January 14, 1913

Joseph Taylor Robinson resigned his position in the U.S. Congress to be inaugurated the twenty-third governor of Arkansas two days later. On January 28, he was elected to the U.S. Senate by the state legislature (the last in the nation to be so elected), thus granting him the distinction of being a congressman, governor, and senator-elect, all within a two-week period. He became Senate majority leader during the Great Depression, after his nomination as the Democratic Party candidate for vice president—the first Southern officeholder on a major ticket after the Civil War.