Daily Almanac for Monday, September 13, 2021; the 255th Day of the Year

On this date in 1948, Margaret Chase Smith became the first woman to serve in both Houses of Congress. Here is the Senator in a 1973 photo. By U.S. Senate Historical Office, Public Domain, https commons.wikimedia.org

FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

Margaret Madeline Chase Smith (December 14, 1897 – May 29, 1995) was an American politician. A member of the Republican Party, she served as a U.S. representative (1940–1949) and a U.S. senator (1949–1973) from Maine. She was the first woman to serve in both houses of the United States Congress, and the first woman to represent Maine in either. A moderate Republican, she was among the first to criticize the tactics of Joseph McCarthy in her 1950 speech, “Declaration of Conscience“.

Smith was a candidate for the Republican nomination in the 1964 presidential election; she was the first woman to be placed in nomination for the presidency at a major party‘s convention. Upon leaving office, she was the longest-serving female senator in history, a distinction that was not surpassed until January 5, 2011, when Senator Barbara Mikulski was sworn in for a fifth term. Smith was ranked as the longest-serving Republican woman in the Senate, a distinction that was not surpassed until January 3, 2021, when Susan Collins, who holds the same Senate seat she previously held, was sworn in for a fifth term.

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COURTESY www.almanac.com