The filibuster was created accidentally because of a rule change back in 1806. It was very rarely used back then but in modern times it has become standard procedure. During the 1950's and 1960's in order to stop civil rights legislation there were cases of Senators using their time reciting shakespeare or cooking recipes for hours and hours trying to get any attempt to vote withdrawn. A rule was made to stop this by getting 3/5's or 60 Senators out of a hundred the ability to agree to stop a filibuster.