1873 in the United States

::Henry Wilson (R-Massachusetts) (starting March 4) - Chief Justice: Salmon P. Chase (Ohio) (until May 7) - Speaker of the House of Representatives: James G. Blaine (R-Maine) - Congress: [42nd](42nd-united-states-congress) (until March 4), [43rd](43rd-united-states-congress) (starting March 4) #### State governments ::data[format=table] | Governors and lieutenant governors | |---| | | :: ## Events ### January–March ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Henry_Wilson,_VP_of_the_United_States.jpg" caption="March 4: [[Henry Wilson]] becomes the 18th U.S. vice president"] :: - January 1 – The California Penal Code goes into effect. - January 17 – Indian Wars: The first Battle of the Stronghold is fought during the Modoc War. - February 20 – The University of California opens its first medical school in San Francisco. - March – Downers Grove, Illinois is incorporated. - March 1 – E. Remington and Sons of Ilion, New York, start production of the first practical typewriter. - March 3 – Censorship: The U.S. Congress enacts the Comstock Law, making it illegal to send any "obscene, lewd, or lascivious" books through the mail. - March 4 – President Ulysses S. Grant begins his second term. Henry Wilson sworn in as Vice President of the United States. - March 15 – The Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity is founded at the Massachusetts Agricultural College. - March 22 – Emancipation Day for Puerto Rico: Slaves are freed (with a few exceptions). ### April–June - April 1 - The Coinage Act of 1873 comes into force, ending bimetallism in the U.S. and placing the nation firmly on the gold standard. - Hinsdale, Illinois is incorporated. - April 13 – Between 62 and 153 Republican freedmen and state militia die in the Colfax massacre in Louisiana while attempting to protect the Grant Parish courthouse, including about 50 who surrendered. - April 15–17 – Indian Wars: The Second Battle of the Stronghold is fought. - May – Henry Rose exhibits barbed wire at an Illinois county fair, which is taken up by Joseph Glidden and Jacob Haish, who invent a machine to mass-produce it. - May 13 – First U.S. postal card is issued. - May 20 – Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis receive United States patent 139121 for using copper rivets to strengthen the pockets of denim work pants. Levi Strauss & Co. begin manufacturing the famous Levi's brand of jeans, using fabric from the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company in Manchester, New Hampshire. - May 23 - The Preakness Stakes horse race first runs in Baltimore, Maryland. - Postal cards are sold in San Francisco for the first time. - June 2 – Construction begins on the Clay Street Hill Railroad in San Francisco. - June 4 – Indian Wars: The Modoc War ends with the capture of Kintpuash ("Captain Jack"). ### July–September - July 21 – At Adair, Iowa, Jesse James and the James-Younger Gang pull off the first successful train robbery in the American West (US$3,000 from the Rock Island Express). - August 4 – Indian Wars: While protecting a railroad survey party in Montana, the Seventh Cavalry, under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, clashes for the first time with the Sioux, near the Tongue River (only 1 man on each side is killed). - September 6 – Regular cable car service begins on Clay Street, San Francisco. - September 17 – The Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College, later Ohio State University, opens its doors with 25 students, including 2 women. - September 18 – The New York stock market crash triggers the Panic of 1873, part of the Long Depression. ### October–December - October 30 – P.T. Barnum's circus, The Greatest Show on Earth, debuts in New York City. - December 15 – Women of Fredonia, New York march against the retail liquor dealers in town, inaugurating the Women's Crusade of 1873–74. This leads to the creation of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. - December 23 – Women's Crusade spreads to Hillsboro, Ohio. - December 25 – Delta Gamma sorority founded in Oxford, Mississippi. ### Undated - Railroads connect Northern Michigan port cities of Ludington, Traverse City and Petoskey. - Coors Brewing Company begins making beer in Golden, Colorado. - The Winchester Repeating Arms Company of New Haven first produces the 1873 model Winchester rifle, "The Gun That Won the West". - Central Park is officially completed in New York City. - Nine Pekin ducks are imported to Long Island (the first in the United States). - Eliza Daniel Stewart organizes the Woman's Temperance League in Osborn, Ohio. ### Ongoing - Reconstruction era (1865–1877) - Gilded Age (1869–c. 1896) - Depression of 1873–79 (1873–1879) ## Births - January 2 – John M. Robsion, U.S. Senator from Kentucky in 1930 (died [1948](1948-in-the-united-states)) - January 4 – Blanche Walsh, stage and screen actress (died [1915](1915-in-the-united-states)) - January 8 – Grace Van Studdiford, stage actress and opera singer (died [1927](1927-in-the-united-states)) - January 9 – Thomas Curtis, hurdler (died [1944](1944-in-the-united-states)) - February 4 – Joel R. P. Pringle, admiral (died [1932](1932-in-the-united-states)) - February 11 – Louis Charles Christopher Krieger, mycologist (died [1940](1940-in-the-united-states)) - March 3 – William Green, labor leader (died [1952](1952-in-the-united-states)) - March 5 – Thomas Harrison Montgomery, Jr., zoologist and cell biologist (died [1912](1912-in-the-united-states)) - March 29 – Billy Quirk, silent film actor (died [1926](1926-in-the-united-states)) - April 7 – John McGraw, baseball player and manager (died [1934](1934-in-the-united-states)) - April 13 – John W. Davis, politician, diplomat and lawyer (died [1955](1955-in-the-united-states)) - May 5 – Leon Czolgosz, assassin of President William McKinley (executed [1901](1901-in-the-united-states)) - May 9 - Anton Cermak, Mayor of Chicago (died [1933](1933-in-the-united-states)) - Lois Irene Marshall, née Kimsey, Second Lady of the United States as wife of Thomas R. Marshall (died [1958](1958-in-the-united-states)) - April 22 – Ellen Glasgow, novelist (died [1945](1945-in-the-united-states)) - July 6 – Ethel Sands, painter (died [1962 in the United Kingdom](1962-in-the-united-kingdom)) - July 11 – Nat M. Wills, vaudeville entertainer (died [1917](1917-in-the-united-states)) - August 3 – Alexander Posey, Native American poet, journalist, humorist and politician (drowned [1908](1908-in-the-united-states)) - August 5 – Joseph Russell Knowland, politician and newspaperman (died [1966](1966-in-the-united-states)) - August 10 – William Ernest Hocking, philosopher (died 1966) - August 11 – J. Rosamond Johnson, African American composer and singer (died [1954](1954-in-the-united-states)) - August 17 – John A. Sampson, gynecologist (died [1946](1946-in-the-united-states)) - August 18 – Otto Harbach, lyricist (died [1963](1963-in-the-united-states)) - August 21 – Harry T. Morey, stage and screen actor (died [1936](1936-in-the-united-states)) - August 25 – Blanche Bates, stage and screen actress (died [1941](1941-in-the-united-states)) - August 26 – Lee de Forest, inventor (died [1961](1961-in-the-united-states)) - September 2 – Bessie Van Vorst, campaigning journalist (died [1928](1928-in-the-united-states)) - September 5 – Cornelius Vanderbilt III, military officer, inventor and engineer (died [1942](1942-in-the-united-states)) - September 8 – David O. McKay, president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (died [1970](1970-in-the-united-states)) - September 14 – Josiah Bailey, U.S. Senator from North Carolina from 1931 to 1946 (died 1946) - September 21 – Papa Jack Laine, New Orleans brass band leader (died [1966](1966-in-the-united-states)) - October 2 – Stephen Warfield Gambrill, U.S. Congressman for Maryland's 5th District (died [1924](1924-in-the-united-states)) - October 3 – Emily Post, etiquette expert (died [1960](1960-in-the-united-states)) - October 8 – Ma Barker, née Kate Clark, matriarch of the Barker–Karpis gang (killed [1935](1935-in-the-united-states)) - October 9 – Charles Rudolph Walgreen, businessman (died [1939](1939-in-the-united-states)) - October 10 – George Cabot Lodge, poet (died [1909](1909-in-the-united-states)) - October 14 – Ray Ewry, field athlete (died [1937](1937-in-the-united-states)) - October 17 – William Luther Hill, U.S. Senator from Florida in 1936 (died [1951](1951-in-the-united-states)) - October 18 – Harris Laning, admiral (died 1941) - October 19 – Bart King, cricketer (died [1965](1965-in-the-united-states)) - October 29 – Lester J. Dickinson, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1931 to 1937 (died [1968](1968-in-the-united-states)) - November 10 – David Lynn, architect, Architect of the Capitol from 1923 to 1954 (died [1961](1961-in-the-united-states)) - November 16 – W. C. Handy, African American composer, "father of the Blues" (died 1958) - November 28 – Frank Phillips, oil executive (died [1950](1950-in-the-united-states)) - December 7 – Willa Cather, novelist (died [1947](1947-in-the-united-states)) - December 12 – Lola Ridge, poet (died 1941) - December 30 – Al Smith, politician (died 1944) - Undated – Thomas Chrostwaite, educator (died 1958) ## Deaths - February 1 – Matthew Fontaine Maury, oceanographer (born [1806](1806-in-the-united-states)) - March 4 – Alfred Iverson, Sr., U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1855 to 1861 (born [1798](1798-in-the-united-states)) - March 10 – John Torrey, botanist (born [1796](1796-in-the-united-states)) - March 27 – James Dixon, U.S. Senator from Connecticut from 1857 to 1869 (born [1814](1814-in-the-united-states)) - March 31 – Hugh Maxwell, lawyer and politician (born [1787](1787-in-the-united-states)) - April 11 – Edward Canby, general (born [1817](1817-in-the-united-states)) - May 7 – Salmon P. Chase, 6th Chief Justice of the United States, 25th United States Secretary of the Treasury (born [1808](1808-in-the-united-states)) - May 9 – Frederick Goddard Tuckerman, poet (born [1821](1821-in-the-united-states)) - June 11 – Richard Saltonstall Rogers, shipping merchant and politician (born [1790](1790-in-the-united-states)) - October 5 – William Todd, businessman and Canadian senate nominee (born [1803](1803-in-the-united-states)) - November 9 – Stephen Mallory, U.S. Senator from Florida from 1851 to 1861 (born [1812](1812-in-the-united-states)) - November 27 – Richard Yates, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1865 to 1871 (born [1815](1815-in-the-united-states)) - December 14 – Louis Agassiz, geologist and zoologist (born [1807](1807) in Switzerland) - December 24 – Johns Hopkins, entrepreneur and benefactor (born [1795](1795-in-the-united-states)) ## References ## References 1. "Lumber Industry." ''Encyclopedia of American History''. 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