1885 in the United States

::Grover Cleveland (D-New York) (starting March 4) - Vice President: ::*vacant* (until March 4) ::Thomas A. Hendricks (D-Indiana) (March 4 – November 25) ::*vacant* (starting November 25) - Chief Justice: Morrison Waite (Ohio) - Speaker of the House of Representatives: John G. Carlisle (D-Kentucky) - Congress: [48th](48th-united-states-congress) (until March 4), [49th](49th-united-states-congress) (starting March 4) #### State governments ::data[format=table] | Governors and lieutenant governors | |---| | | :: ## Events ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/StephenGroverCleveland.jpg" caption="March 4: [[Grover Cleveland]] becomes the 22nd U.S. president"] :: ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/Thomas_Andrews_Hendricks.jpg" caption="[[Thomas A. Hendricks]] becomes the 21st U.S. vice president"] :: ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Thure_de_Thulstrup_-_The_Massacre_of_the_Chinese_at_Rock_Springs.jpg" caption="September 2: [[Rock Springs massacre"] :: ### January–March - February 9 – The first Japanese arrive in Hawaii. - February 16 – Charles Dow publishes the first edition of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The index stands at a level of 62.76, and represents the dollar average of 14 stocks: 12 railroads and two leading American industries. - February 18 – Mark Twain publishes *Adventures of Huckleberry Finn* in the United States. - February 21 – United States President Chester A. Arthur dedicates the Washington Monument. - March 3 – A subsidiary of the American Bell Telephone Company, American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T), is incorporated in New York. - March 4 – Grover Cleveland is sworn in as the 22nd president of the United States, and Thomas A. Hendricks is sworn in as the 21st vice president. ### April–June - April 30 - A bill is signed in the New York State legislature forming the Niagara Falls State Park. - Boston Pops Orchestra is formed. - May – The Depression of 1882–85 ends. - June 17 – The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor. ### July–September - July 11 – San Diego Building and Loan Association founded, predecessor of Great American Bank. - July 14 – Sarah E. Goode is the first female African-American to apply for and receive a patent, for the invention of the hideaway bed. - July 23 – Former president and Civil War general Ulysses S. Grant dies in Mount McGregor, New York. - August 25 – Author Laura Ingalls marries farmer Almanzo Wilder in Dakota Territory. - September 2 – The Rock Springs massacre occurs in Rock Springs, Wyoming; 150 white miners attack their Chinese coworkers, killing 28, wounding 15, and forcing several hundred more out of town. - September 8 – Saint Thomas Academy is founded in Minnesota as a seminary. ### October–December - October 10 – Removal of Hell Gate rocks: In the East River of New York City, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers sets off the largest ever explosion for a non-military purpose. - October 13 – The Georgia Institute of Technology is established in Atlanta, Georgia as the Georgia School of Technology. - November 25 – Vice President Thomas A. Hendricks dies in office. - December 1 – Dr Pepper is served for the very first time (as acknowledged by the U.S. Patent Office; the exact date of Dr Pepper's invention is unknown). ### Undated - The first skyscraper (the Home Insurance Building) is built in Chicago, Illinois (10 floors). - Michigan Technological University (originally Michigan Mining School) opens its doors for the first time in what is to become the Houghton County Fire Hall. - Camp Dudley, the oldest continually running boys' camp in America, is founded. ### Ongoing - Gilded Age (1869–c. 1896) - Depression of 1882–85 (1882–1885) ## Sport - August 29 – John L. Sullivan becomes first World Heavyweight Boxing Champion. - September 30 – The Chicago White Stockings clinch their Third National League pennant with a 2–1 win over the New York Giants. ## Births - January 7 – Edwin Swatek, swimmer and water polo player (died [1966](1966-in-the-united-states)) - January 11 – Alice Paul, suffragist (died [1977](1977-in-the-united-states)) - January 15 – Grover Lowdermilk, baseball player (died [1968](1968-in-the-united-states)) - January 27 - Jerome Kern, musical theater composer (died [1945](1945-in-the-united-states)) - Harry Ruby, musician, composer and writer (died [1974](1974-in-the-united-states)) - February 7 – Sinclair Lewis fiction writer, recipient of Nobel Prize in Literature in 1930 (died [1951](1951) in Italy) - February 13 – Bess Truman, First Lady of the United States, Second Lady of the United States (died [1982](1982-in-the-united-states)) - February 17 – Steve Evans, baseball player (died [1943](1943-in-the-united-states)) - February 18 – Richard S. Edwards, admiral (died [1956](1956-in-the-united-states)) - March 6 – Ring Lardner, writer (died [1933](1933-in-the-united-states)) - April 1 – Wallace Beery, actor (died [1949](1949-in-the-united-states)) - April 7 – Bee Ho Gray, Wild West star, silent film actor and vaudeville performer (died [1951](1951-in-the-united-states)) - April 13 – Vean Gregg, baseball player (died [1964](1964-in-the-united-states)) - May 2 - Hedda Hopper, columnist (died [1966](1966-in-literature)) - Lee W. Stanley, cartoonist (died [1970](1970-in-literature)) - May 7 – George "Gabby" Hayes, Western film character actor (died [1969](1969-in-the-united-states)) - May 14 – Ben J. Tarbutton, businessman and politician (died [1962](1962-in-the-united-states)) - May 30 – Arthur E. Andersen, accountant (died [1947](1947-in-the-united-states)) - June 29 – Andrew Tombes, comedian and character actor (died [1976](1976-in-the-united-states)) - July 4 – Louis B. Mayer, film producer (died [1957](1957-in-the-united-states)) - July 6 – Charles Wisner Barrell, writer (died [1974](1974-in-the-united-states)) - July 10 – Mary O'Hara, author and screenwriter (died [1980](1980-in-the-united-states)) - July 15 – Tom Kennedy, actor (died [1965](1965-in-the-united-states)) - July 22 – John Thomas Kennedy, general and Medal Honour recipient (died [1969](1969-in-the-united-states)) - August 15 – Edna Ferber, novelist, short story writer, and playwright (died [1968](1968-in-the-united-states)) - September 7 – Elinor Wylie (Elinor Morton Hoyt), poet and novelist (died [1928](1928-in-the-united-states)) - September 11 – Julian C. Smith, general (died [1975](1975-in-the-united-states)) - September 15 – James P. Boyle, politician (died [1939](1939-in-the-united-states)) - September 22 – George Gaul, actor (died [1939](1939-in-the-united-states)) - October 3 – Sophie Treadwell, dramatist and journalist (died [1970](1970-in-the-united-states)) - October 9 – Raymond DeWalt, inventor and businessman (died [1961](1961-in-the-united-states)) - October 30 – Ezra Pound, poet (died [1972](1972) in Italy) - November 1 – Edgar J. Kaufmann, merchant and patron of Fallingwater (died [1955](1955-in-the-united-states)) - November 11 – George S. Patton, General (died [1945](1945) in Heidelberg, Germany) - November 28 – John Willard, playwright and actor (d. [1942](1942-in-the-united-states)) - December 2 – George Minot, physiologist, recipient of Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1934 (died [1950](1950-in-the-united-states)) - December 6 – Ernest Palmer, cinematographer (died [1978](1978-in-the-united-states)) - December 10 – Elizabeth Baker, economist and academic (died [1973](1973-in-the-united-states)) - December 19 – King Oliver, jazz cornet player and bandleader (died [1938](1938-in-the-united-states)) - December 26 – Bazoline Estelle Usher, African American educator (died [1992](1992-in-the-united-states)) ## Deaths ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Ulysses_S._Grant_1870-1880.jpg" caption="[[Ulysses S. Grant"] :: - January 13 – Schuyler Colfax, 17th vice president of the United States from 1869 to 1873 (born [1823](1823-in-the-united-states)) - January 24 – Martin Delany, African American abolitionist, journalist and physician (born [1812](1812-in-the-united-states)) - February 12 – Alexandre Mouton, U.S. Senator from Louisiana from 1843 to 1846 (born [1804](1804-in-the-united-states)) - March 17 – Susan Warner (pseudonym Elizabeth Weatherell), religious and children's writer (born [1819](1819-in-the-united-states)) - May 4 – Irvin McDowell, Union Army officer known for defeat in the First Battle of Bull Run (born [1818](1818-in-the-united-states)) - May 17 – Jonathan Young, U.S. Navy commodore (born [1826](1826-in-the-united-states)) - May 19 – Robert Emmet Odlum, swimming instructor, dies as result of becoming the first person to jump from the Brooklyn Bridge (born [1851](1851-in-the-united-states)) - May 20 – Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen, 29th United States Secretary of State (born [1817](1817-in-the-united-states)) - July 23 – Ulysses S. Grant, 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877 (born [1822](1822-in-the-united-states)) - August 10 – James W. Marshall, contractor, builder of Sutter's Mill (born [1810](1810-in-the-united-states)) - September 3 – William M. Gwin, U.S. Senator from California from 1850 to 1855 and from 1857 to 1861 (born [1805](1805-in-the-united-states)) - October 5 – Thomas C. Durant, railroad financier (born [1820](1820-in-the-united-states)) - October 29 – George B. McClellan, soldier, civil engineer, railroad executive and politician (born [1826](1826-in-the-united-states)) - November 25 – Thomas A. Hendricks, 21st vice president of the United States from March to November 1885 (born [1819](1819-in-the-united-states)) - December 8 – William Henry Vanderbilt, entrepreneur (born [1821](1821-in-the-united-states)) - December 21 – George S Patton, General (born [1885](1885)) - December 13 – Benjamin Gratz Brown, politician (born [1826](1826-in-the-united-states)) - December 15 – Robert Toombs, U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1853 to 1861 (born [1810](1810-in-the-united-states)) - December 29 – James E. Bailey, U.S. Senator from Tennessee from 1877 to 1881 (born [1821](1821-in-the-united-states)) ## References ## References 1. [https://web.archive.org/web/20131004232102/http://articles.philly.com/1995-02-24/news/25702996_1_blue-chip-stocks-industrial-shares-index Dow Record Book Adds Another First]. Philly.com. Retrieved 2013-07-08. 2. Whitt, Toni. (2006-06-02). ["The East River is Cleaner Now"](https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0DE3D71631F931A35755C0A9609C8B63). *[[The New York Times]]*. 3. (1989). ["Beacham's Guide to Literature for Young Adults"](https://books.google.com/books?id=QkPhAAAAMAAJ). *Beacham Pub.*. 4. Olsen, Kirstin. (1994). "Chronology of Women's History". *Greenwood Press*. ::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1885_in_the_United_States) and is available under the [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the [article history page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1885_in_the_United_States?action=history). ::