Selected Highlights

Editor’s Note: Here are some of the events that have shaped both the Foreign Service and AFSA over the last 100-plus years. As with any timeline, there are many other important developments we could cite, but we believe these represent a good overview. Updated in June 2026.

Year(s)Event
1776Benjamin Franklin is dispatched to France to negotiate support for the American Revolution as the first U.S. diplomat.
1789President George Washington signs a bill creating the Department of State on September 15.
1790After succeeding Benjamin Franklin as Minister to France in 1785, Thomas Jefferson becomes the first U.S. Secretary of State.
1791Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson establishes separate diplomatic and consular services.
1856Organic Act regulates diplomatic and consular posts and sets salary cap of $17,500, which stays in place for 90 years.
1869Appointment of first Black diplomat, Ebenezer Don Carlos Bassett, as minister resident and consul general in Haiti.
1870Secretary of State Hamilton Fish organizes department into nine bureaus and two agencies, with one translator and one telegrapher. Sets office hours as 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
1895President Grover Cleveland places most consular positions within merit system.
1909President William Howard Taft extends merit system to all diplomatic positions below ministerial rank and prohibits consideration of candidates’ political affiliation.
1918American Consular Association formed.
1919American Consular Bulletin begins publication.
1922First woman, Lucile Atcherson, appointed to diplomatic service.
1924Foreign Service Act of 1924 (Rogers Act), signed on May 24, unifies the diplomatic and consular services, creating the Foreign Service of the United States.
1924The American Consular Association reconstitutes itself as the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) “for the purpose of fostering an esprit de corps” among Foreign Service employees. The American Consular Bulletin becomes the American Foreign Service Journal.
1926Elizabeth Harriman gives AFSA $25,000 to establish scholarship fund in honor of her late son Oliver, a Foreign Service officer.
1927Foreign and Domestic Commerce Act of 1927 establishes the Foreign Commerce Service.
1929Foreign Service clerks and non-career vice consuls at Embassy Paris form National Federation of Federal Employees Local 349, called the “Foreign Service Local.”
1929Incorporation of the American Foreign Service Protective Association, set up to provide group insurance for AFSA members.
1930Foreign Agricultural Service Act of 1930 establishes the Foreign Agricultural Service.
1931Moses-Linthicum Act regulates Foreign Service ranks and retirement.
1933Ruth Bryan Owen, minister to Denmark, is the first woman appointed as chief of mission.
1933Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson unveils AFSA’s Roll of Honor, a memorial plaque honoring “those in the American Foreign Service who . . . have died under tragic or heroic circumstances.”
1933AFSA confers its first scholarship.
1939Congress closes Foreign Commerce and Foreign Agricultural Services as an austerity measure. Functions are transferred to the State Department and personnel to the Foreign Service.
1941State Department suspends recruitment into the regular Foreign Service. Congress creates the noncareer Foreign Service Auxiliary, which outnumbers regular Foreign Service personnel by the end of the war.
1945The Office of War Information (propaganda) and Office of Strategic Services (intelligence operations) are closed, and their functions and personnel transferred to the Department of State.
1946Rogers Act replaced by Foreign Service Act of 1946, which creates a Foreign Service staff corps and a Foreign Service Reserve corps, and provides detailed regulation of personnel management, compensation, and allowances. AFSA does not accept members of staff or reserve corps as active members of AFSA until 1949.
1947National Security Act creates the National Security Council and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Intelligence functions pass from State to CIA.
1947Hoover Commission on Reorganization of the Executive Branch recommends merging the Foreign Service and Civil Service within the State Department to correct what it calls a “cancerous cleavage.” However, no action is taken.
1950–1953During McCarthy era and Lavender Scare, State fires more than 500 employees as security risks. Most were dismissed on suspicion of being gay, not disloyal.
1951The American Foreign Service Journal renamed the Foreign Service Journal, beginning with the August 1951 issue.
1951AFSA incorporates in the District of Columbia. Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws replace Articles of Organization. AFSA replaces its Executive Committee with a Board of Directors, chosen annually by an electoral college of 18 members. AFSA has about 2,000 active-duty and 500 associate members out of a pool of 12,000 eligible people.
1953Congress restores the Foreign Agricultural Service in the Department of Agriculture.
1953Congress creates the U.S. Information Agency (USIA). Press and information functions, cultural diplomacy, and international exchange programs pass from State to USIA.
1954In what becomes known as “Wristonization,” State opens the Foreign Service to about 1,500 Civil Service employees and makes a similar number of domestic positions available to Foreign Service officers (FSOs).
1955International Cooperation Agency created within Department of State.
1956Junior FSOs at State form the Junior Foreign Service Officers Club (JFSOC).
1961Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 reconstitutes International Cooperation Agency as U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
1962President John F. Kennedy signs Executive Order 10988, authorizing federal employees to unionize.
1964AFSA forms a Committee on Career Principles.
1965AFSA; Diplomatic and Consular Officers, Retired (DACOR); and State Department organize first Foreign Service Day to promote exchanges among career diplomats, academicians, journalists, and businesspeople.
1965AFSA and department back legislation (Hays bill) to bring nearly all employees of State, USAID, and USIA into one personnel system. Bill passes House but not the Senate.
1967AFSA buys building at 2101 E Street Northwest in Washington, D.C., for its headquarters.
1967AFSA elections give reformist “Young Turks,” led by Lannon Walker and Charlie Bray, all 18 seats in the electoral college. Lannon Walker chosen to lead Executive Committee.
1967–1968AFSA sets up awards for constructive dissent that are funded by donations from the Harriman, Herter, and Rivkin families and named for the donors.
1968AFSA publishes Toward a Modern Diplomacy, a 185-page manifesto based on report of Committee on Career Principles. It calls for a unified Foreign Service operating in State, USIA, USAID, and the Commerce and Labor Departments under an independent director general.
1969President Richard Nixon signs Executive Order 11491, setting new rules for labor-management relations within the federal government.
1970State and AFSA negotiate the Foreign Service’s exemption from Executive Order 11491.
1970Women’s Action Organization formed to address treatment of women in foreign affairs agencies.
1971President Nixon signs Executive Order 11636, setting labor-management rules for the Foreign Service. AFSA resolves to seek recognition as the Foreign Service union.
1971FSO Alison Palmer files antidiscrimination suit against the Department of State.
1972State issues “Policy on Wives,” asserting that “the wife of a Foreign Service employee who is with her husband at a foreign post is an individual, not a government employee.”
1972Bill Harrop and Tom Boyatt lead AFSA in representation contest with the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE). Contest hinges on legal issue of who is labor and who is management.
1973AFSA wins representation elections at State, USIA, and USAID. New AFSA bylaws replace the association’s chair and directors with a president and Governing Board, effective the next year.
1973Hundreds attend AFSA luncheon honoring the “China hands,” Foreign Service officers purged during the McCarthy era as dissenters of questionable loyalty.
1973“Thursday Luncheon Group” of Black officers in foreign affairs agencies holds first meeting.
1974Foreign Service personnel at USAID brought into the Foreign Service retirement system. A reduction in force at USAID results in dismissal of hundreds of Foreign Service members.
1976AFSA’s membership votes to recall President John Hemenway after nine months in office. Governing Board chooses Pat Woodring to complete his term. She becomes AFSA’s first female president.
1976Alison Palmer refiles lawsuit against State as a class action suit, claiming discrimination against women in hiring, promotion, and assignments. AFSA does not join.
1976AFSA and State reach agreement on regulations to implement grievance legislation passed in 1975.
1976USIA rejects AFSA in favor of AFGE in a second representation election.
1978Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 establishes the Senior Executive Service, the Office of Personnel Management, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
1979Iranian revolutionaries seize U.S. Embassy Tehran. More than 60 members of the Foreign Service and armed services are taken hostage.
1979–1980Pursuant to congressional action and the administration’s Reorganization Plan 3, commercial functions and 129 overseas positions transferred from State to the Department of Commerce.
1979Legislation introduced to replace the Foreign Service Act of 1946. AFSA is heavily involved in shaping the bill, which becomes the Foreign Service Act of 1980.
1980The Foreign Service Act of 1980 regulates appointments, compensation, classification of positions and assignments, promotion and retention, training, career development, retirement and disability, travel, leave, benefits, labor-management relations, personnel grievances, and relations with other agencies. It establishes the Senior Foreign Service.
1981Tehran hostages released on President Ronald Reagan’s Inauguration Day, January 20.
1982The Mary Harriman Foundation funds a new, annual Avis Bohlen Award, honoring the Foreign Service family member who has done the most to advance U.S. interests overseas.
1983Terrorist attacks on U.S. embassies in Beirut and Kuwait inflict heavy loss of life.
1983The Department of State funds the AFSA presidency as a full-time position.
1983AFSA establishes a Legislative Action Fund.
1985New bylaws provide for an AFSA vice president to represent each constituency.
1985Black Foreign Service employees bring an antidiscrimination suit against the Department of State.
1986Foreign affairs budgets enter period of austerity that will last until 2001.
1987About 130 State Department senior positions are cut. Thirteen consulates close.
1989Court decisions favor plaintiffs in women’s class action suit filed in 1976.
1989AFSA establishes program of conferences with Senior Foreign Service officers that are intended to attract international businesses as paying “international associates.”
1992AFSA wins election challenging AFGE’s representation of the Foreign Service in USIA.
1992Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies (glifaa) is established.
1994AFSA wins uncontested representation elections in the Foreign Agricultural Service and the Foreign Commercial Service.
1995AFSA joins AFGE in a State-USAID-USIA rally protesting a government shutdown and furlough of employees.
1995AFSA publishes first edition of Inside a U.S. Embassy: How the Foreign Service Works for America.
1996Court decisions favor plaintiffs in 1985 suit brought by Black employees against the State Department.
1997Department of State employs about 7,000 Foreign Service members, compared to about 8,000 in 1992. Specialists account for more than half of decline.
1998Al-Qaida attacks on U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam kill more than 200.
1999AFSA conducts first annual high school essay contest.
1999Congress closes USIA, transferring personnel and functions to Department of State. The Broadcasting Board of Governors remains outside State, and its Foreign Service employees keep AFSA representation.
1999AFSA fights assignment of State Department Civil Service employee to deputy chief of mission position on which qualified Foreign Service officers had bid. Foreign Service Grievance Board sides with AFSA, but Secretary of State Madeleine Albright overrules decision on national security grounds.
1999Congress extends law enforcement availability pay to Diplomatic Security special agents.
2000Delavan Foundation funds a new AFSA award, the Tex Harris Award, honoring specialists for constructive dissent.
2001Secretary Colin Powell launches Diplomatic Readiness Initiative, adding 1,049 Foreign Service and 200 Civil Service positions in Department of State over three years.
2001AFSA objects as Secretary Powell makes several name changes: Foreign Service Day to Foreign Affairs Day, Foreign Service Lounge to Employee Service Center, and Foreign Service Star medal to Thomas Jefferson Star for Foreign Service.
2001Terrorist attacks on the United States by al-Qaida on September 11 kill 2,977 people and injure thousands more.
2001Surge in registrations for Foreign Service exam in wake of 9/11 attacks.
2002Governing Board approves creation of AFSA-PAC, a political action committee to advocate for the Foreign Service.
2002Congress authorizes award of retirement credit to eligible family members who performed part-time, intermittent, temporary services abroad between 1989 and 1998.
2003AFSA publishes new (second) edition of Inside a U.S. Embassy: How the Foreign Service Works for America.
2003Military Family Tax Relief Act provides exclusion from taxation on capital gains from the sale of a primary residence for Foreign Service members who served abroad for at least two of the previous 15 years.
2005AFSA publishes revised edition of Inside a U.S. Embassy.
2005National Security Decision Directive 44 assigns the State Department lead responsibility for contingency operations, including in Iraq and Afghanistan.
2007AFSA establishes Legal Defense Fund.
2007–2008AFSA renovates its headquarters; first time in 40 years.
2009Diplomacy 3.0 and Development Leadership Initiative increase funding and positions in State and USAID, respectively.
2009Overseas comparability pay (OCP) adjusts base pay of Foreign Service members serving abroad by two-thirds of locality-pay adjustment for federal employees in Washington, D.C.
2009AFSA establishes Foreign Service Books imprint.
2010Publication of State’s first Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR), Leading through Civilian Power.
2011Foreign Service Books publishes new (third) edition of Inside a U.S. Embassy, with subtitle Diplomacy at Work.
2013AFSA wins uncontested election to represent Foreign Service employees of Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service at the Department of Agriculture.
2014OCP capped by law at two-thirds of Washington, D.C., locality pay.
2015Second QDDR, Enduring Leadership in a Dynamic World, is published.
2018Failure to enact appropriations forces 35-day partial government shutdown from December 18, 2018, to January 25, 2019. State, USAID, and most diplomatic functions are affected.
2019House of Representatives opens impeachment inquiry into President Trump’s conduct toward Ukraine. AFSA’s Legal Defense Fund disburses more than $485,000 to AFSA members called to testify.
2020Onset of COVID-19 global pandemic (January). Foreign Service manages repatriation of more than 100,000 U.S. citizens from 137 countries. AFSA work continues with AFSA offices closed March 2020 to May 2021.
2020President Trump in October issues “Schedule F” executive order to enable replacement of as many as 50,000 federal employees by political appointees.
2021Newly elected President Joseph “Joe” Biden rescinds the Schedule F order.
2021State names the first Chief Diversity Officer in its history.
2021Fiscal Year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act incorporates long-sought AFSA goals: family leave, in-state college tuition during overseas duty, parity with military in financial protection during transfers, and improved response to anomalous health incidents (“Havana syndrome”), among other benefits.
2022State revises the hiring process, deemphasizing the importance of the Foreign Service Officer Test (FSOT) and reviewing applications from all who complete the test regardless of score. AFSA is not consulted, expresses concern over transparency.
2024The Foreign Service and AFSA celebrate 100 years of service.
2025In February, the Trump administration dismantles USAID without congressional authorization. Global AID programs are shuttered; more than 10,000 AID employees are separated. AFSA, along with co-plaintiffs, files a legal challenge on February 6, 2025.
2025In March, President Donald Trump issues Executive Order 14251 revoking collective bargaining rights for federal unions, which affects FS members at State and USAID but not those at FCS, FAS, APHIS, or USAGM. AFSA subsequently loses access to its offices in the Harry S Truman Building. AFSA files a legal challenge on April 6, 2025.
2025In March, USAGM, following Executive Order 14238, undergoes massive restructuring, including the elimination of VOA. Most foreign language broadcasts stop suddenly; some are later restored. AFSA files a legal challenge on March 21, 2025.
2025AFSA files a legal challenge to stop Executive Order 14210, which directs large-scale workplace reductions and restructuring of federal agencies, on April 28.
2025In July, the State Department carries out sweeping layoffs as part of a reorganization plan, terminating more than 1,350 employees, including approximately 250 members of the Foreign Service, through a reduction in force. In a separate action, “fidelity” is added to the Foreign Service promotion precepts.
2025On September 5, the State Department announces major updates to the Foreign Service Officer Test (FSOT), including requiring that all candidates already on the FSO register retake the FSOT to remain eligible for selection.
2025Failure to enact appropriations forces 43-day partial government shutdown from October 1, 2025, to November 12, 2025. State and most diplomatic functions are affected. Prior to the shutdown, on September 30, 2025, AFSA, along with other federal labor unions, challenges the administration’s plan to fire thousands of federal workers during the 2025 government shutdown.
2025In December, AFSA publishes a study, “At the Breaking Point: The State of the U.S. Foreign Service in 2025.”