Political appointments in the United States federal government until 1883. In 1820 Congress limited federal administrators to four-year terms, which led to constant turnover; by the 1860s and the Civil War, patronage had led to widespread inefficiency and political corruption. Although it used to be confined to cabinet positions, department heads, and foreign ambassadorships, by the 1860s patronage had spread to low-level government positions. This meant that when the incumbent political party lost a presidential election, the federal government underwent wholesale turnover. On July 2, 1881, Charles J. Guiteau, a disaffected and mentally unstable political office seeker, assassinated President James Garfield. This highlighted how much the
US Open (tennis) in the United States. The US Open is the only Grand Slam tournament that employs tiebreakers in every set of a singles match. For the other three Grand Slam events, a match that reaches 6–6 in the last possible set (the third for women and the fifth for men) continues until a player takes a two-game lead. As with the US Open, those events use tiebreakers to decide the other sets. The US Open also is the only Grand Slam tournament with 16 qualifiers (instead of 12) in the women's singles draw. The tournament was first held in August 1881