1896 in the United States
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Events from the year 1896 in the United States.
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Contents
Incumbents[edit]
Federal Government[edit]
- 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
Events[edit]
January–March[edit]
- January 4 – Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state (see History of Utah).
- February 5 – August 12 – Yaqui Uprising in Arizona and Mexico.
- March 23 – The New York State Legislature passes the Raines Law, restricting Sunday alcoholic beverage sales to hotels.
April–June[edit]
- April 9 – The National Farm School (later Delaware Valley College) is chartered in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.
- May 18 – Plessy v. Ferguson: The U.S. Supreme Court introduces the "separate but equal" doctrine and upholds racial segregation.
- May 26 – 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 27 – 1896 St. Louis–East 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 – 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 – 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]
July–September[edit]
- July 9 – 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 – 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.
- September 15 – The Crash at Crush train wreck stunt is held in Texas.
October–December[edit]
- October 30 – Augusta, Kentucky: The Augusta High School cornerstone is laid, marking the end of the Augusta Methodist College.
- November 3 – 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. Woodrow Wilson
- November 30 – 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 7 – The 54th United States Congress began its second session.
- December 25 – John Philip Sousa composes his magnum opus, the "Stars and Stripes Forever".
Undated[edit]
- The New York Telephone Company is formed.
Ongoing[edit]
- Gilded Age (1869–c. 1896)
- Gay Nineties (1890–1899)
- Progressive Era (1890s–1920s)
Births[edit]
- January 4 – Everett Dirksen, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1951 to 1969 (died 1969)
- January 20 – George Burns, actor and singer (died 1996)
- January 21 – J. Carrol Naish, actor (died 1973)
- February 25 – John Little McClellan, U.S. Senator from Arkansas from 1943 to 1977 (died 1977)
- February 28 – Philip Showalter Hench, physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1950 (died 1965)
- February 29 – William A. Wellman, motion picture director (died 1975)
- March 1 – Harry Winston, diamond dealer (died 1978)
- April 8 – Yip Harburg, lyricist (died 1981)
- April 26 – Edward John Thye, 26th Governor of Minnesota from 1943 to 1947 and U.S. Senator from Minnesota from 1947 to 1959 (died 1969)
- July 19 – Percy Spencer, inventor of the microwave oven (died 1969)
- July 20 – Eunice Sanborn, supercentenarian (died 2011)
- July 21 – Bourke B. Hickenlooper, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1945 to 1969 (died 1971)
- July 28 – Barbara La Marr, born Reatha Dale Watson, silent film actress (died 1926)
- September 24 – F. Scott Fitzgerald, author known for the novel The Great Gatsby (died 1940)
- September 29 – George H. Bender, U.S. Senator from Ohio from 1954 to 1957 (died 1961)
- October 22 – Earle C. Clements, U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1950 to 1957 (died 1985)
- November 14 – Mamie Eisenhower, born Mamie Doud, First Lady of the United States as wife of Dwight D. Eisenhower (died 1979)
- December 6 – Ira Gershwin, lyricist (died 1983)
- December 21 – Leroy Robertson, composer and educator (d. 1971)
Deaths[edit]
- January 6 – Thomas W. Knox, author and journalist (born 1835)
- January 11 – George G. Wright, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1871 to 1877 (born 1820)
- January 15 – Mathew B. Brady, pioneering photographer (born 1822)
- February 7 – William Hayden English, politician (born 1822)
- February 23 – George Davis, Confederate States Senator from North Carolina, 4th and last Confederate States Attorney General (born 1820)
- February 25 – Joseph P. Fyffe, admiral (born 1832)
- April 9 – Gustav Koerner, statesman (born 1809 in Frankfurt)
- April 19 – Arthur I. Boreman, U.S. Senator from West Virginia from 1869 to 1875 (born 1823)
- May 5 – Jacob Fjelde, sculptor (born 1855 in Norway)
- May 7 – Herman Webster Mudgett, alias H. H. Holmes, serial killer, executed (born 1861)
- May 11 – Henry Cuyler Bunner, novelist and poet (born 1855)
- May 13 – Nora Perry, poet, journalist and children's author (born 1831)
- May 31 – Homer V. M. Miller, U.S. Senator in Georgia from 1871 (born 1814)
- June 2 – Ozora P. Stearns, U.S. Senator from Minnesota in 1871 (born 1831)
- June 4 – Austin Corbin, president of Long Island Rail Road (born 1827)
- June 12 – Thomas P. Leathers, steamboat captain (born 1816)
- June 13 – Alpheus Felch, 5th Governor of Michigan from 1846 till 1847 and U.S. Senator from Michigan from 1847 to 1853 (born 1804)
- June 25 – Lyman Trumbull, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1855 to 1873 (born 1813)
- July 1 – Harriet Beecher Stowe, abolitionist and author best known for the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (born 1811)
- July 14 – Luther Whiting Mason, music educator (born 1818)
- July 19 – Abraham H. Cannon, Mormon apostle (born 1859)
- July 22 – George W. Jones, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1848 till 1859 (born 1804)
- August 9 – Alonzo J. Edgerton, U.S. Senator from Minnesota in 1881 (born 1827)
- August 14 – Olin Levi Warner, sculptor (born 1844)
- August 17 – Mary Abigail Dodge (Gail Hamilton), essayist (born 1833)
- October 13 – Thomas W. Ferry, U.S. Senator from Michigan from 1871 till 1883 (born 1827)
- October 23 – Columbus Delano, statesman (born 1809)
- November 22 – George Washington Gale Ferris Jr., inventor of the Ferris wheel, typhoid (born 1859)
- Date unknown – Asahel C. Beckwith, U.S. Senator from Wyoming in 1893 (born 1827)
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ "Dow Record Book Adds Another First". Philly.com. Retrieved 2013-07-08.
- ^ Brooks, Harold E.; Doswell, Charles A., III (February 2001). "Normalized Damage from Major Tornadoes in the United States: 1890–1999" (abstract). Weather and Forecasting. American Meteorological Society. 16 (1): 168–76. Bibcode:2001WtFor..16..168B. doi:10.1175/1520-0434(2001)016<0168:NDFMTI>2.0.CO;2.
- ^ "Twin Shaft Disaster". The Historical Marker Database. HMdb.org. Retrieved 2018-01-30.
- ^ The New York Times.
- ^ "Pittston, Pennsylvania Twin Shaft Mine Cave In June 27, 1896". GenDisasters. Archived from the original on 2008-11-21. Retrieved 2009-01-25.
External links[edit]
Media related to 1896 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons
