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)
State governments
Events
- January 20 â The United States Senate allows the Navy to lease Pearl Harbor in Hawaii as a naval base.
- January 28 â 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.[citation needed]
- February 2 â In Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, the first Groundhog Day is observed.
- February 4 â The Interstate Commerce Act, passed by Congress, is signed into law, with the intention of regulating the railroad industry.
- February 8 â The Dawes Act is signed into law by President Grover Cleveland.
- February 26 â Troy University is established as Troy State Normal School; an institution to train teachers for Alabama's schools.
- February â The Atlanta Cyclorama is first displayed in Detroit as "Logan's Great Battle".
- March 3 â Anne Sullivan begins teaching Helen Keller.
- March 7 â North Carolina State University is established as North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts.
- March 19 â 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 â Argonia, Kansas elects Susanna M. Salter as the first female mayor in the U.S.
- May 14 â The cornerstone of the new Stanford University, in northern California, is laid (the college opens in 1891).
- June 28 â Minot, North Dakota is incorporated as a city.
- July 10 â The Grand Hotel opens in Mackinac, Michigan.
- August â The U.S. National Institutes of Health is founded at the Marine Hospital, Staten Island, New York, as the Laboratory of Hygiene.
- October 3 â Florida A&M University is founded as The State Normal College for Colored Students in Tallahassee, Florida.
- October 14 â Pomona College is founded in Claremont, California.
Undated
- Ruby Mining District (Salmon Creek District) is established in Washington state.
- Teachers College, later part of Columbia University, is founded by Grace Hoadley Dodge as the New York School for the Training of Teachers; Nicholas Murray Butler is its first president.
Ongoing
- Gilded Age (1869âc. 1896)
Sport
- September 28 â The Detroit Wolverines win the National League pennant with a 7â3 victory over the Indianapolis Hoosiers.
- November 24 â Yale wins the Consensus College Football National Championship
Births
- January 22
- David W. Stewart, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1926 to 1927 (died 1974)
- Elmer Fowler Stone, first United States Coast Guard aviator (died 1936)
- February 6 â Ernest Gruening, U.S. Senator from Alaska from 1959 to 1969 (died 1974)
- February 7 â Eubie Blake, African American jazz composer-pianist (died 1983)
- February 11 â H. Kent Hewitt, admiral (died 1972)
- February 26
- Grover Cleveland Alexander, baseball player (died 1950)
- William Frawley, actor best known for played Fred Mertz in I Love Lucy (died 1966)
- March 4 â Violet MacMillan, Broadway theater actress (died 1953)
- March 5 â Harry Turner, American football player (died 1914)
- March 14 â Charles Reisner, silent actor and film director (died 1962)
- March 22 â Chico Marx, comedian (died 1961)
- April 9 â Florence Price, African American classical composer (died 1953)
- April 15 â Mike Brady, golfer (died 1972)
- June 25 â George Abbott, producer and director (died 1995)
- July 16 â Shoeless Joe Jackson, baseball outfielder (died 1951)
- July 31 â Peter Bocage, jazz musician (died 1967)
- August 27 â Julia Sanderson, actress (died 1975)
- September 3 â Frank Christian, jazz musician (died 1973)
- September 8 â Jacob L. Devers, U.S. Army general (died 1979)
- September 9 â Alf Landon, Republican politician, presidential candidate (died 1987)
- September 13 â Frank Gray, physicist and researcher, known for the Gray code (died 1969)
- September 28 â Avery Brundage, 5th president of the International Olympic Committee (died 1975)
- September 29 â Annie Dove Denmark, music educator and academic administrator (died 1974)
- November 15 â Georgia O'Keeffe, painter (died 1986)
- December 19 â George R. Swift, U.S. Senator from Alabama in 1946 (died 1972)
- date unknown â White Parker, missionary and actor (died 1956)
Deaths
- January 7 â Aaron Shaw, U.S. Representative from Illinois (born 1811)
- March 8 â Henry Ward Beecher, clergyman and reformer (born 1813)
- March 24 â Justin Holland, classical guitarist and civil rights activist (born 1819)
- May 14
- Lysander Spooner, philosopher and abolitionist (born 1808)
- William Burnham Woods, Supreme Court justice and politician (born 1824)
- May 19 â Charles E. Stuart, U.S. Senator from Michigan from 1853 to 1859 (born 1810)
- June 4 â William A. Wheeler, 19th vice president of the United States from 1877 to 1881 (born 1819)
- June 25 â James Speed, U.S. Attorney General from 1864 to 1866 under Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson (born 1812)
- July 18
- Dorothea Dix, mental health reformer (born 1802)[1]
- Robert M. T. Hunter, Virginian lawyer, politician, 14th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, 2nd Confederate States Secretary of State (born 1809)
- July 25 â John Taylor, 3rd president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (born 1808)
- August 14 â Aaron A. Sargent, U.S. Senator from California from 1873 to 1879 (born 1827)
- August 18 â Orson Squire Fowler, phrenologist and leading proponent of the octagon house (born 1809)
- August 23 â Sarah Yorke Jackson, Acting First Lady of the United States (born 1803)
- November 8 â Doc Holliday, gunfighter, gambler and dentist (TB; born 1851)
- November 11 â August Spies, labor activist, newspaper editor and anarchist (executed; born 1855 in Germany)
- December 24 â Daniel Manning, businessman, journalist and politician, Secretary of the Treasury (born 1831)
