On this date, Representative Allen Treadway of Massachusetts made a plea on the House Floor for Congress to set the last Thursday of November as the legal holiday for Thanksgiving. On Thursday, November 26, 1789, President George Washington issued a proclamation for “a day of public thanksgiving and prayer.” Beginning in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln encouraged Americans to recognize the last Thursday of November as “a day of Thanksgiving.” A few years later in 1870, Congress followed suit ...

On this date, William Charles Cole Claiborne of Tennessee, the youngest person ever elected to the House of Representatives died. Born in Sussex County, Virginia, in 1775, Claiborne worked as an assistant for John Beckley, the first Clerk of the House of Representatives. Claiborne later studied law in Virginia and became a criminal attorney in Tennessee. Governor John Sevier of Tennessee—a former Congressman from North Carolina who later represented Tennessee in the House—appointed the 21-yea...

On this date Josiah Bartlett was born in 1729 in Amesbury, Massachusetts. Bartlett was a physician in Kingston, New Hampshire, when he launched his political career under the rule of Great Britain in 1757. He began as a town selectman before being elected to the general court (the colonial legislature) in 1765. At the same time he also became a justice of the peace and an officer in the militia. As the relationship between the American colonies and the British crown worsened in the mid-1770s,...

On this date, the House assembled for the first time in the North wing of the Capitol. Although work halted on the central domed section and the House side (South wing) of the building, enough space was completed to receive the Senate, the House of Representatives, the Supreme Court, and the Library of Congress to the new permanent site of the federal government in Washington, D.C. In the fall of 1800, only the President’s House, the North wing of the Capitol, and a road connecting the two, P...

On this date, the Continental Congress adopted a plan for the inaugural national government under the Articles of Confederation. Two days later, the Continental Congress sent the Articles to the states, which approved the new government in March 1781. Created to unify the 13 colonies, the Articles nevertheless established a largely decentralized government that vested most power in the states and in the national legislature. Concerned with the accumulation of power in too few hands, the Artic...

Since the First Congress opened in 1789, more than 11,000 people have served in the U.S. House of Representatives. Most served capably for a few terms and returned to their communities. But some lawmakers have left towering legacies and are remembered for their legislative prowess, path-breaking careers, and bold personalities. These Members of Congress, including powerful Speakers of the House, strong-willed legislators, trailblazing Representatives, and policy specialists, qualify as “Giant...