Kids in the House

January 13, 1955

On this date, Grace Jackson Clark, a stenographer from New Kensington, Pennsylvania, walked uninvited onto the House Floor to ask Speaker Sam Rayburn for time to address the Chamber. The ease with which she accessed the floor shocked many Members still reeling from the attack by the Puerto Rican nationalists less than a year earlier.

January 14, 1784

On this date in Annapolis, Maryland, the Confederation Congress ratified the "Treaty of Paris," formally concluding the colonies' war for independence from Great Britain. Among its nine principal provisions, it defined the east-to-west borders of the American colonies from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River, and its north-south borders from Canada to Spanish Florida. It also guaranteed American and British uses of the Mississippi River and fishing rights in Canada.

January 15, 1847

On this date, former Puerto Rico Resident Commissioner Tulio Larrínaga was born just south of San Juan in Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico. Larrínaga trained as a civil engineer and helped modernize Puerto Rico's infrastructure before serving in the U.S. House from the 59th to 61st Congresses. At the time, House Rules limited Larrínaga's legislative powers, but he used his connections on Capitol Hill to pursue his agenda and his experience as an engineer to promote infrastructure projects in Puerto Rico.

January 17, 1952

On this date, Prime Minister Winston Churchill of the United Kingdom addressed a Joint Meeting of Congress in the House Chamber. The occasion marked the third time that Churchill spoke before Congress—more than any other foreign dignitary in congressional history at that time.