1887 in the United States

1887 in the United States
Years:	1884 1885 1886 – 1887 – 1888 1889 1890
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Timeline of United States history History of the United States (1865–1918)

Events from the year 1887 in the United States.

Incumbents

Federal Government

• President: Grover Cleveland (Democratic)
• Vice President: vacant
• Chief Justice: Morrison Waite
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: John G. Carlisle (D-Kentucky)
• Congress: 49th (until March 4), 50th (starting March 4)

Events

• January 20 – The United States Senate allows the Navy to lease Pearl Harbor in Hawaii as a naval base.
• January 28 – 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.
• February 2 – In Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, the first Groundhog Day is observed.
• February 4 – The Interstate Commerce Act, passed by Congress, is signed into law, with the intention of regulating the railroad industry.
• March 3 – Anne Sullivan begins teaching Helen Keller.
• March 7 – North Carolina State University is established as North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts.
• March 19 – 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 – Argonia, Kansas elects Susanna M. Salter as the first female mayor in the U.S.
• May 14 – The cornerstone of the new Stanford University, in northern California, is laid (the college opens in 1891).
• June 28 – Minot, North Dakota is incorporated as a city.
• August – The U.S. National Institutes of Health is founded at the Marine Hospital, Staten Island, New York, as the Laboratory of Hygiene.

Undated

• Teachers College, later part of Columbia University, is founded.

Ongoing

• Gilded Age (1869–c. 1896)

Births

• January 22 – David W. Stewart, United States Senator from Iowa from 1926 till 1927. (died 1974)
• February 6 – Ernest Gruening, United States Senator from Alaska from 1959 till 1969. Died in 1974.
• December 19 – George R. Swift, United States Senator from Alabama in 1946. Died in 1972.

Deaths

• March 8 – Henry Ward Beecher, clergyman and reformer (born 1813)
• May 19 – Charles E. Stuart, United States Senator from Michigan from 1853 till 1859. (born 1810)
• June 25 – James Speed, U.S. Attorney General from 1864 till 1866 under Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. (born 1812)
• August 14 – Aaron A. Sargent, United States Senator from California from 1873 till 1879. (born 1827)

External links

• Media related to 1887 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons