John Dingell
John David Dingell Jr. was an American politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1955 until 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, he holds the record for longest-ever serving Congressperson in American history, representing Michigan for more than 59 years, he most served as the representative for Michigan's 12th congressional district. A longtime member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Dingell was a powerful chairman of the committee from 1981 to 1995 and 2007 to 2009. Dingell began his congressional career by succeeding his father, John Dingell Sr. as representative for Michigan's 16th congressional district on December 13, 1955. He left office on January 3, 2015. Having served for over 59 years, he has the longest congressional tenure in U. S. history. He was the longest-serving Dean of the U. S. House of Representatives and Dean of the Michigan congressional delegation. Dingell was one of the final two World War II veterans to have served in Congress.
During his time in Congress in addition to protecting the automobile industry important to his district, Dingell was instrumental in passage of the Medicare Act, the Water Quality Act of 1965, Clean Water Act of 1972, the Endangered Species Act of 1973, the Clean Air Act of 1990, the Affordable Care Act, among others. He was most proud of his work on the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Dingell announced on February 24, 2014, that he would not seek reelection to a 31st term in Congress, his wife, Debbie Dingell, ran to succeed her husband and defeated Republican Terry Bowman in the general election on November 4, 2014. He was the last member of Congress who had served in the 1950s and during the presidencies of Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy. President Barack Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014. Dingell was born on July 8, 1926, in Colorado Springs, the son of Grace and John Dingell Sr.. His father was of Austrian and Polish descent, his mother had Swiss and Scots-Irish ancestry.
The Dingells were in Colorado in search of a cure for Dingell Sr.'s tuberculosis. The Dingell surname had been Dzieglewicz, was "Americanized" by John Dingell Sr.'s father. The family moved back to Michigan, in 1932, Dingell Sr. was elected the first representative of Michigan's newly created 15th District. In Washington, D. C. John Jr. attended Georgetown Preparatory School and the House Page School when he served as a page for the U. S. House of Representatives from 1938 to 1943, he was on the floor of the House when President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave his famous speech after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. In 1944, at the age of 18, Dingell joined the United States Army, he rose to the rank of second lieutenant and received orders to take part in the first wave of a planned invasion of Japan in November 1945. Dingell attended Georgetown University in Washington, D. C. was graduated with a Bachelor of Science in chemistry in 1949 and a Juris Doctor in 1952. He was a lawyer in private practice, a research assistant to U.
S. District Court judge Theodore Levin, a Congressional employee, a forest ranger, assistant prosecuting attorney for Wayne County until 1955. In 1955, John Sr. died and John Jr. won a special election to succeed him. He won a full term in 1956 and was reelected 29 times, including runs in 1988 and 2006 with no Republican opponent. Dingell received less than 62% of the vote on only two occasions. In 1994 when the Republican Revolution swept the Republicans into the majority in the House of Representatives for the first time since 1954, Dingell received 59% of the vote. In 2010 when the Republicans re-took control of the House of Representatives, Dingell received 57% of the vote. Between them, he and his father represented the southeastern Michigan area for 80 years, his district was numbered as the 15th District from 1955 to 1965, when redistricting merged it into the Dearborn-based 16th District. In 2002, redistricting merged Dingell's 16th District with the Washtenaw County and western Wayne County-based 13th District, represented by fellow Democratic Representative Lynn Rivers, whom Dingell bested in the Democratic primary.
The 15th District for the 109th Congress included Wayne County suburbs southwest of Detroit, the Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti areas in Washtenaw County, all of Monroe County. For many years, Dingell represented much of western Detroit itself, though Detroit's declining population and the growth of its suburbs has pushed all of Detroit into the districts of fellow Democratic representatives, including John Conyers. Dingell always won re-election by double-digit margins, although the increasing conservatism of the white suburbs of Detroit since the 1970s led to several serious Republican challenges in the 1990s. With the retirement of Jamie L. Whitten, the death of William Natcher, the defeat of Texas Representative Jack Brooks at the start of a new Congress in January 1995, he became the Dean of the United States House of Representatives, he was one of four people to serve in the House for 50 years, the others being Whitten, Carl Vinson, Conyers, the last of whom had worked in Dingell's congressional office.
Dingell was classified as a moderately liberal member of the Democratic
United States Statutes at Large
The United States Statutes at Large referred to as the Statutes at Large and abbreviated Stat. are an official record of Acts of Congress and concurrent resolutions passed by the United States Congress. Each act and resolution of Congress is published as a slip law, classified as either public law or private law, designated and numbered accordingly. At the end of a Congressional session, the statutes enacted during that session are compiled into bound books, known as "session law" publications; the session law publication for U. S. Federal statutes is called the United States Statutes at Large. In that publication, the public laws and private laws are numbered and organized in chronological order. U. S. Federal statutes are published in a three-part process, consisting of slip laws, session laws, codification. Large portions of public laws are enacted as amendments to the United States Code. Once enacted into law, an Act will be published in the Statutes at Large and will add to, modify, or delete some part of the United States Code.
Provisions of a public law that contain only enacting clauses, effective dates, similar matters are not codified. Private laws are not codified; some portions of the United States Code have been enacted as positive law and other portions have not been so enacted. In case of a conflict between the text of the Statutes at Large and the text of a provision of the United States Code that has not been enacted as positive law, the text of the Statutes at Large takes precedence. Publication of the United States Statutes at Large began in 1845 by the private firm of Little and Company under authority of a joint resolution of Congress. During Little and Company's time as publisher, Richard Peters, George Minot, George P. Sanger served as editors. In 1874, Congress transferred the authority to publish the Statutes at Large to the Government Printing Office under the direction of the Secretary of State. Pub. L. 80–278, 61 Stat. 633, was enacted July 30, 1947 and directed the Secretary of State to compile, edit and publish the Statutes at Large.
Pub. L. 81–821, 64 Stat. 980, was enacted September 23, 1950 and directed the Administrator of General Services to compile, edit and publish the Statutes at Large. Since 1985 the Statutes at Large have been prepared and published by the Office of the Federal Register of the National Archives and Records Administration; until 1948, all treaties and international agreements approved by the United States Senate were published in the set, but these now appear in a publication titled United States Treaties and Other International Agreements, abbreviated U. S. T. In addition, the Statutes at Large includes the text of the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, the Constitution, amendments to the Constitution, treaties with Indians and foreign nations, presidential proclamations. Sometimes large or long Acts of Congress are published as their own "appendix" volume of the Statutes at Large. For example, the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 was published as volume 68A of the Statutes at Large.
Revised Statutes of the United States Procedures of the United States Congress Enrolled Bill Federal Register United States Reports California Statutes Laws of Florida Laws of Illinois Laws of New York Laws of Pennsylvania This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the U. S. Government Publishing Office. How Our Laws Are Made, by the Parliamentarian of the House of Representatives. Volumes 1 to 18 of the Statutes at Large made available by the Library of Congress Volumes 1 to 64 of the Statutes at Large made available by the Congressional Data Coalition via LEGISWORKS.org Volumes 65 to 125 of the Statutes at Large made available by the GPO and the Library of Congress via FDsys Sortable by Bills Enacted into Laws, Concurrent Resolutions, Popular Names, Presidential Proclamations, or Public Laws. Volumes 1–124 of the Statutes at Large made available by the Constitution Society Public and private laws from 104th Congress to present from the Government Printing Office, in slip law format with Statutes at Large page references Early United States Statutes includes Volumes 1 to 44 of the Statutes at Large in DjVu and PDF format, along with rudimentary OCR of the text.
United States Statutes and the United States Code: Historical Outlines, Lists and Sources from the Law Librarians' Society of Washington, DC Second Edition of the Revised Statutes of the United States
Sam Rayburn
Samuel Taliaferro Rayburn was an American politician who served as the 43rd Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. He was a 25-term congressman, representing Texas's 4th congressional district as a Democrat from 1913 to 1961, he holds the record for the longest tenure as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, serving for over 17 years. Born in Roane County, Rayburn moved with his family to Windom, Texas in 1887. After a period as a school teacher, Rayburn won election to the Texas House of Representatives and graduated from the University of Texas School of Law, he won election to the United States House of Representatives in 1912 and continually won re-election until his death in 1961, serving 25 terms all totaled. Rayburn was a protege of a mentor to Lyndon B. Johnson. Rayburn was elected House Majority Leader in 1937 and was elevated to the position of Speaker of the House after the death of William B. Bankhead, he led the House Democrats from 1940 to 1961, served as Speaker of the House from 1940 to 1947, 1949 to 1953, 1955 to 1961.
He served twice as House Minority Leader during periods of Republican House control. Rayburn preferred to work in the background and allowed committee chairmen to retain much of the power in the House, he refused to sign the Southern Manifesto and was influential in the construction of U. S. Route 66, he served as Speaker until his death in 1961, was succeeded by John W. McCormack. Rayburn was born in Roane County, Tennessee, on January 6, 1882, 24 days before Franklin D. Roosevelt, he was the son of William Marion Rayburn. In 1887 the Rayburn family moved to a 40-acre cotton farm near Texas. Rayburn grew up in poverty as he, his nine siblings, his parents all participated in running the farm. Toiling in the fields made Rayburn determined to get a good education and help the poor and downtrodden. Rayburn went to co-educational East Texas Normal College in Commerce in 1900 with $25 that his father saved up to help take care of his first few months of college expenses. To help cover tuition and room and board, Rayburn rang the school bell to signal the end of classes and swept out Commerce's public school buildings, earning $3 a month.
Rayburn obtained his teaching credentials before completing his bachelor of science degree, earned additional income by teaching in the public school of Greenwood, a small community in Hopkins County. He taught school for two years. In 1906, at the age of 24, Rayburn won by a narrow 163 vote margin an election to the 34th district of the Texas House of Representatives. While serving in the legislature, he studied at the University of Texas School of Law, he was admitted to the bar in 1908; as a representative Rayburn helped pass laws that made textbooks more available to Texas schoolchildren, established the State Board of Health alongside the Texas State Department of Health, created the Texas Department of Agriculture. Due to his power of persuasion when he was a young legislator for four years on January 10, 1911, at 29 years of age, Rayburn became the youngest Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives in history, he defeated. Texas speakers from the beginning of statehood until Rayburn's tenure were ceremonial and powerless, similar to the president pro tempore of the U.
S. Senate. Under Texas state law the office had immense powers but the previous speakers never exercised them due to deference to party bosses. Upon election as Speaker Rayburn requested the appointment of a special committee to determine "the duties and rights of the speaker"; this became the first codification of the speaker's power. He helped pass numerous legislation as Speaker such as shorter working hours for women, child labor laws, appropriations for a Confederate widows home and a tuberculosis sanitarium. Many decades Rayburn rated his service as Texas House Speaker as the most enjoyable period in his long political career, he said, "that job had real power-that's what a man wants-but power's no good unless you have the guts to use it." Due to a series of lucky events for Rayburn the U. S. House district of his home county of Fannin County, the fourth district, was open for him to run. U. S. Senator Joseph Weldon Bailey was rocked by allegations of corruption and bribery involving oil companies so he announced his resignation effective January 1913.
The longtime incumbent representative of the fourth district, Choice B. Randell, lost. Rayburn won election to the U. S. House of Representatives in 1912 after a bruising Democratic primary where he won by only 490 votes, he became a Representative. He entered Congress in 1913 at the beginning of Woodrow Wilson's presidency and served in office for 49 years, until the beginning of John F. Kennedy's presidency. Rayburn was a protege of then-Representative John Nance Garner. In 1913, Garner helped Rayburn as a freshman representative to be a member of the powerful House Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee, which handled legislation pertaining to commerce, coal, communication, motion pictures, securities exchanges, holding companies and the Coast Guard. Rayburn learned how to make deals and how to deal with adversity during his first two decades in the U. S. House. While he was a young representative he introduced and helped pass numerous anti-trust and railroad-related legislation such as the Clayton Antitrust Act of 1914, the Fed
Party leaders of the United States House of Representatives
Party leaders and whips of the United States House of Representatives known as floor leaders, are elected by their respective parties in a closed-door caucus by secret ballot. With the Democrats holding a majority of seats and the Republicans holding a minority, the current leaders are: Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Majority Whip James Clyburn, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Minority Whip Steve Scalise. Unlike in Westminster-style legislatures or as with the Senate Majority Leader, the House Majority Leader's duties and prominence vary depending upon the style and power of the Speaker of the House; the Speaker does not participate in debate and votes on the floor. In some cases, Majority Leaders have been more influential than the Speaker. In addition, Speaker Newt Gingrich delegated to Dick Armey an unprecedented level of authority over scheduling legislation on the House floor; the current Minority Leader, Kevin McCarthy, serves as floor leader of the opposition party, is the counterpart to the Majority Leader.
Unlike the Majority Leader, the Minority Leader is on the ballot for Speaker of the House during the convening of the Congress. If the Minority Leader's party takes control of the House, the party officers are all re-elected to their seats, the Minority Leader is the party's top choice for Speaker for the next Congress, while the Minority Whip is in line to become Majority Leader; the Minority Leader meets with the Majority Leader and the Speaker to discuss agreements on controversial issues. The Speaker, Majority Leader, Minority Leader, Majority Whip and Minority Whip all receive special office suites in the United States Capitol; the floor leaders and whips of each party are elected by their respective parties in a closed-door caucus by secret ballot. The Speaker-elect is chosen in a closed-door session although they are formally installed in their position by a public vote when Congress reconvenes. Like the Speaker of the House, the Minority Leaders are experienced lawmakers when they win election to this position.
When Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, became Minority Leader in the 108th Congress, she had served in the House nearly 20 years and had served as minority whip in the 107th Congress. When her predecessor, Richard Gephardt, D-MO, became minority leader in the 104th House, he had been in the House for 20 years, had served as chairman of the Democratic Caucus for four years, had been a 1988 presidential candidate, had been majority leader from June 1989 until Republicans captured control of the House in the November 1994 elections. Gephardt's predecessor in the minority leadership position was Robert Michel, R-IL, who became GOP Leader in 1981 after spending 24 years in the House. Michel's predecessor, Republican John Rhodes of Arizona, was elected Minority Leader in 1973 after 20 years of House service. By contrast, party leaders of the United States Senate have ascended to their position despite few years of experience in that chamber, such as Lyndon B. Johnson, William F. Knowland, Bill Frist. Former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor had a comparatively quick rise to the post and was the youngest House Majority Leader in American history.
The House Majority Leader's duties vary, depending upon the political makeup of the majority caucus. In several recent sessions of Congress, with the notable exception of the Pelosi speakership, the Majority Leader has been responsible for scheduling the House floor's legislative calendar and direct management for all House committees. One statutory duty, per 19 U. S. C. § 2191, stipulates that an implementing bill submitted by the President of the United States for a fast-track negotiating authority trade agreement must be introduced in the House by the Majority Leader of the House. Before 1899, the majority party floor leader had traditionally been the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, the most powerful committee in the House, as it generates the Bills of Revenue specified in the Constitution as the House's unique power; the office of Majority Leader first occupied by Sereno Payne. Speaker David B. Henderson created the position to establish a party leader on the House floor separate from the Speaker, as the role of Speaker had become more prominent, the size of the House had grown from 105 at the beginning of the century to 356.
Starting with Republican Nicholas Longworth in 1925, continued through the Democrats' control of the House from 1931 to 1995, save for Republican majorities in 1947–49 and 1953–55, all majority leaders have directly ascended to the Speakership brought upon by the retirement of the incumbent. The only exceptions during this period were Charles A. Halleck who became Republican House leader and Minority Leader from 1959 to 1965, Hale Boggs who died in a plane crash, Dick Gephardt who became the Democrats' House leader but as Minority Leader since his party lost control in the 1994 midterm elections. Since 1995, the only Majority Leader to become Speaker is John Boehner, though indirectly as his party lost control in the 2006 midterms elections, he subsequently served as Republican House leader and Minority Leader from 2007 to 2011 and was elected Speaker when the House reconvened in 2011. In 1998, with Speaker Newt Gingrich announcing his resignation, both Majority Leader Dick Armey and Majority Whip Tom DeLay did not contest the Speakership which went to Chief Deputy Whip Dennis Hastert.
Traditionally, the Speaker is reckoned as the leader of the majority party in the House, with the Majority Leader as second-in-command. For instance, when the Republicans gained the majority in the House after the 2010 elections, Eric Canto
United States Capitol
The United States Capitol called the Capitol Building, is the home of the United States Congress and the seat of the legislative branch of the U. S. federal government. It is located on Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall in Washington, D. C. Though no longer at the geographic center of the Federal District, the Capitol forms the origin point for the District's street-numbering system and the District's four quadrants; the original building was completed in 1800 and was subsequently expanded with the addition of the massive dome, expanded chambers for the bicameral legislature, the House of Representatives in the south wing and the Senate in the north wing. Like the principal buildings of the executive and judicial branches, the Capitol is built in a distinctive neoclassical style and has a white exterior. Both its east and west elevations are formally referred to as fronts, though only the east front was intended for the reception of visitors and dignitaries. Prior to establishing the nation's capital in Washington, D.
C. the United States Congress and its predecessors had met in Philadelphia, New York City, a number of other locations. In September 1774, the First Continental Congress brought together delegates from the colonies in Philadelphia, followed by the Second Continental Congress, which met from May 1775 to March 1781. After adopting the Articles of Confederation in York, the Congress of the Confederation was formed and convened in Philadelphia from March 1781 until June 1783, when a mob of angry soldiers converged upon Independence Hall, demanding payment for their service during the American Revolutionary War. Congress requested that John Dickinson, the Governor of Pennsylvania, call up the militia to defend Congress from attacks by the protesters. In what became known as the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, Dickinson sympathized with the protesters and refused to remove them from Philadelphia; as a result, Congress was forced to flee to Princeton, New Jersey, on June 21, 1783, met in Annapolis and Trenton, New Jersey, before ending up in New York City.
The United States Congress was established upon ratification of the United States Constitution and formally began on March 4, 1789. New York City remained home to Congress until July 1790, when the Residence Act was passed to pave the way for a permanent capital; the decision of where to locate the capital was contentious, but Alexander Hamilton helped broker a compromise in which the federal government would take on war debt incurred during the American Revolutionary War, in exchange for support from northern states for locating the capital along the Potomac River. As part of the legislation, Philadelphia was chosen as a temporary capital for ten years, until the nation's capital in Washington, D. C. would be ready. Pierre Charles L'Enfant was given the task of creating the city plan for the new capital city. L'Enfant chose Jenkin's Hill as the site for the "Congress House", with a "grand avenue" connecting it with the President's House, a public space containing a broader "grand avenue" stretching westward to the Potomac River.
In reviewing L'Enfant's plan, Thomas Jefferson insisted the legislative building be called the "Capitol" rather than "Congress House". The word "Capitol" comes from Latin and is associated with the Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus on Capitoline Hill, one of the seven hills of Rome; the connection between the two is not, crystal clear. In addition to coming up with a city plan, L'Enfant had been tasked with designing the Capitol and President's House; the word "capitol" has since been adopted, following the example of the United States Capitol, in many jurisdictions for other government buildings, for instance the "capitols" in the individual capitals of the states of the United States. This, in turn, has led to frequent misspellings of "capitol" and "capital"; the former refers to a building. In spring 1792, United States Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson proposed a design competition to solicit designs for the Capitol and the "President's House", set a four-month deadline; the prize for the competition was a lot in the Federal City.
At least ten individuals submitted designs for the Capitol. The most promising of the submissions was by a trained French architect. However, Hallet's designs were overly fancy, with too much French influence, were deemed too costly. A late entry by amateur architect William Thornton was submitted on January 31, 1793, to much praise for its "Grandeur and Beauty" by Washington, along with praise from Thomas Jefferson. Thornton was inspired by the east front of the Louvre, as well as the Paris Pantheon for the center portion of the design. Thornton's design was approved in a letter dated April 5, 1793, from Washington, Thornton served as the first Architect of the Capitol. In an effort to console Hallet, the commissioners appointed him to review Thornton's plans, develop cost estimates, serve as superintendent of construction. Hallet proceeded to pick apart and make drastic changes
Air Pollution Control Act
The Air Pollution Control Act of 1955 was the first Clean Air Act enacted by Congress to address the national environmental problem of air pollution on July 14, 1955. This was "an act to provide research and technical assistance relating to air pollution control"; the act "left states principally in charge of prevention and control of air pollution at the source". The act declared that air pollution was a danger to public health and welfare, but preserved the "primary responsibilities and rights of the states and local government in controlling air pollution"; the act put the federal government in a purely informational role, authorizing the United States Surgeon General to conduct research and pass out information "relating to air pollution and the prevention and abatement thereof". Therefore, The Air Pollution Control Act contained no provisions for the federal government to combat air pollution by punishing polluters; the next Congressional statement on air pollution would come with the Clean Air Act of 1963.
The Air Pollution Control Act was the culmination of much research done on fuel emissions by the federal government in the 1930s and 1940s. Additional legislation was passed in 1963 to better define air quality criteria and give more power in defining what air quality was to the secretary of Health and Labor; this additional legislation would provide grants to both local and state agencies. A replacement, the Clean Air Act, was enacted to replace the Air Pollution Control Act of 1955. A decade the Motor Vehicle Air Pollution Control Act was enacted to focus more on automotive emission standards. A mere two years the Federal Air Quality Act was established to define "air quality control regions" scientifically based on topographical and meteorological facets of air pollution. California was the first state to act against air pollution when the metropolis of Los Angeles began to notice deteriorating air quality; the location of Los Angeles furthered the problem as several geographical and meteorological problems unique to the area exacerbated the air pollution problem.
Prior to the Air Pollution Control Act of 1955, little headway was made to initiate this air pollution reform. U. S. cities Chicago and Cincinnati first established smoke ordinances in 1881. In 1904, Philadelphia passed an ordinance limiting the amount of smoke in flues and open spaces; the ordinance imposed a penalty. It was not until 1947 that California authorized the creation of Air Pollution Control Districts in every county of the state. There have been several amendments made to The Air Pollution Act of 1955; the first amendment came in 1960. The next amendment came in 1962 and enforced the principle provisions of the original act. In addition, this amendment called for research to be done by the Surgeon General. In 1967, the Air Quality Act of 1967 was passed. In 1967, the Air Quality Act was enacted in order to expand federal government activities. In accordance with this law, enforcement proceedings were initiated in areas subject to interstate air pollution transport; this amendment allowed states to enact federal automobile emissions standards.
Senator Edmond Muskie said that this was the “first comprehensive federal air pollution control.” The National Air Pollution Control Administration provided technical information to the states, which the states used to develop air quality standards. The NAPCA had the power to veto any of the states' proposed emission standards; this amendment was not as effective as it was thought to be, with only 36 air regions designated, as well as no states having developed pollution control programs. In 1969, another amendment was made to the act; this amendment further expanded the research on low emissions and automobiles. The 1970 amendments known as the Clean Air Act rewrote the 1967 act. In particular, the 1970 amendments required the newly created The United States Environmental Protection Agency to set technology-based National Ambient Air Quality Standards for major new stationary sources and state air quality management programs to protect public health and welfare. In addition, the 1970 amendments required various states to submit state implementation plans for attaining and maintaining the National Ambient Air Quality Standards and required the use of air monitoring to determine if implementation plans were successful.
National technology-forcing emissions standards were set for new automobiles. This amendment allowed citizens the ability to sue polluters or government agencies for failure to abide by the act; the amendment required that by 1975, the entire United States would attain clean air status.1990 was the most recent amendments to the act under President George H. W. Bush; the 1990 amendments granted more authority to the federal government than any prior air quality legislation. Nine subjects were identified in this amendment, with smog, acid rain, motor vehicle emissions, toxic air pollution among them. Five severity classifications were identified to measure smog. To better control acid rain, new regulatory programs were created. New and stricter emission standards were created for motor vehicles beginning with the 1995 model year; the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants program was created to expand much broader industries and activities. The first National Air Pollution Symposium in the United States was held in 1949 and hosted by Stanford Research Institute.
At first, smaller governments were responsible for the enforcement of such legislation. The m
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was an American politician who served as the 37th president of the United States from 1969 to 1974. He had served as the 36th vice president of the United States from 1953 to 1961, prior to that as both a U. S. representative and senator from California. Nixon was born in California. After completing his undergraduate studies at Whittier College, he graduated from Duke University School of Law in 1937 and returned to California to practice law, he and his wife Pat moved to Washington in 1942 to work for the federal government. He subsequently served on active duty in the U. S. Navy Reserve during World War II. Nixon was elected to the House of Representatives in 1946 and to the Senate in 1950, his pursuit of the Hiss Case established his reputation as a leading anti-communist and elevated him to national prominence. He was the running mate of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Republican Party presidential nominee in the 1952 election. Nixon served for eight years as Vice President, becoming the second-youngest vice president in history at age 40.
He waged an unsuccessful presidential campaign in 1960, narrowly losing to John F. Kennedy, lost a race for governor of California to Pat Brown in 1962. In 1968, he ran for the presidency again and was elected, defeating incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey. Nixon ended American involvement in the war in Vietnam in 1973 and brought the American POWs home, ended the military draft. Nixon's visit to China in 1972 led to diplomatic relations between the two nations and he initiated détente and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with the Soviet Union the same year, his administration transferred power from Washington D. C. to the states. He imposed wage and price controls for ninety days, enforced desegregation of Southern schools, established the Environmental Protection Agency and began the War on Cancer. Nixon presided over the Apollo 11 moon landing, which signaled the end of the moon race, he was reelected in one of the largest electoral landslides in U. S. history in 1972 when he defeated George McGovern.
In his second term, Nixon ordered an airlift to resupply Israeli losses in the Yom Kippur War, resulting in the restart of the Middle East peace process and an oil crisis at home. The Nixon administration supported a coup in Chile that ousted the government of Salvador Allende and propelled Augusto Pinochet to power. By late 1973, the Watergate scandal escalated. On August 9, 1974, he resigned in the face of certain impeachment and removal from office—the only time a U. S. president has done so. After his resignation, he was issued a controversial pardon by Gerald Ford. In 20 years of retirement, Nixon wrote nine books and undertook many foreign trips, helping to rehabilitate his image into that of an elder statesman, he suffered a debilitating stroke on April 18, 1994 and died four days at the age of 81. Richard Milhous Nixon was born on January 9, 1913 in Yorba Linda, California, in a house, built by his father, his parents were Francis A. Nixon, his mother was a Quaker, his father converted from Methodism to the Quaker faith.
Nixon was a descendant of the early American settler, Thomas Cornell, an ancestor of Ezra Cornell, the founder of Cornell University, as well as of Jimmy Carter and Bill Gates. Nixon's upbringing was marked by evangelical Quaker observances of the time, such as refraining from alcohol and swearing. Nixon had four brothers: Harold, Donald and Edward. Four of the five Nixon boys were named after kings who had ruled in legendary Britain. Nixon's early life was marked by hardship, he quoted a saying of Eisenhower to describe his boyhood: "We were poor, but the glory of it was we didn't know it"; the Nixon family ranch failed in 1922, the family moved to Whittier, California. In an area with many Quakers, Frank Nixon opened a grocery gas station. Richard's younger brother. At the age of twelve, a spot was found on Richard's lung, with a family history of tuberculosis, he was forbidden to play sports; the spot was found to be scar tissue from an early bout of pneumonia. Young Richard attended East Whittier Elementary School, where he was president of his eighth-grade class.
His parents believed that attending Whittier High School had caused Richard's older brother Harold to live a dissolute lifestyle before he fell ill of tuberculosis, so they sent Richard to the larger Fullerton Union High School. He had to ride a school bus for an hour each way during his freshman year, he received excellent grades, he lived with an aunt in Fullerton during the week. He played junior varsity football, missed a practice though he was used in games, he had greater success as a debater, winning a number of championships and taking his only formal tutelage in public speaking from Fullerton's Head of English, H. Lynn Sheller. Nixon remembered Sheller's words, "Remember, speaking is conversation... don't shout at people. Talk to them. Converse with them." Nixon stated. At the start of his junior year beginning in September 1928, Richard's parents permitted him to transfer to Whittier High School. At Whittier High, Nixon suffered his first electoral defeat, for student body president, he rose at 4 a.m. to drive the family truck into Los Angeles and purchase vegetables at the market.
He drove to the store to wash and display them, befo
