Have there been other instances of Congress being disrupted by protesters in the past?
Way back in 1954, Puerto Rican nationalists opened fire in the House of Representatives.
The attempted murder of Charles Sumner by the coward Preston Brooks was probably pretty disruptive to the Congress (though they weren’t in active session at the moment of the attack)
It’s happened at least a half-dozen times, but nothing on the scale of this time.
I just read about the incident and background, a really interesting, though shameful tale. Prior to today I always assumed “the coward” would be followed by “Robert Ford”…
Yeah, that’s the traditional way to end the phrase starting with “the coward” (also associated with the phrase "that dirty little coward who shot Mr. Howard). The Seward attack is not usually described as attempted murder, but I think it’s justified.