1896 in the United States
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Events from the year 1896 in the United States.
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Incumbents
Federal government
- President: Grover Cleveland (D-New York)
- Vice President: Adlai E. Stevenson I (D-Illinois)
- Chief Justice: Melville Fuller (Illinois)
- Speaker of the House of Representatives: Thomas Brackett Reed (R-Maine)
- Congress: 54th
State governments
Events
JanuaryâMarch
- January 4 â Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state (see History of Utah).
- February 6âAugust 12 â Yaqui Uprising in Arizona and Mexico.
- March 23 â The New York State Legislature passes the Raines Law, restricting Sunday alcoholic beverage sales to hotels.
AprilâJune
- April 9 â The National Farm School (later Delaware Valley College) is chartered in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.
- May 18 â Plessy v. Ferguson: The U.S. Supreme Court introduces the "separate but equal" doctrine and upholds racial segregation.
- May 26 â Eleven years after its foundation, a group of 12 purely industrial stocks are chosen to form the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The index is composed entirely of industrial shares for the first time.[1]
- May 26 â Campbell Axe Murders - James Dunham murders his wife, her family and two of their servants at their family farm in Campbell, California.
- May 27 â 1896 St. LouisâEast St. Louis tornado: The costliest and third deadliest tornado in U.S. history levels a mile wide swath of downtown St. Louis, Missouri, incurring over $10,000,000 in damages at contemporaneous prices,[2] killing more than 255 and injuring over 1,000 people.
- June 4 â The Ford Quadricycle, the first Ford vehicle ever developed, is completed, eventually leading Henry Ford to build the empire that "put America on wheels".
- June 28 â Twin Shaft Disaster: An explosion in the Newton Coal Company's Twin Shaft Mine in Pittston City, Pennsylvania results in a massive cave-in that kills 58 coal miners.[3][4][5]
JulyâSeptember
- July 9 â William Jennings Bryan delivers his Cross of Gold speech at the Democratic National Convention, which nominates him for President of the United States.
- July 30 â Shortly after 6:30 pm, at a crossing just west of Atlantic City, New Jersey, two trains collide, crushing five loaded passenger coaches, killing 50 and seriously injuring approximately 60, in the 1896 Atlantic City rail crash.
- August 9 â Joseph F. Johnston is elected the 30th governor of Alabama defeating Albert Taylor Goodwyn.
- September 15 â The Crash at Crush train wreck stunt is held in Texas.
OctoberâDecember
- October 16 â The design of the flag of Knoxville, Tennessee is officially approved by the Knoxville City Council.
- October 30 â Augusta, Kentucky: The Augusta High School cornerstone is laid, marking the end of the Augusta Methodist College.
- November 3 â U.S. presidential election, 1896: Republican William McKinley defeats William Jennings Bryan. This is later regarded as a realigning election, starting the Fourth Party System in which Republicans dominate politics until 1913.
- November 30 â The St. Augustine Monster, a large carcass later postulated to be the remains of a gigantic octopus, is found washed ashore near St. Augustine, Florida.
- December 1 â Joseph F. Johnston is sworn in as the 30th governor of Alabama replacing William C. Oates.[6]
- December 7 â The 54th United States Congress began its second session.
- December 25 â John Philip Sousa composes his magnum opus, the "Stars and Stripes Forever".
Undated
- The New York Telephone Company is formed.
- Sperry & Hutchinson begin offering S&H Green Stamps to U.S. retailers.
Ongoing
- Gilded Age (1869âc. 1896)
- Gay Nineties (1890â1899)
- Progressive Era (1890sâ1920s)
Births
- January 4 â Everett Dirksen, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1951 to 1969 (died 1969)
- January 8 â Arthur Ford, psychic, founded the Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship (died 1971)
- January 14 â John Dos Passos, novelist (died 1970)
- January 18 â C. M. Eddy, Jr., author (died 1967)
- January 20 â George Burns, actor and singer (died 1996)
- January 21 â J. Carrol Naish, actor (died 1973)
- January 31
- Olive Carey, actress (died 1988)
- Lewis Strauss, chair of the United States Atomic Energy Commission (died 1974)
- February 7 â Bonner Fellers, United States Army general (died 1973)
- February 21 â Homa J. Porter, Texas businessman and political activist (died 1986)
- February 25 â John Little McClellan, U.S. Senator from Arkansas from 1943 to 1977 (died 1977)
- February 28 â Philip Showalter Hench, physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1950 (died 1965)
- February 29 â William A. Wellman, film director (died 1975)
- March 1 â Harry Winston, diamond dealer (died 1978)
- March 23 â Edwin Eugene Aldrin, aviator and army colonel (died 1974)
- April 8 â Yip Harburg, lyricist (died 1981)
- April 21 â Ralph Hungerford, 33rd Governor of American Samoa (died 1977)
- April 26 â Edward John Thye, 26th Governor of Minnesota from 1943 to 1947 and U.S. Senator from Minnesota from 1947 to 1959 (died 1969)
- May 30 â Howard Hawks, film director (died 1977)
- June 7
- Douglas Campbell, World War I flying ace (died 1990)
- Robert S. Mulliken, physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1966 (died 1986)
- June 19 â Bessie Wallis Warfield, later Duchess of Windsor, socialite (died 1986 in France)
- June 28 â Constance Binney, American actress (died 1989)
- July 8 â James B. Wilson, American footballer (died 1986)
- July 9
- Thomas Barlow, basketball player (died 1983)
- Cullen Landis, film actor and director (died 1975)
- July 15 â Gladys Edgerly Bates, sculptor (died 2003)
- July 18
- Patrick O'Boyle, prelate (died 1987)
- Thelma Payne, diver (died 1988)
- July 19
- Percy Spencer, inventor of the microwave oven (died 1969)
- Stafford L. Warren, physician and radiologist, inventor of the mammogram (died 1981)
- July 21
- Bourke B. Hickenlooper, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1945 to 1969 (died 1971)
- Gladys Hulette, actress (died 1991)
- July 28 â Barbara La Marr, born Reatha Dale Watson, silent film actress (died 1926)
- August 15 â Paul Outerbridge, photographer (died 1958)
- August 22 â W. E. Lawrence, actor (died 1947)
- August 26 â Besse Cooper, supercentenarian (died 2012)
- September 8 â Howard Dietz, lyricist (died 1983)
- September 10 â Adele Astaire, dancer and singer (died 1981)
- September 15 â Robert B. McClure, general (died 1973)
- September 21 â Walter Breuning, supercentenarian; last known surviving male born in 1896 (died 2011)
- September 24 â F. Scott Fitzgerald, author known for the novel The Great Gatsby (died 1940)
- September 29 â George H. Bender, U.S. Senator from Ohio from 1954 to 1957 (died 1961)
- October 22 â Earle C. Clements, U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1950 to 1957 (died 1985)
- October 30 â Ruth Gordon, actress and screenwriter (died 1985)
- November 8 â Bucky Harris, baseball player (died 1977)
- November 14 â Mamie Eisenhower, née Doud, First Lady of the United States as wife of Dwight D. Eisenhower (died 1979)
- November 16 â Jim Jordan, actor (died 1988)
- November 25
- Priscilla Dean, silent film actress (died 1987)
- Jessie Royce Landis, actress (died 1972)
- Virgil Thomson, composer (died 1989)
- December 6 â Ira Gershwin, lyricist (died 1983)
- December 17 â Robert Francis Anthony Studds, admiral and engineer, fourth Director of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey (died 1962)
- December 21 â Leroy Robertson, composer and educator (died 1971)
- Date unknown
- John E. Yunker, North Dakota public servant and politician (died 1968)
Deaths
- January 6 â Thomas W. Knox, author and journalist (born 1835)
- January 11 â George G. Wright, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1871 to 1877 (born 1820)
- January 15 â Mathew B. Brady, pioneering photographer (born 1822)
- January 19 â Bernhard Gillam, political cartoonist (born 1856)
- February 7 â William Hayden English, politician (born 1822)
- February 22 â George D. Robinson, lawyer and politician, 34th Governor of Massachusetts (born 1834)
- February 23 â George Davis, Confederate States Senator from North Carolina, 4th and last Confederate States Attorney General (born 1820)
- February 25 â Joseph P. Fyffe, admiral (born 1832)
- March 19 â R. Edward Earll, ichthyologist and museum curator (b. 1853)
- April 9 â Gustav Koerner, statesman (born 1809 in Frankfurt)
- April 19 â Arthur I. Boreman, U.S. Senator from West Virginia from 1869 to 1875 (born 1823)
- May 5 â Jacob Fjelde, sculptor (born 1855 in Norway)
- May 7 â Herman Webster Mudgett, alias H. H. Holmes, serial killer, executed (born 1861)
- May 11 â Henry Cuyler Bunner, novelist and poet (born 1855)
- May 13 â Nora Perry, poet, journalist and children's author (born 1831)
- May 31 â Homer V. M. Miller, U.S. Senator in Georgia from 1871 (born 1814)
- June 2 â Ozora P. Stearns, U.S. Senator from Minnesota in 1871 (born 1831)
- June 4 â Austin Corbin, president of Long Island Rail Road (born 1827)
- June 12 â Thomas P. Leathers, steamboat captain (born 1816)
- June 13 â Alpheus Felch, 5th Governor of Michigan from 1846 till 1847 and U.S. Senator from Michigan from 1847 to 1853 (born 1804)
- June 25 â Lyman Trumbull, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1855 to 1873 (born 1813)
- July 1 â Harriet Beecher Stowe, abolitionist and author best known for the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (born 1811)
- July 14 â Luther Whiting Mason, music educator (born 1818)
- July 19 â Abraham H. Cannon, Mormon apostle (born 1859)
- July 22 â George Wallace Jones, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1848 till 1859 (born 1804)
- August 9 â Alonzo J. Edgerton, U.S. Senator from Minnesota in 1881 (born 1827)
- August 14 â Olin Levi Warner, sculptor (born 1844)
- August 17 â Mary Abigail Dodge (Gail Hamilton), essayist (born 1833)
- October 13 â Thomas W. Ferry, U.S. Senator from Michigan from 1871 till 1883 (born 1827)
- October 23 â Columbus Delano, statesman (born 1809)
- November 22 â George Washington Gale Ferris Jr., inventor of the Ferris wheel, typhoid (born 1859)
- Date unknown â Asahel C. Beckwith, U.S. Senator from Wyoming in 1893 (born 1827)
