1897 in the United States

Federal government

• President:

Grover Cleveland (D-New York) (until March 4)

William McKinley (R-Ohio) (starting March 4)

• Vice President:

Adlai E. Stevenson I (D-Illinois) (until March 4)

Garret Hobart (R-New Jersey) (starting March 4)

• Chief Justice: Melville Fuller (Illinois)
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Thomas Brackett Reed (R-Maine)
• Congress: 54th (until March 4), 55th (starting March 4)

January–March

• January 2 – Alpha Omicron Pi sorority is founded at Barnard College in New York City
• January 23 – Elva Zona Heaster is found dead in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. The resulting murder trial of her husband is perhaps the only capital case in United States history, where spectral evidence helps secure a conviction.
• February 19 – United States Copyright Office established as a department in the Library of Congress.^[1]
• February 22 – Black Hills National Forest is established.
• March 4 – William McKinley is sworn in as the 25th president of the United States, and Garret Hobart is sworn in as the 24th vice president of the United States.
• March 9 – Cordelia A. Greene Library is established in Castile, New York

April–June

• April 19 – The first Boston Marathon is run, with fifteen men competing, and won by John McDermott.^[2]
• April 27 – Grant's Tomb is dedicated in New York.
• May 1 – The Tennessee Centennial Exposition opens in Nashville, for 6 months, illuminated by many electric lights.
• June 1 – American miners begin a strike, which successfully establishes the United Mine Workers Union and brings about the 8-hour work day to mines.
• June 2 – Mark Twain, responding to rumors that he is dead, is quoted by the New York Journal as saying, "The report of my death was an exaggeration."

July–September

• July 17 – The Klondike Gold Rush begins when the first successful prospectors arrive in Seattle. On July 25 Jack London sails to join the Rush.
• July 31 – Mount Saint Elias, the second highest peak in the United States and Canada, is first ascended.
• August 21 – Oldsmobile is founded in Lansing, Michigan by Ransom E. Olds.
• August 31 – Thomas Edison is granted a patent for the Kinetoscope, a precursor of the movie projector.
• September 1 – The Boston subway opens, becoming the first underground metro in North America.
• September 10 – Lattimer Massacre: A sheriff's posse kills more than 19 unarmed immigrant miners in Pennsylvania.
• September 21 – In response to a letter written by 8-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon, The Sun (New York City) publishes an (anonymous) editorial by Francis Pharcellus Church stating, "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus".

October–December

• October 4 – Columbia University opens its new campus in New York City.^[3]
• October 12 – The USS Baltimore (Cruiser # 3, later CM-1) is recommissioned, since 1890, for several months of duty in the Hawaiian Islands.
• October 23 – The Kappa Delta sorority is founded at State Female Normal School, later Longwood University, in Farmville, Virginia.
• November 1 – The Library of Congress Building in Washington, D.C., designed by Paul J. Pelz, is opened.

Undated

• Elbridge Ayer Burbank begins painting portraits of Native Americans in the United States from life.
• Women photographers Zaida Ben-Yusuf and Gertrude Käsebier open portrait studios in New York City.
• Florist's Review trade magazine is founded.
• The Auburn University Marching Band is created at Auburn University (known at this date as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama) in Auburn, Alabama.
• The Duke University Debating Society is founded.

Ongoing

• Gay Nineties (1890–1899)
• Progressive Era (1890s–1920s)
• Lochner era (c. 1897–c. 1937)