OTHER BIG FIRSTS

Important milestones in US politics

1789

George Washington elected as the first president of the United States of America

1836

Alexander Twilight elected as the first African American in a state legislature, in Vermont

1841

John Tyler becomes the first vicepresident to become president, replacing the deceased William Henry Harrison

1861

Abraham Lincoln, born in Kentucky, is the first president born outside the original 13 states of the US

1868

Pierre Caliste Landry becomes the first African American elected mayor, in Donaldsonville, Louisiana

1870

Hiram Rhodes Revels elected to the Senate, becoming the first African American to serve in Congress

1887

Susanna M Salter becomes the first American woman to be elected mayor, in Argonia, Kansas

1922

Rebecca Felton becomes the first woman to be appointed to the Senate, but only serves for one day on behalf of a the recently deceased incumbent

1933

Ruth Bryan Owen selected by President Roosevelt as the first woman to be a US ambassador

1960

Frank R Beckwith is the first African American to run in a major party’s presidential primary, in his home state of Indiana

1964

Margaret Chase Smith runs for the presidential nomination of the Republican Party, the first woman to do so with a major party

1968

Channing E Phillips stands in place of the assassinated Robert F Kennedy and is the first African American to receive votes at the Democratic Convention

1968

Running with the Communist Party,

Charlene Mitchell is the first African American to seek the office of president

1984

Jesse Jackson becomes the first African American to seek the nomination of a major party for president in a nationwide campaign

1990

Douglas Wilder is elected governor of Virginia, becoming the first African American to secure such an office

1992

Althea Garrison is the first openly transgender person to be elected to a state legislator, in Massachusetts

1998

Tammy Baldwin becomes the first openly gay woman elected to Congress, representing Wisconsin

2007

Nancy Pelosi becomes the first woman to be made Speaker of the House

2008

Barack Obama becomes the first African American president of the United States

2016

Hillary Clinton is the first woman to be nominated as the presidential candidate of a major party