In 2006, Democrats embraced Nancy Pelosi as the first female House speaker in history, but then selected Steny Hoyer as majority leader against her wishes.
In 2017, Minnesota Democratic Sen. Al Franken became the first member of Congress to be caught up in a wave of allegations of sexual abuse and inappropriate behavior, after a Los Angeles radio anchor accused him of forcibly kissing her and groping her during a 2006 USO tour. (Franken eventually resigned from the Senate.)
In 2018, a U.S. official said intelligence officials had concluded that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had ordered the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi (jah-MAHL' khahr-SHOHK'-jee). A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to immediately return the White House press credentials of CNN reporter Jim Acosta.
Ten years ago: President Barack Obama presented the Medal of Honor to Army Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta, the first living service member from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars to receive the nation's top military award. U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel was convicted on 11 of 13 charges related to financial misconduct, prompting fellow lawmakers to censure the 80-year-old New York Democrat. The engagement of Prince William and Kate Middleton was announced in London. Hollywood publicist Ronni Chasen, 64, was shot to death in her car on Sunset Boulevard. (Police believe the killer was Harold Martin Smith, who took his own life when confronted by officers.) Roy Halladay of the Philadelphia Phillies unanimously won the NL Cy Young Award.
Five years ago: President Barack Obama, in Turkey for a meeting of world leaders, conceded that the Paris terror attacks were a "terrible and sickening setback" in the fight against the Islamic State, but forcefully dismissed critics who had called for the U.S. to change or expand its military campaign against the extremists. Chicago Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant was a unanimous pick as NL Rookie of the Year, and Houston Astros shortstop Carlos Correa was voted the AL honor. Actor David Canary, 77, died in Wilton, Connecticut.
One year ago: Transcripts released in the impeachment inquiry showed Ambassador Gordon Sondland playing a central role in President Donald Trump's effort to push Ukraine to conduct political investigations as a condition for receiving needed military aid. Trump went to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for what he later described as a "very routine physical"; it had not been on Trump's public schedule, raising suspicions about the president's health. At the last minute, former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick skipped a workout arranged by the NFL at the Atlanta Falcons' training complex to which all 32 teams had been invited, and instead held a workout on a high school field 60 miles away, open to the media. (The NFL had scheduled its workout after Kaepernick claimed that the league had blackballed him for kneeling in protest during the national anthem.)