Episode 1 of 1

First Lying in State

When: 1852
Where: Capitol Rotunda
Part of: Henry Clay first to lie in state in the Capitol rotunda

Henry Clay became the first leader to lie in state in the Capitol rotunda following his death in 1852.

Clay died on June 29, 1852, in Washington, D.C. He was the first leader to receive the honor of lying in state in the United States Capitol rotunda, a tradition for deceased officials to allow public respect.

Sources

Henry Clay Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-13
Lying in state Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-26
United States Capitol rotunda Wikipedia, revision of 2026-10-04

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.