1888 in the United States

1888 in the United States
Years:	1885 1886 1887 – 1888 – 1889 1890 1891
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Timeline of United States history History of the United States (1865–1918)

Events from the year 1888 in the United States.

Eisenhower Executive Office Building, built in 1888 in Washington, DC

Barthrop House in Port Townsend, Washington, built in 1888

Incumbents

Federal Government

• President: Grover Cleveland (Democratic)
• Vice President: vacant
• Chief Justice: Morrison Waite (until March 23), Melville Fuller (starting October 8)
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: John G. Carlisle (D-Kentucky)
• Congress: 50th

Events

President Grover Cleveland, photo circa 1888 , lost his re-election campaign that year, but was re-elected in 1892.

• January 12 – "Schoolhouse Blizzard": Blizzards hit Dakota Territory, the states of Montana, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Texas, leaving 235 dead, many of whom are children on their way home from school.
• January 13 – In Washington, D.C., the National Geographic Society is founded.
• February 27 – In West Orange, New Jersey, Thomas Edison meets with Eadweard Muybridge, who proposes a scheme for sound film.
• March 8 – The Agriculture College of Utah, (later Utah State University) is founded in Logan, Utah.
• March 11 – The "Great Blizzard of 1888" begins along the East Coast of the United States, shutting down commerce and killing more than 400.
• May 1 – The United States Congress establishes the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation.
• June 19 – In Chicago, the Republican Convention opens at the Auditorium Building. Benjamin Harrison and Levi Morton win the nominations for President and Vice President, respectively.
• July 25 – Frank Edward McGurrin, a court stenographer from Salt Lake City, Utah, purportedly the only person using touch typing at this time, wins a decisive victory over Louis Traub in a typing contest held in Cincinnati, Ohio. This date can be called the birthday of the touch typing method that becomes widely used.
• October 9 – The Washington Monument officially opens to the general public in D.C.
• November 6 – United States presidential election, 1888: Democratic Party incumbent Grover Cleveland wins the popular vote, but loses the Electoral College vote to Republican challenger Benjamin Harrison, therefore losing the election.
• November 27 – The sorority Delta Delta Delta is founded at Boston University.
• November 29 – Celebration of Thanksgiving and the first day of Hanukkah coincide.

Undated

• Susan B. Anthony organizes a Congress for Women's Rights in Washington, D.C.
• The Baldwin School is founded in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.
• President of the United States Grover Cleveland declares the Chinese "impossible of assimilation with our people and dangerous to our peace and welfare".

Ongoing

• Gilded Age (1869–c. 1896)

Births

• February 22 – Owen Brewster, United States Senator from Maine from 1941 till 1952. Died in 1961.
• May 15 – John E. Miller, United States Senator from Arkansas from 1937 till 1941. Died in 1981.
• July 10 – Hazel Abel, United States Senator from Nebraska in 1954. Died in 1966.
• July 31 – William Warren Barbour, United States Senator from New Jersey from 1931 till 1937. Died in 1943.
• August 19 – Sam G. Bratton, United States Senator from New Mexico from 1925 till 1933. Died in 1963.
• September 2 – Charles C. Gossett, United States Senator from Idaho from 1945 till 1946. Died in 1974.
• November 17 – J. Melville Broughton, United States Senator from North Carolina from 1948 till 1949. Died in 1949.

Deaths

• March 4 – Amos Bronson Alcott, educator and writer (born 1799)
• March 6 – Louisa May Alcott, author (born 1832)
• March 19 – John Pendleton King, United States Senator from Georgia from 1833 till 1837. (born 1799)
• August 22 – Charles W. Cathcart, United States Senator from Indiana from 1845 to 1853. (born 1809)
• November 20 – Nathaniel Currier, illustrator (born 1813)

External links

• Media related to 1888 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons