With the vote for speaker of the House now on a tenth ballot, we are witnessing the most protracted race since February 1, 1859, when William Pennington was elected on the 44th ballot. To put that in context, at that time:
A Napoleon sat on the throne of France.
Sherlock Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle had not yet been born.
John Brown had yet to launch his raid at Harpers Ferry.
If you have others, feel free to add them in the comments.
Editor’s note: Regretfully, an earlier version of this story had been based around the mistaken notion that this is the longest battle since 1856, but the author overlooked Pennington’s fight for the speakership in 1859. The errors have been corrected.