Avel Gordlywas an activist, community organizer, and former
politician in the U.S. state of Oregon. In 1996, she became the
first African-American woman to be elected to the Oregon
State Senate, serving from 1997 to 2009.

After retiring from the legislature, Gordly joined the faculty
of Portland State University as an associate professor in
the Black studies Department. She was 79. 

Avel Louise Gordly (February 13, 1947 – February 16, 2026)

Senator Rankin Fite (right) making the call.

The first 911 call was placed by Rep. Rankin Fite, the Speaker
of the Alabama House of Representatives, in the town of
Haleyville, Alabama on February 16th of the following year.

By 1987, 50 percent of the nation was using the system.

Senator Huey Long was shot and killed at the Louisiana State
Capitol in 1935 by Carl Weiss. Long’s bodyguards, nicknamed
the "Cossacks" or "skullcrushers", responded by firing at
Weiss with their own pistols, killing him; an autopsy found
that Weiss had been shot more than 60 times. 

Long, who was a prominent and controversial political figure,
was in the process of preparing a presidential bid when he
was assassinated.

Long  gave himself the nickname “Kingfish,” saying “I’m a
small fish here in Washington. But I’m the Kingfish to the
folks down in Louisiana.”

Carl Austin Weiss Sr.
(December 6, 1906 – September 8, 1935)

For the first time in U.S. history, the House of Representatives
exercised its constitutional power of impeachment and votes
to charge Senator William Blount of Tennessee with “a high misdemeanor, entirely inconsistent with his public duty and
trust as a Senator.”

The constitutional conundrum of conducting a trial of an
impeached senator has not yet been resolved.