A year into President Bill Clinton’s second term in office, a fresh-faced young intern named Monica Lewinsky began work in the White House and began a relationship with the married president Clinton – at precisely the same time as he was battling a sexual harassment lawsuit by an Arkansas state employee who claimed that then-governor Clinton propositioned her. His testimony in that trial regarding the Lewinsky affair ultimately led to a perjury charge and then an impeachment trial.

On this day, January 7th, in 1999, following the House of Representatives vote to impeach Bill Clinton, the impeachment trial got underway in the Senate, presided over by the Chief Justice of the United States, William Rehnquist.

Clinton was just the second person president ever to be impeached by the House, and like Andrew Johnson he was acquitted by the Senate. After a month of trial proceedings and several days of deliberations, both charges against Clinton were defeated in Senate voting. He was, however, found in contempt of court for willfully making false statements during his testimony. He was stripped of his Arkansas law license and ended up settling the sexual harassment case for $850,000.