1890 in the United States
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Incumbents
Federal government
- President: Benjamin Harrison (R-Indiana)
- Vice President: Levi P. Morton (R-New York)
- Chief Justice: Melville Fuller (Illinois)
- Speaker of the House of Representatives: Thomas Brackett Reed (R-Maine)
- Congress: 51st
State governments
Demographics
Events
JanuaryâJune
- JanuaryâJune period â George W. Johnson becomes the first African American to record phonograph cylinders, in New York.
- January 2 â Alice Sanger becomes the first female staffer in the White House.[1]
- January 22 â The United Mine Workers is founded.
- January 25 â Journalist Nellie Bly completes her round-the-world journey in 72 days.
- February 18 â National American Woman Suffrage Association established.[2]
- February 24 â Chicago is selected to host the Columbian Exposition.
- March 2â7 â The Cherry Creek Campaign occurs in Arizona Territory.
- March 3 â The first American football game in Ohio State University history is played in Delaware, Ohio against Ohio Wesleyan University; Ohio State wins 20â14.
- March 8 â North Dakota State University is founded in Fargo, North Dakota.
- March 27 â A tornado strikes Louisville, Kentucky, killing 76 people and injuring 200.
- March 28 â Washington State University is founded in Pullman, Washington.
- May 2 â Oklahoma Territory is organized.
- May 31 â The 5-story skylight Cleveland Arcade opens in Cleveland, Ohio.
- June 1 â The United States Census Bureau begins using Herman Hollerith's tabulating machine to record census returns using punched card input, a landmark in the history of computing hardware. Hollerith's company eventually becomes IBM.
- June 12 â On Lake Huron (Michigan), the wooden steamer Ryan is lost near Thunder Bay Island.[3]
- June 20 â The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde published by Philadelphia-based Lippincott's Monthly Magazine.
JulyâDecember


- July 2 â The Sherman Antitrust Act becomes U.S. law.
- July 3 â Idaho is admitted as the 43rd U.S. state (see History of Idaho).
- July 10 â Wyoming is admitted as the 44th U.S. state (see History of Wyoming).
- August 4 â Thomas G. Jones is elected the 28th governor of Alabama defeating Benjamin M. Long.
- August 6 â At Auburn Prison in New York, William Kemmler becomes the first person to be executed in the electric chair.
- September 19 â The University of North Texas is founded, as the Texas Normal College and Teacher Training Institute.
- September 24 â The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints President Wilford Woodruff issues the "1890 Manifesto" officially advising against any future polygamy in the Church.
- September 25 â Sequoia National Park created.
- October 1 â Yosemite National Park created.
- October 11 â In Washington, D.C., the Daughters of the American Revolution is founded.[4]
- October 13
- The Delta Chi fraternity is founded by 11 law students at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.
- On Lake Huron, the schooner J. F. Warner is lost in Thunder Bay (Michigan).[3]
- November 29 â In West Point, New York, the United States Navy defeats the United States Army 24â0 in the first ArmyâNavy football game.
- December 1 â Thomas G. Jones is sworn in as the 28th governor of Alabama replacing Thomas Seay.[5]
- December 24 â The Oklahoma territorial legislature establishes three institutions of higher learning University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University, and University of Central Oklahoma.
- December 24 â Woman's Canning and Preserving Company was established by Amanda Jones, in Chicago, Illinois.[6]
- December 29 â Wounded Knee Massacre: Near Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment tries to disarm a Native American camp and shooting starts. 153 Lakota Sioux and 25 troops are killed; about 150 flee the scene.
Undated
- The United States city of Boise, Idaho drills the first geothermal well.
- The corrugated cardboard box is invented by Robert Gair, a Brooklyn printer who developed production of paper-board boxes in 1879.
- The Demarest Building, a commercial building on Fifth Avenue in New York City, is completed as the first with an electric elevator (installed by Otis).
- The march "High School Cadets" is written by John Philip Sousa.
- Brown trout are introduced into the upper Firehole River in Yellowstone National Park.
- The Ohio Northern University Marching Band is founded as a part of the military department. Becoming known as the âStar of Northwest Ohioâ, they will perform regularly each football season and travel across the world through their sponsoring university.[7]
Ongoing
- Gilded Age (1869âc. 1896)
- Gay Nineties (1890â1899)
- Progressive Era (1890sâ1920s)
Sport
- September 30 â The Brooklyn Bridegrooms clinch the National League pennant.
Births

- January 4 â Victor Adamson, Western film director, producer, screenwriter and actor (died 1972)
- January 21 â Wesley Englehorn, American football player (died 1993)
- January 22 â Fred M. Vinson, 13th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (died 1953)
- January 28 â Robert Franklin Stroud, "Birdman of Alcatraz" (died 1963)
- February 18
- Edward Arnold, actor (died 1956)
- Adolphe Menjou, film actor (died 1963)
- February 24 â Marjorie Main, character actress (died 1975)
- February 27
- Freddie Keppard, jazz cornet player (died 1933)
- Art Smith, pilot (died in aviation accident 1926)
- March 11 â Vannevar Bush, science administrator (died 1974)
- March 21 â C. Douglass Buck, U.S. Senator from Delaware from 1943 to 1949 (died 1965)
- March 28 â Paul Whiteman, bandleader (died 1967)
- April 7
- Marjory Stoneman Douglas, conservationist and writer (died 1998)
- Harry W. Hill, admiral (died 1971)
- April 13 â Frank Murphy, politician and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (died 1949)
- April 23 â Adelbert Ford, psychologist (died 1976)[8]
- May 1 â Laurence Wild, basketball player and 30th Governor of American Samoa (died 1971)
- May 11 â Woodall Rodgers, lawyer and politician, Mayor of Dallas (died 1961)
- May 15 â Katherine Anne Porter, author (died 1980)
- June 1 â Frank Morgan, character actor (died 1949)
- June 12 â Junius Matthews, actor (died 1978)
- June 26
- Oscar C. Badger II, admiral (died 1958)
- Jeanne Eagels, actress (died 1929)
- June 28 â William H. P. Blandy, admiral (d. 1954)
- June 30 â Gertrude McCoy, actress (d. 1967)
- July 22 â Rose Kennedy, philanthropist and matriarch of the Kennedy family (died 1995)
- July 26 â Daniel J. Callaghan, admiral (killed in action 1942)
- August 11 â Lillian Holley, sheriff (d. 1994)
- August 20 â H. P. Lovecraft, horror fiction author (died 1937)
- September 9 â Colonel Sanders, founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken (died 1980)
- September 20 â Jelly Roll Morton, jazz pianist, composer and bandleader (died 1941)
- September 24 â Allen J. Ellender, U.S. Senator from Louisiana from 1937 to 1972 (died 1972)
- October 1
- Alice Joyce, silent film actress (died 1955)
- Blanche Oelrichs, poet, second wife of John Barrymore (died 1950)
- October 2 â Groucho Marx, comedian (died 1977)
- October 8 â Eddie Rickenbacker, race car driver and World War I fighter pilot (died 1973)
- October 12 â Katherine Corri Harris, socialite and actress, first wife of John Barrymore (died 1927)
- October 13 â Conrad Richter, fiction writer (died 1968)
- October 14 â Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961 (died 1969)
- October 20 â Sherman Minton, U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1935 to 1941, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1949 to 1956 (died 1965)
- October 25 â Floyd Bennett, aviator and explorer (died 1928)
- December 21 â Hermann Joseph Muller, geneticist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1946 (died 1967)
- December 25 â Robert Ripley, collector of odd facts (died 1949)
- December 26 â Uncle Charlie Osborne, Appalachian fiddler (died 1992)
Deaths
- January 2 â George Henry Boker, poet and playwright (born 1823)
- January 28 â Prudence Crandall, educationist (born 1803)
- February 22 â John Jacob Astor III, businessman (born 1822)
- March 2 â James E. English, U.S. Senator from Connecticut from 1875 to 1876 (born 1812)
- March 19 â John S. Hager, U.S. Senator from California from 1873 to 1875 (born 1818)
- April 1 â David Wilber, politician (born 1820)
- April 19 â James Pollock, politician (born 1810)
- April 30 â Marcus Thrane, author, journalist, and the leader of the first labour movement in Norway (born 1817)
- May 3 â James B. Beck, U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1877 to 1890 (born 1822 in Scotland)
- May 15 â Edward Doane, Protestant missionary in Micronesia (born 1820)
- June 11
- George Edward Brett, publisher (born 1829)
- Hugh Buchanan, politician from Georgia (born 1823)
- June 30 â Samuel Parkman Tuckerman, composer (born 1819)
- July 9 â Clinton B. Fisk, philanthropist and temperance activist (born 1828)
- July 10 â Thomas C. McCreery, U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1868 to 1871 (born 1816)
- July 13 â John C. Frémont, soldier, explorer and U.S. Senator from California from 1850 to 1851 (born 1813)
- August 6 â William Kemmler, murderer, first person executed in the electric chair (born 1860)
- August 10 â John Boyle O'Reilly, poet, novelist, journalist and transportee (born 1844 in Ireland)
- September 8 â Isaac P. Christiancy, Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court and U.S. Senator from Michigan from 1875 to 1879 (born 1812)
- September 30 â Frederick H. Billings, lawyer and financier (born 1823)
- October 7 â John Hill Hewitt, songwriter (born 1801)
- October 8 â James W. Deaderick, Chief Justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court from 1876 to 1886 (born 1812)
- October 20 â Alfred B. Mullett, architect (born 1834)
- November 7 â Comanche, horse, survivor of Custer's cavalry at the Battle of the Little Bighorn
- December 15 â Sitting Bull, Native American chief (born c. 1831)
- Ann Leah Underhill, one of the Fox sisters, fraudulent medium (born 1814)

