1873 in the United States

← 1872 1871 1870 1873 in the United States → 1874 1875 1876
Decades:	1850s 1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s
See also:	History of the United States (1865–1918) Timeline of United States history (1860–1899) List of years in the United States

Events from the year 1873 in the United States.

Incumbents

Federal Government

• President: Ulysses S. Grant (R-Ohio)
• Vice President: Schuyler Colfax (R-Indiana) (until March 4), Henry Wilson (R-Massachusetts) (starting March 4)
• Chief Justice: Salmon P. Chase (Ohio) (until May 7)
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: James G. Blaine (R-Maine)
• Congress: 42nd (until March 4), 43rd (starting March 4)

Governors and Lieutenant Governors
Governors 2 Lieutenant Governors 2

Events

January–March

• January 1 – The California Penal Code goes into effect.
• January 17 – Indian Wars: The first Battle of the Stronghold is fought during the Modoc War.
• February 20 – The University of California opens its first medical school in San Francisco, California.
• March 1 – E. Remington and Sons of Ilion, New York start production of the first practical typewriter.
• March 3 – Censorship: The U.S. Congress enacts the Comstock Law, making it illegal to send any "obscene, lewd, or lascivious" books through the mail.
• March 4 – President of the United States Ulysses S. Grant begins his second term.
• March 15 – The Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity is founded at the Massachusetts Agricultural College.
• March 22 – Emancipation Day for Puerto Rico: Slaves are freed (with a few exceptions).

April–June

• April 1 – The Coinage Act of 1873 comes into force, ending bimetallism in the U.S. and placing the nation firmly on the gold standard.
• April 15–17 – Indian Wars: The Second Battle of the Stronghold is fought.
• May – Henry Rose exhibits barbed wire at an Illinois county fair, which is taken up by Joseph Glidden and Jacob Haish, who invent a machine to mass-produce it.
• May 20 – Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis received United States patent#139121 for using copper rivets to strengthen the pockets of denim work pants. Levi Strauss & Co. began manufacturing the famous Levi's brand of jeans, using fabric from the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company in Manchester, New Hampshire.
• May 23 – The Preakness Stakes horse race first runs in Baltimore, Maryland.
• June 4 – Indian Wars: The Modoc War ends with the capture of Captain Jack.

July–September

• July 21 – At Adair, Iowa, Jesse James and the James-Younger Gang pull off the first successful train robbery in the American West (US$3,000 from the Rock Island Express).
• August 4 – Indian Wars: While protecting a railroad survey party in Montana, the Seventh Cavalry, under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, clashes for the first time with the Sioux, near the Tongue River (only 1 man on each side is killed).
• September 17 – The Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College, later The Ohio State University, opens its doors with 25 students, including 2 women.
• September 18 – The New York stock market crash triggers the Panic of 1873, part of the Long Depression.

October–December

• December 15 – Women of Fredonia, New York march against the retail liquor dealers in town to inaugurate the Woman's Crusade of 1873–74. This leads to the creation of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union.

Undated

In 1873, railroads connected Northern Michigan port cities of Ludington, Traverse City and Petoskey. By 1880 the Great Lakes region would dominate logging, with Michigan producing more lumber than any other state.

• Railroads connected Northern Michigan port cities of Ludington, Traverse City and Petoskey.
• Coors Brewing Company begins making beer in Golden, Colorado.
• Central Park is officially completed in New York City, New York.
• Nine Pekin ducks are imported to Long Island (the first in the United States).
• The Woman's Temperance League is organized by Eliza Daniel Stewart.

Ongoing

• Reconstruction era (1865–1877)
• Gilded Age (1869–c. 1896)
• Depression of 1873–79 (1873–1879)

Births

• January 2 – John M. Robsion, U.S. Senator from Kentucky in 1930 (died 1948)
• February 11 – Louis Charles Christopher Krieger, mycologist (died 1940)
• May 5 – Leon Czolgosz, Assassin of President William McKinley (died 1901)
• May 9
  • Anton Cermak, Former Mayor of Chicago (died 1933)
  • Lois Irene Marshall, wife of Thomas R. Marshall, Second Lady of the United States (died 1958)
• March 5 – Thomas Harrison Montgomery, Jr., zoologist and cell biologist (died 1912)
• September 14 – Josiah Bailey, U.S. Senator from North Carolina from 1931 to 1946 (died 1946)
• October 8 – Ma Barker, leader of the Barker gang (died 1935)
• October 17 – William Luther Hill, U.S. Senator from Florida in 1936 (died 1951)
• October 29 – Lester J. Dickinson, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1931 to 1937 (died 1968)

Deaths

• March 4 – Alfred Iverson, Sr., United States Senator from Georgia from 1855 till 1861. (born 1798)
• March 27 – James Dixon, United States Senator from Connecticut from 1857 till 1869. (born 1814)
• November 9 – Stephen Mallory, United States Senator from Florida from 1851 till 1861. (born 1812)
• November 27 – Richard Yates, United States Senator from Illinois from 1865 till 1871. (born 1815)

External links

• Media related to 1873 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons