Timeline

1897	Born December 14 to Carrie Murray and George Emery Chase in Skowhegan, Maine.
1916	Graduates from Skowhegan High School.
1916-17	Teaches for twenty-eight weeks in the one-room Pitts School in Skowhegan.
1918	Works as a telephone operator for Maine Telephone and Telegraph Company.
1919-27	Works for the Independent Reporter, a weekly Skowhegan newspaper.
1922	Organizes Skowhegan chapter of Business and Professional Women's Club (BPW).
1923	Serves as President of Maine Federation of BPW.
1928	Works as office manager for Cummings woolen mill in Skowhegan.
1930	Marries Clyde H. Smith on May 14.
1930-36	Serves as a member of the Maine Republican State Committee.
1937-40	Works as secretary for Congressman Clyde Smith.
1940	Wins election to the House of Representatives following the death of her husband.
1944	Inspects South Pacific military bases as a member of the House Naval Affairs Committee's Subcommittee on Congested Areas.
1945	Introduces legislation granting permanent status for women in the armed forces. Cosponsors the Equal Rights Amendment.
1948	Wins election to the Senate.
1949-54	Writes syndicated national newspaper column, Washington and You.
1950	Delivers "Declaration of Conscience" speech.
1954-55	Visits with the heads of state in twenty-three nations on a world tour.
1955	Hosts President Eisenhower during his visit to Skowhegan.
1956	Debates Eleanor Roosevelt during presidential campaign on Face the Nation.
1960	Defeats Lucia Cormier for re-election to the Senate. This marks the first campaign in which two women oppose one another for a Senate seat.
1963	Casts vote in opposition to President John F. Kennedy's Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.
1964	Runs in Republican presidential primaries. Takes candidacy all the way to the Republican National Convention in San Francisco.
1966	Wins fourth term in the Senate.
1968	Undergoes hip surgery and misses first vote in Congress in thirteen years. At the time, she holds the record for consecutive roll-call votes with 2941.
1969	Casts crucial vote in opposition to President Nixon's nomination of Clement F. Haynsworth for the Supreme Court.
1970	Delivers Second Declaration of Conscience speech in reaction to campus disruptions and antiwar protests.
1972	Loses re-election bid for a fifth term in the Senate to Representative William Hathaway.
1973	Enters the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York as one of the first twenty inductees.
1973-76	Gains appointment as a Visiting Professor from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation.
1982	Dedicates the Margaret Chase Smith Library.
1989	Accepts the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George H. W. Bush at a White House ceremony.
1990	Achieves induction to Maine Women's Hall of Fame.
1991	Receives her 95th honorary degree from Colby College in Waterville, ME.
1995	Passes away on Memorial Day, May 29.
2000	Selected as most influential Mainer of the twentieth century.
2005	Portrait unveiled at US Capitol.
2007	Honored with a US postage stamp.
Copyright ©1999 Margaret Chase Smith Library. This page last modified: November 2009 URL: http://www.mcslibrary.org