65th United States Congress

65th United States Congress


64th ←	→ 66th
United States Capitol (1906)
Duration: March 4, 1917 – March 4, 1919

Senate President:	Thomas R. Marshall
Senate Pres. pro tem:	Willard Saulsbury, Jr.
House Speaker:	Champ Clark
Members:	96 Senators 435 Representatives 5 Non-voting members
Senate Majority:	Democratic
House Majority:	Democratic (coalition)

Sessions
Special: March 5, 1917 – March 16, 1917 1st: April 2, 1917 – October 6, 1917 2nd: December 3, 1917 – November 21, 1918 3rd: December 2, 1918 – March 3, 1919

The Sixty-fifth United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, DC from March 4, 1917 to March 4, 1919, during the fourth and fifth years of Woodrow Wilson's presidency. The apportionment of seats in this House of Representatives was based on the Thirteenth Census of the United States in 1910. The Senate had a Democratic majority, and the House had a Republican plurality but the Democrats remained in control with the support of the Progressives and Socialist Representative Meyer London.

Major events 1
Major legislation 2

Major events

1918 flu pandemic

March 4, 1917: Jeannette Rankin of Montana became the first woman member of the United States House of Representatives.
March 8, 1917: The United States Senate adopted the cloture rule to limit filibusters.
March 31, 1917: The United States took possession of the Danish West Indies, which become the US Virgin Islands, after paying $25 million to Denmark.
April 2, 1917: World War I: President Woodrow Wilson asks the U.S. Congress for a declaration of war on Germany.
April 10, 1917: An ammunition factory explosion in Chester, Pennsylvania kills 133.
May 21, 1917: Over 300 acres (73 blocks) are destroyed in the Great Atlanta fire of 1917.
May 26, 1917: A tornado strikes Mattoon, Illinois, causing devastation and killing 101 people.
July 1, 1917: A labor dispute ignited a race riot in East St. Louis, Illinois, which left 250 dead.
July 12, 1917: The Phelps Dodge Corporation deported over 1,000 suspected Industrial Workers of the World members from Bisbee, Arizona.
July 28, 1917: The Silent Protest was organized by the NAACP in New York to protest the East St. Louis Riot of July 2, as well as lynchings in Texas and Tennessee.
August, 1917: The Green Corn Rebellion, an uprising by several hundred farmers against the World War I draft, took place in central Oklahoma.
November 24, 1917: In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 9 members of the Milwaukee Police Department were killed by a bomb, the most fatal single event in U.S. police history until the September 11, 2001 attacks.
December 26, 1917: President Woodrow Wilson used the Federal Possession and Control Act to place most U.S. railroads under the United States Railroad Administration, hoping to more efficiently transport troops and materials for the war effort.
January 8, 1918: Woodrow Wilson delivered his Fourteen Points speech.
March 4, 1918: A soldier at Camp Fuston, Kansas fell sick with the first confirmed case of the Spanish flu.
May 15, 1918: The United States Post Office Department (later renamed the United States Postal Service) began the first regular airmail service in the world (between New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, DC).
October 8, 1918: World War I: In the Argonne Forest in France, U.S. Corporal Alvin C. York almost single-handedly killed 25 German soldiers and captures 132.
December 4, 1918: U.S. President Woodrow Wilson sailed for the Paris Peace Conference, becoming the first U.S. president to travel to Europe while in office.
January 6, 1919: Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States, died.
January 15, 1919: The Boston Molasses Disaster: A wave of molasses released from an exploding storage tank sweeps through Boston, killing 21 and injuring 150.
January 16, 1919: The 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution, authorizing Prohibition, went into effect in the United States.
February 25, 1919: Oregon placed a 1 cent per U.S. gallon (.26¢/L) tax on gasoline, becoming the first U.S. state to levy a gasoline tax.

Major legislation

After war was declared, war bond posters demonized Germany

April 6, 1917: Declaration of war against Germany, Sess. 1 ch. 1, 40 Stat. 1
April 24, 1917: First Liberty Bond Act, Sess. 1, ch. 4, 40 Stat. 35
May 12, 1917: Enemy Vessel Confiscation Joint Resolution, Pub.L. 65–2, 40 Stat. 75
May 12, 1917: First Army Appropriations Act of 1917, 40 Stat. 69
May 18, 1917: Selective Service Act of 1917, Sess. 1, ch. 15, 40 Stat. 76
May 29, 1917: Esch Car Service Act of 1917, Sess. 1, ch. 23, 40 Stat. 101
June 15, 1917: Emergency Shipping Fund Act of 1917, c. 29, 40 Stat. 182
June 15, 1917: Second Army Appropriations Act of 1917, 40 Stat. 188
June 15, 1917: Espionage Act of 1917, Sess. 1, ch. 30, 40 Stat. 217 (incl. title XI: Search Warrant Act of 1917)
August 8, 1917: River and Harbor Act of 1917, Sess. 1, ch. 49, 40 Stat. 250
August 10, 1917: Priority of Shipments Act of 1917 (Obstruction of Interstate Commerce Act of 1917), Sess. 1, ch. 51, 40 Stat. 272
August 10, 1917: Food and Fuel Control Act (Lever Act), Sess. 1, ch. 53, 40 Stat. 27
October 1, 1917: Second Liberty Bond Act, Sess. 1, ch. 56, 40 Stat. 288
October 1, 1917: Aircraft Board Act of 1917, Sess. 1, ch. 61, 40 Stat. 296
October 3, 1917: War Revenue Act of 1917, Sess. 1, ch. 63, 40 Stat. 300
October 5, 1917: Repatriation Act of 1917, Sess. 1, ch. 68, 40 Stat. 340
October 6, 1917: Explosives Act of 1917, Sess. 1, ch. 83, 40 Stat. 385
October 6, 1917: War Risk Insurance Act of 1917, Sess. 1, ch. 105, 40 Stat. 398
October 6, 1917: International Emergency Economic Powers Act (Trading with the Enemy Act), Sess. 1, ch. 106, 40 Stat. 411
December 7, 1917: Declaration of war against Austria-Hungary, Sess. 2, ch. 1, 40 Stat. 429
February 24, 1918: Revenue Act of 1918, Sess. 2, ch. 18, 40 Stat. 1057
March 8, 1918: Soldiers' and Sailors' Civil Relief Act, Sess. 2, ch. 20, 40 Stat. 440
March 19, 1918: Standard Time Act of 1918 (Calder Act), Sess. 2, ch. 24, 40 Stat. 450
March 21, 1918: Federal Control Act of 1918, Sess. 2, ch. 25, 40 Stat. 451
April 4, 1918: Third Liberty Bond Act, Sess. 2, ch. 44, 40 Stat. 502
April 5, 1918: War Finance Corporation Act, Sess. 2, ch. 45, 40 Stat. 506
April 10, 1918: Webb-Pomerene Act, Sess. 2, ch. 50, 40 Stat. 516
April 18, 1918: American Forces Abroad Indemnity Act, Sess. 2, ch. 57, 40 Stat. 532
April 20, 1918: [[Destruction of

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65th United States Congress