and only legislature to have a
black majority. 87 blacks to 40 whites. The
South Carolina State Constitutional
Convention convenes on January 14th. |
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1868 |
GOP |
The first Black American Lieutenant Governor was Oscar
J. Dunn, a former slave, installed on July 13, 1868 to the
Louisiana office. |
|
1869 |
GOP |
The first Black appointed to the
diplomatic service is Ebenezer Don Carlos Bassett of Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania who becomes the U.S.
Minister to Haiti. |
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1869 |
Misc. |
Granted permission in 1869 Arabella Mansfield is
granted admission to practice law in Iowa,
becoming the first woman lawyer in America.
See 1870. |
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1869 |
Misc. |
The first State to grant women the
right to vote is Wyoming, on December
10, 1869. |
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1870 |
GOP |
Senator Hiram R. Revels, a minister from Natchez,
Mississippi, is the
first black senator in American history serving during Reconstruction
from February 25, 1870 to March 4, 1871. |
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1870 |
GOP |
The
first Black American to hold a major judicial position is Jonathan
Jasper Wright who was elected to the South Carolina Supreme Court. |
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1870 |
GOP |
From South Carolina, Joseph Hayne Rainey was the first black to serve in
the U.S. House of Representatives. |
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1870 |
GOP |
Joseph H. Rainey of South
Carolina became the first Black American in the U.S. House of
Representatives when seated on December 12, 1870. He was the second
Black American to serve in either House of Congress. |
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1870 |
dem |
The Democratic Party is depicted for
the first time in a political cartoon in 1870 as "A Live Jackass Kicking
a Dead Lion" by cartoonist, Thomas Nast, for the Harper's Weekly. |
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1870 |
Misc. |
Graduating from Union College of Law in Chicago
Illinois, Ada H. Kepley is the first
woman lawyer to graduate from a law school.
See 1869. |
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1870 |
Misc. |
Women are for the first time in
American history allowed to serve on a grand jury in the state of
Wyoming in 1870. |
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1871 |
GOP |
PBS
Pinchback becomes America's first Black lieutenant governor when he
becomes the Lieutenant governor of Louisiana. |
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1872 |
GOP |
PBS
Pinchback becomes America's first Black governor when appointed, serving
from December 9, 1872 to January 13, 1873 while impeachment is brought
against the elected Louisiana
governor. |
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1872 |
Misc. |
Victoria Claflin Woodhull when nominated by the
National Radical Reformers in 1872 becomes the first woman presidential
candidate in the Unites States of America. |
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1872 |
GOP |
John Roy Lynch became the
first African American to be a speaker of a State House of
Representatives when chosen in 1872 by the white majority of the
Mississippi House. Later the same year he is elected to the U.S. House.
See next entry & 1884 |
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1872 |
GOP |
John Roy Lynch at age of 26 becomes
the youngest Black Congressman when elected in 1872 to the U.S. House of
Representatives from
Mississippi.
See previous entry & 1884 |
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1874 |
GOP |
Blanche Kelso Bruce, elected to the U.S. Senate by the
Mississippi legislature, becomes
the first Black to serve a full six-year U.S. Senate term entering
Congress on March 5, 1875.
See 1877. |
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1874 |
Misc. |
To improve the national morality,
primarily by the protest of alcoholic beverages, the Woman's Christian
Temperance Union is founded in 1874. |
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1874 |
Misc. |
Edward A. Bouchet was the
first Black American to earn a Ph.D. when graduating from Yale
University in 1876. |
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1877 |
GOP |
Blanche Kelso Bruce is the first Black
American to chair a congressional committee when selected to chair the
select committee on
Mississippi River levees.
See
1874,
1875 |
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1879 |
Misc. |
The first woman allowed to practice law before the
United States Supreme Court was Belva Ann Lockwood. |
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1881 |
GOP |
The first state to enact a
prohibition on alcoholic beverages was the state of
Kansas. |
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1883 |
dem |
The First Antitrust Law is enacted
on February 23rd, 1883 by the Alabama
State Legislature. |
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1883 |
GOP |
One year after
President Arthur signed in the
Civil Service Act, the first woman and second person is appointed to a
federal civil service position. Mary Hoyt of Connecticut was appointed
on September 5, 1883. |
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1884 |
GOP |
John R. Lynch is the first Black to preside over a national convention
of a major U.S. political party serving as temporary chairman to the
Republican Convention of 1884.
See 1872 a & 1872 b |
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1885 |
Misc |
June 14 is the date of the first
observance of "Flag Birth Day", thirty-one years before it becomes an
Official holiday. |
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1887 |
Misc. |
Susanna Medora Salter, of Argonia,
Kansas, becomes the first woman mayor
in the United States. Her name was placed on the ballot as a joke by men
who opposed women in government. |
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1888 |
Misc. |
Philip Jaisohn is the first Korean to become an American Citizen.
Jaisohn in 1892 becomes the first Korean-American to receive an American
Medical Degree. |
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1891 |
dem |
Owning the distinction of being the
first native Texan to become governor, James Hogg begins serving as
Governor of Texas. |
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1893 |
Misc. |
Postmaster General General
John Wanamaker created a controversy when he issued America's
first commemorative postage stamps. Celebrating the 400th
anniversary of Christopher Columbus's voyage to the new world
the commemorative stamps were issued to coincide with the World
Columbian Exposition held in Chicago,
Illinois, from May 1 to
October 30, 1893. |
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1895 |
GOP |
William O. Bradley is elected in 1895 as
Kentucky's first Republican
governor. |
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1896 |
dem |
Emma Guy Cromwell becomes the first woman to
hold a statewide office when the 1896
Kentucky
State Senate elects her to be State Librarian. |
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1897 |
Misc. |
The first RFD (Rural Free Delivery) mail routes in the
U.S.
begin in 1897 in Todd County,
Kentucky.
The carrier was paid $45 per month and provided his own buggy,
horse, feed, and water. |
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1897 |
dem |
Martha Hughs Cannon is America's
first woman state senator when elected to the
Utah Senate in 1897. |
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1898 |
GOP |
Estelle Reel held the position of Superintendent of Indian Schools from
1898 to 1910. Reel was the first woman nominated to federal service that
required Senate ratification. |
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1899 |
GOP |
The U.S. Congress approves the first
voting Machines for use in federal elections. |
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© Copyright 2005,2006,2007,2008 Roger W
Hancock www.PoetPatriot.com |
1641-1644-1650-1707-1752-1764-1775-1777-1778-1787-1788-1789-1793-1794-1794-1802-1803-1812-1815-1822-1824-1826-1837-1841-1845-1849-1856-1859-1861-1866-1868-1869-1870-1871-1872-1874-1879-1881-1883-1884-1887-1888-1891-1893-1895-1896-1897-1898-1899
1900s - 20th Century
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2000s - 21st Century |
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