1885 in the United States
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Events from the year 1885 in the United States.
Incumbents
Federal government
- Chester A. Arthur (R-New York) (until March 4)
- Grover Cleveland (D-New York) (starting March 4)
- vacant (until March 4)
- Thomas A. Hendricks (D-Indiana) (March 4 â November 25)
- vacant (starting November 25)
- Chief Justice: Morrison Waite (Ohio)
- Speaker of the House of Representatives: John G. Carlisle (D-Kentucky)
- Congress: 48th (until March 4), 49th (starting March 4)
State governments
Events
JanuaryâMarch
- February 9 â The first Japanese arrive in Hawaii.
- February 16 â Charles Dow publishes the first edition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The index stands at a level of 62.76, and represents the dollar average of 14 stocks: 12 railroads and two leading American industries.[1]
- February 18 â Mark Twain publishes Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in the United States.
- February 21 â United States President Chester A. Arthur dedicates the Washington Monument.
- March 3 â A subsidiary of the American Bell Telephone Company, American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T), is incorporated in New York.
- March 4 â Grover Cleveland is sworn in as the 22nd president of the United States, and Thomas A. Hendricks is sworn in as the 21st vice president.
AprilâJune
- April 30
- A bill is signed in the New York State legislature forming the Niagara Falls State Park.
- Boston Pops Orchestra is formed.
- May â The Depression of 1882â85 ends.
- June 17 â The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor.
JulyâSeptember
- July 11 â San Diego Building and Loan Association founded, predecessor of Great American Bank.
- July 14 â Sarah E. Goode is the first female African-American to apply for and receive a patent, for the invention of the hideaway bed.
- July 23 â Former president and Civil War general Ulysses S. Grant dies in Mount McGregor, New York.
- August 25 â Author Laura Ingalls marries farmer Almanzo Wilder in Dakota Territory.
- September 2 â The Rock Springs massacre occurs in Rock Springs, Wyoming; 150 white miners attack their Chinese coworkers, killing 28, wounding 15, and forcing several hundred more out of town.
- September 8 â Saint Thomas Academy is founded in Minnesota as a seminary.
OctoberâDecember
- October 10 â Removal of Hell Gate rocks: In the East River of New York City, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers sets off the largest ever explosion for a non-military purpose.[2]
- October 13 â The Georgia Institute of Technology is established in Atlanta, Georgia as the Georgia School of Technology.
- November 25 â Vice President Thomas A. Hendricks dies in office.
- December 1 â Dr Pepper is served for the very first time (as acknowledged by the U.S. Patent Office; the exact date of Dr Pepper's invention is unknown).
Undated
- The first skyscraper (the Home Insurance Building) is built in Chicago, Illinois (10 floors).
- Michigan Technological University (originally Michigan Mining School) opens its doors for the first time in what is to become the Houghton County Fire Hall.
- Camp Dudley, the oldest continually running boys' camp in America, is founded.
Ongoing
- Gilded Age (1869âc. 1896)
- Depression of 1882â85 (1882â1885)
Sport
- August 29 â John L. Sullivan becomes first World Heavyweight Boxing Champion.
- September 30 â The Chicago White Stockings clinch their Third National League pennant with a 2â1 win over the New York Giants.
Births
- January 7 â Edwin Swatek, swimmer and water polo player (died 1966)
- January 11 â Alice Paul, suffragist (died 1977)
- January 15 â Grover Lowdermilk, baseball player (died 1968)
- January 27
- Jerome Kern, musical theater composer (died 1945)
- Harry Ruby, musician, composer and writer (died 1974)
- February 7 â Sinclair Lewis fiction writer, recipient of Nobel Prize in Literature in 1930 (died 1951 in Italy)
- February 13 â Bess Truman, First Lady of the United States, Second Lady of the United States (died 1982)
- February 17 â Steve Evans, baseball player (died 1943)
- February 18 â Richard S. Edwards, admiral (died 1956)
- March 6 â Ring Lardner, writer (died 1933)
- April 1 â Wallace Beery, actor (died 1949)
- April 7 â Bee Ho Gray, Wild West star, silent film actor and vaudeville performer (died 1951)
- April 13 â Vean Gregg, baseball player (died 1964)
- May 2
- Hedda Hopper, columnist (died 1966)
- Lee W. Stanley, cartoonist (died 1970)
- May 7 â George "Gabby" Hayes, Western film character actor (died 1969)
- May 14 â Ben J. Tarbutton, businessman and politician (died 1962)
- May 30 â Arthur E. Andersen, accountant (died 1947)
- June 29 â Andrew Tombes, comedian and character actor (died 1976)
- July 4 â Louis B. Mayer, film producer (died 1957)
- July 6 â Charles Wisner Barrell, writer (died 1974)
- July 10 â Mary O'Hara, author and screenwriter (died 1980)[3]
- July 15 â Tom Kennedy, actor (died 1965)
- July 22 â John Thomas Kennedy, general and Medal Honour recipient (died 1969)
- August 15 â Edna Ferber, novelist, short story writer, and playwright (died 1968)[4]
- September 7 â Elinor Wylie (Elinor Morton Hoyt), poet and novelist (died 1928)
- September 11 â Julian C. Smith, general (died 1975)
- September 15 â James P. Boyle, politician (died 1939)
- September 22 â George Gaul, actor (died 1939)
- October 3 â Sophie Treadwell, dramatist and journalist (died 1970)
- October 9 â Raymond DeWalt, inventor and businessman (died 1961)
- October 30 â Ezra Pound, poet (died 1972 in Italy)
- November 1 â Edgar J. Kaufmann, merchant and patron of Fallingwater (died 1955)
- November 11 â George S. Patton, General (died 1945 in Heidelberg, Germany)
- November 28 â John Willard, playwright and actor (d. 1942)
- December 2 â George Minot, physiologist, recipient of Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1934 (died 1950)
- December 6 â Ernest Palmer, cinematographer (died 1978)
- December 10 â Elizabeth Baker, economist and academic (died 1973)
- December 19 â King Oliver, jazz cornet player and bandleader (died 1938)
- December 26 â Bazoline Estelle Usher, African American educator (died 1992)
Deaths
- January 13 â Schuyler Colfax, 17th vice president of the United States from 1869 to 1873 (born 1823)
- January 24 â Martin Delany, African American abolitionist, journalist and physician (born 1812)
- February 12 â Alexandre Mouton, U.S. Senator from Louisiana from 1843 to 1846 (born 1804)
- March 17 â Susan Warner (pseudonym Elizabeth Weatherell), religious and children's writer (born 1819)
- May 4 â Irvin McDowell, Union Army officer known for defeat in the First Battle of Bull Run (born 1818)
- May 17 â Jonathan Young, U.S. Navy commodore (born 1826)
- May 19 â Robert Emmet Odlum, swimming instructor, dies as result of becoming the first person to jump from the Brooklyn Bridge (born 1851)
- May 20 â Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen, 29th United States Secretary of State (born 1817)
- July 23 â Ulysses S. Grant, 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877 (born 1822)
- August 10 â James W. Marshall, contractor, builder of Sutter's Mill (born 1810)
- September 3 â William M. Gwin, U.S. Senator from California from 1850 to 1855 and from 1857 to 1861 (born 1805)
- October 5 â Thomas C. Durant, railroad financier (born 1820)
- October 29 â George B. McClellan, soldier, civil engineer, railroad executive and politician (born 1826)
- November 25 â Thomas A. Hendricks, 21st vice president of the United States from March to November 1885 (born 1819)
- December 8 â William Henry Vanderbilt, entrepreneur (born 1821)
- December 21 â George S Patton, General (born 1885)
- December 13 â Benjamin Gratz Brown, politician (born 1826)
- December 15 â Robert Toombs, U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1853 to 1861 (born 1810)
- December 29 â James E. Bailey, U.S. Senator from Tennessee from 1877 to 1881 (born 1821)
