1996 March 28 At the end of the business day, the U.S. national debt exceeds $5 trillion for the first time in history ($5,029,951,000,000). That same day, President Clinton signs legislation raising the debt limit from $4.9 trillion to $5.5 trillion. The U.S. debt limit was $49 billion in 1940 and has risen more than a hundredfold in the last 55 years. There have been 77 limitation increases since 1940.