So they covered Mandelson's first resignation, over a £373,000 home loan from the former paymaster-general Geoffrey Robinson.
It was also the first resignation over a major national security issue by a leading cabinet member since 1980, when Cyrus Vance quit as secretary of state.
Reprints Related items Public-sector pensions: A row about the penniesOct 20th 2005 Pension reform: The shape of things to comeJun 23rd 2005Mr Blair seems neither to have learnt from that nor, more surprisingly, from the experience of bringing Peter Mandelson back into the cabinet within ten months of his first resignation over an undisclosed loan.
It's going to look like the second resignation speech in the course of just over 24 hours, although of course yesterday he didn't actually resign.
A second resignation came in January 2001, after allegations surfaced that he had acted improperly over the issuing of British passports to two wealthy Indian businessmen.
This is Coulson's second resignation.
Here we are, the government with its most serious test, its majority at risk, the first cabinet resignation over an issue of policy.
Noting the high stakes of the charged debate in the packed chamber, Mr. Blair said, "Here we are: the government with its most serious test, its majority at risk, the first cabinet resignation over an issue of policy, the main parties divided".
And, of course, there were Nixon's final two years in office, which featured the convictions of 48 government officials and the first presidential resignation over corruption.
It is the first resignation by a leader of the Supreme Court, which celebrated its 200th anniversary this week, with Chief Justice Dívar presiding over the ceremony.
