Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota become the first Muslim women elected to U.S. Congress
Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota became the first Muslim women elected to Congress.
U.S. Congress
Record number of women heading to U.S. Congress
More than 100 women were projected to win seats in the House of Representatives, easily shattering the record.
The U.S. formally passes the Higher Education Act into law, making student loans widely available for the first time
Federal student loans were first offered in the U.S. in 1958 under the National Defense Education Act. However, they were only available to select categories of students, such as those studying engineering, science, or education. Low-income student loans only became more broadly available in the 1960s under the Higher Education Act of 1965, which also increased federal money given to universities, created scholarships, and established a National Teachers Corps.
U.S. Congress prohibits slavery in all current and future U.S. territories
By this act, they repudiated the 1857 opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States in the Dred Scott Case that Congress was powerless to regulate slavery in U.S. territories.
U.S. Congress abolishes the African slave trade
The U.S. Congress passed an act to “prohibit the importation of slaves into any port or place within the jurisdiction of the United States…from any foreign kingdom, place, or country.”
U.S. Bill of Rights ratified, become first 10 amendments of the U.S. Constitution
The Bill of Rights amendments add specific guarantees of personal freedoms and rights, clear limitations on the government’s power in judicial and other proceedings, and explicit declarations that all powers not specifically granted to the federal government by the Constitution are reserved to the states or the people.