1887 in the United States
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Events from the year 1887 in the United States.
Incumbents
Federal Government
- President: Grover Cleveland (D-New York)
- Vice President: vacant
- Chief Justice: Morrison Waite (Ohio)
- Speaker of the House of Representatives: John G. Carlisle (D-Kentucky)
- Congress: 49th (until March 4), 50th (starting March 4)
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Governors2
Lieutenant Governors2
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Events
- January 20 – The United States Senate allows the Navy to lease Pearl Harbor in Hawaii as a naval base.
- January 28 – In a snowstorm at Fort Keogh, Montana, the largest snowflakes on record are reported. They are 15 inches (38 cm) wide and 8 inches (20 cm) thick.
- February 2 – In Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, the first Groundhog Day is observed.
- February 4 – The Interstate Commerce Act, passed by Congress, is signed into law, with the intention of regulating the railroad industry.
- March 3 – Anne Sullivan begins teaching Helen Keller.
- March 7 – North Carolina State University is established as North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts.
- March 19 – Cogswell College is established as a high school by Dr. Henry D. Cogswell in San Francisco, the first technical training institution in the West (the school opens in 1888).
- April 4 – Argonia, Kansas elects Susanna M. Salter as the first female mayor in the U.S.
- May 14 – The cornerstone of the new Stanford University, in northern California, is laid (the college opens in 1891).
- June 28 – Minot, North Dakota is incorporated as a city.
- August – The U.S. National Institutes of Health is founded at the Marine Hospital, Staten Island, New York, as the Laboratory of Hygiene.
Undated
- Teachers College, later part of Columbia University, is founded.
Ongoing
- Gilded Age (1869–c. 1896)
Births
- January 22 – David W. Stewart, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1926 to 1927 (died 1974)
- February 6 – Ernest Gruening, U.S. Senator from Alaska from 1959 to 1969 (died 1974)
- April 9 – Florence Price, African American classical composer (died 1953)
- September 8 – Jacob L. Devers, U.S. Army general (died 1979)
- November 15 – Georgia O'Keefe, American Artist (died 1986)
- December 19 – George R. Swift, U.S. Senator from Alabama in 1946 (died 1972)
Deaths
- March 8 – Henry Ward Beecher, clergyman and reformer (born 1813)
- March 26 – Walt Whitman, poet, essayist, and journalist (born 1819)
- May 19 – Charles E. Stuart, United States Senator from Michigan from 1853 till 1859. (born 1810)
- June 4 – William A. Wheeler, 19th Vice President of the United States from 1877 till 1881. (born 1819)
- June 25 – James Speed, U.S. Attorney General from 1864 till 1866 under Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. (born 1812)
- July 18 – Robert M. T. Hunter, Virginian lawyer, politician, 14th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, 2nd Confederate States Secretary of State (born 1809)
- August 14 – Aaron A. Sargent, United States Senator from California from 1873 till 1879. (born 1827)
- November 8 – Doc Holliday, gunfighter and gambler (born 1851)
External links
Media related to 1887 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons
