The irony there is that this was the Senate class whose last election was the Watergate Babies of 1974. Yet the big losers were long time establishment Democrats. It was the 4th and last time according to my calculations that the Senate changed hands in a presidential year in the 20th century (1912, 1932, 1952, 1980).
Add 1948.
Majority control of the U.S. House of Representatives also became a Democratic pickup with the re-election of incumbent Democratic Party president Harry Truman. (Those other election years were party-pickup years for the presidency. It may be why you forgot about 1948.)
