Newly elected Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, made history as the first female to head the House of Representatives and be designated the second in the line of succession to the presidency.

After her election as speaker on Jan. 4, by a vote of 233-202, the 66-year-old Democrat from San Francisco, who is mother of five and grandmother of six, said, “For our daughters and granddaughters, today we have broken the marble ceiling...the sky is the limit.”

Both houses of the 110th Congress convened under Democratic control for the first time since 1994.

Upon her ascendency, Pelosi announced a broad agenda for the first 100 hours of House activity. The first order of business was passage of new ethics rules, expanding restrictions on privately financed trips and gifts for lawmakers. Then the House approved the first federal minimum wage increase in 10 years. It will rise incrementally over two years from the current $5.15 an hour to $7.25. Also passed was a bill approving embryonic stem-cell research.

Pelosi faced a major conflict only a week after taking office, when President Bush announced to the nation his plan to increase forces in Iraq by 21,500, which runs counter to the views of the new Democratic-controlled Congress and to a widespread increase of antiwar sentiments throughout the nation. In a joint statement following Bush’s televised speech Jan. 10, Pelosi and Sen. Harry Reid, (D-NV) said, “The American people want a change of course in Iraq. We intend to keep pressing President Bush to provide it.”