This list covers the historical firsts of vice presidents of the United States.
John Adams (1789–1797)
First vice president. First vice president to serve two terms. First vice president to be elected president. First vice president from Massachusetts. First vice president to have been a Continental Congress Delegate, a state judge, and a U.S. diplomat to France, the Netherlands, and Great Britain. First vice president to have been a lawyer. First vice president from the North and New England. First Unitarian vice president. First vice president to join a political party, the Federalist Party. First vice president to cast a tie-breaking vote as President of the Senate. First former vice president to reach the age of 90.
Thomas Jefferson (1797-1801)
First vice president to have sought the presidency against his president. First vice president from Virginia. First vice president from the South. First Deist vice president. First vice president to own slaves. First vice president to enter office as a member of a political party, the Democratic Republican Party. First vice president to have served as a state legislator, a state governor, and U.S. secretary of state. First vice president to be a widower.
Aaron Burr (1801-1805)
First vice president from New York. First vice president to have served as a state attorney general and U.S. senator. First Presbyterian vice president. First vice president to be younger than 50. First vice president to be criminally prosecuted. First vice president to never become president. First vice president to have a 30-year long post-vice presidency.
George Clinton (1805-1812) First vice president to be elected under the parameters of the Twelfth Amendment. First vice president to have served as a university president. First Dutch Reformed vice president. First vice president to enter office over the age of 60 and to reach the age of 70 while in office. First vice president to serve under two presidents (Thomas Jefferson and James Madison) First vice president to die in office (or at all, all 3 former vice presidents were alive at the time of Clinton's death).
Elbridge Gerry (1813-1814)
First vice president to have served as U.S. congressman. First Episcopalian vice president. First vice president to die in their first term.
Daniel D. Tompkins (1817-1825)
First (and only) vice president to have served two terms in the 1800s. First former vice president to die within a year of leaving office.
John C. Calhoun (1825–1832)
First vice president from South Carolina. First vice president to resign. First vice president to serve under two presidents after the latter defeated the former in the intervening election. First vice president to switch parties while in office. First vice president to be a member of a third party, the Nullifier Party. First vice president to have served as secretary of war. First vice president to cast over 30 tie-breaking votes in the U.S. Senate. First vice president to be photographed. First former vice president to serve in the U.S. senate after leaving office. First former vice president to serve in the U.S. cabinet after leaving office (secretary of state).
Martin Van Buren (1833–1837)
First vice president to be a member of the Democratic Party. First vice president to speak English as a second language.
Richard M. Johnson (1837–1841)
First vice president elected through a contingent election in the Senate. First vice president from Kentucky. First vice president to be elected to state legislature after leaving office.
John Tyler (1841)
First vice president to ascend to the presidency on his president's (William Henry Harrison) death. First vice president to be a member of the Whig Party. First vice president to have been president pro tempore of the United States Senate.
George M. Dallas (1845–1849)
First vice president from Pennsylvania. First vice president to have served as minister to Russia, mayor, and U.S. attorney. First Baptist vice president.
Millard Fillmore (1849–1850)
First vice president to have chaired a committee in the U.S. House. First vice president to have served as state comptroller.
William R. King (1853)
First vice president from Alabama. First Protestant vice president. First vice president to take the oath of office on foreign soil (Cuba). First vice president to be a bachelor.
John C. Breckinridge (1857–1861)
First (and only) vice president to take office under the age of 40
First former vice president to be expelled from the U.S. Senate as senator. First former vice president to defect to the Confederacy and serve in its cabinet.
Hannibal Hamlin (1861–1865)