The longest shutdown in government history—so far—appears to be on its way to ending now that a breakaway group of Democrats in the US Senate have agreed to vote to fund government operations in exchange for a promise by Republicans to consider extending Covid-era subsidies for Affordable Care Act plans. Democrats had portrayed protecting those subsidies as a red line, but getting nothing out of shutdowns is a tradition that goes back to the early 1980s. Here’s how a few of them ended up.

When: December 2018–January 2019

Length: 35 days

Ostensible reason: President Trump wanted more funding for a border wall between the US and Mexico and refused to sign a continuing resolution to fund the government unless he got it. Democrats, who had won the majority of the US House of Representatives

See Full Page