1879 in the United States

Events from the year 1879 in the United States.

Incumbents

Federal government">Federal government of the United States">Federal government

President: Rutherford B. Hayes
[Vice President of the United States|President of the United States|Vice President]: William A. Wheeler
Chief Justice: Morrison Waite
Speaker of the House of Representatives: Samuel J. Randall
Congress: 45th, 46th

Events

January - The constitution of California is ratified.
January 1 - The Specie Resumption Act takes effect: the Greenback is valued the same as gold for the first time since the American Civil War.
February 12 - At New York City's Madison Square Garden, the first artificial ice rink in North America opens.
February 15 - Women's rights: President Rutherford B. Hayes signs a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the Supreme Court of the United States.
February 22 - In Utica, New York, Frank Woolworth opens the first of many of 5 and 10-cent Woolworth stores.
March 3 - The United States Geological Survey is created.
April 8 - Milk sold in glass bottles for the first time.
April 12 - Mary Baker Eddy founds the Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston.
May 10
* The Archaeological Institute of America is formed.
* Meteorite falls near Estherville, Iowa.
May 30 - New York City's Gilmore's Garden is renamed Madison Square Garden after President James Madison by William Henry Vanderbilt, and is opened to the public at 26th Street and Madison Avenue.
June 21 - Infielder William White plays in one game for the Providence Grays and in conjecture becomes the first African American to play MLB.
July 1 - Christian Restorationist Charles Taze Russell publishes the first issue of the monthly Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence which, as The Watchtower, will become the most widely circulated magazine in the world.
July 8 - The ill-fated U.S. Jeannette Expedition departs San Francisco in an attempt to reach the North Pole by pioneering a route through the Bering Strait.
July 19 - Doc Holliday kills for the first time after a man shoots up Holliday's New Mexico saloon.
September - Henry George self-publishes his major work Progress and Poverty.
September 25 - Deadwood, South Dakota fire: 2000 people are left homeless and 300 buildings destroyed; total loss of property is estimated at $3 million.
September 29 - Meeker Massacre: Nathan Meeker and others are killed in an uprising at the White River Ute Indian Reservation in Colorado.
October 22 - Using a filament of carbonized thread, Thomas Edison tests the first practical electric light bulb.
November - Simmons College of Kentucky, a historically black school, is founded.
December 31 - Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting to the public for the first time in Menlo Park, New Jersey.
Undated - Laton Alton Huffman photographs Native American woman Pretty Nose.

Ongoing

Sport

September 26 – The Providence Grays defeat the Boston Red Caps 7–6 to clinch their First National League pennant

Births

January 3 - Grace Coolidge, First Lady of the United States and Second Lady of the United States as wife of Calvin Coolidge
January 12
* Ray Harroun, race car driver
* Calbraith Perry Rodgers, pioneer aviator, makes first transcontinental U.S. flight
January 13 - Melvin Jones, founder of Lions Clubs International
January 20 - Ruth St. Denis, dancer
February 3 - Guy Gillette, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1936 to 1945
February 12 - George McGill, U.S. Senator from Kansas from 1930 to 1939
February 17 - Dorothy Canfield Fisher, activist and novelist
March 6 - William P. Cronan, 19th Naval Governor of Guam
March 18 - Emma Carus, opera singer
March 27 - Edward Steichen, photographer, painter and curator
April 1 - Louise Gunning, vaudeville singer
April 9 - Thomas Meighan, film actor
April 14 - James Branch Cabell, novelist
April 24 - Oris Paxton Van Sweringen, financier
May 3 - Clyde L. Herring, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1937 to 1943
May 12
* George Landenberger, U.S. Navy captain and 23rd Governor of American Samoa
* Georgia Ann Robinson, community worker, first African American woman to be appointed a Los Angeles police officer
May 19
* Nancy Astor, née Langhorne, American-born British politician
* Waldorf Astor, American-born British politician and newspaper proprietor
May 22 - Eastwood Lane, composer
June 3 - Raymond Pearl, biologist
June 13 - Lois Weber, film director and screenwriter
June 21 - Henry Creamer, songwriter
July 1
* Nicky Arnstein, professional gambler and con artist, married to Fanny Brice
* H. Craig Severance, architect
July 10 - Charles P. Snyder, admiral
July 28 - Lucy Burns, women's rights campaigner
August 2 - James M. Tunnell, U.S. Senator from Delaware from 1941 to 1947
August 8 - Wesley Newcomb Hohfeld, professor of jurisprudence
August 15 - Ethel Barrymore, actress
August 20 - Ralph Budd, railroad president
August 27 - Otis F. Glenn, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1928 to 1933
August 28 - Sydney Ayres, silent film actor
September 13 - James Larkin Pearson, poet and newspaper publisher, North Carolina Poet Laureate from 1953 to 1981
September 14 - Margaret Sanger, birth control advocate
September 19 - Louis Joseph Vance, novelist
October 2 - Wallace Stevens, poet
October 5 - Francis Peyton Rous, pathologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1966
October 12 - Chris Smith, African American vaudeville composer and performer
October 15 - Jane Darwell, née Patti Woodard, actress
October 21 - Eugene Burton Ely, pioneer aviator
November 2 - Marion Jones Farquhar, tennis player
November 4 - Will Rogers, humorist
November 5 - Hannah J. Patterson, suffragist and social activist
November 10 - Vachel Lindsay, poet
November 15 - Lewis Stone, actor, known for playing Judge Hardy
November 26 - Charles Goddard, playwright and screenwriter
November 28 - Guy V. Howard, U.S. Senator from Minnesota from 1936 to 1937
December 1 - Beth Slater Whitson, lyricist
December 4 - Richard Von Albade Gammon, University of Georgia football fullback
December 5 - Clyde Cessna, aviator, aircraft designer and manufacturer
December 10 - Jouett Shouse, politician
December 12 - Laura Hope Crews, actress
December 15 - Bert H. Miller, U.S. Senator from Idaho in 1949
December 20 - Earle Ovington, aviator, flew first experimental airmail
December 25 - Grace George, actress
December 26 - Christie Benet, U.S. Senator from South Carolina in 1918
December 28
* Arthur O. Austin, electrical engineer and inventor
* Billy Mitchell, general, military aviation pioneer

Deaths

February 2 – Richard Henry Dana Sr., poet, critic and lawyer
March 2
* John Eberhard Faber, pencil manufacturer
* Wade Keyes, Acting Confederate States Attorney General in 1861 and 1863–1864
March 16 – George Goldthwaite, U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1871 to 1877
April 12 – Richard Taylor, Confederate general
April 30 – Sarah Josepha Hale, writer
May 24 – William Lloyd Garrison, abolitionist
June 1
* James Shields, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1849 to 1855, from Minnesota from 1858 to 1859 and from Missouri in 1879
* Louisa Caroline Huggins Tuthill, children's writer
June 26 – Richard H. Anderson, United States Army officer during the Mexican–American War, Confederate general during the American Civil War
July 4 – Sarah Dorsey, novelist and historian
July 7 – George Caleb Bingham, realist painter
July 11 – William Allen, U.S. Senator from Ohio from 1837 to 1849
July 16 – Frederick Langenheim, pioneer of panoramic photography
July 26 – Robert Ward Johnson, U.S. Senator from Arkansas from 1862 to 1865
August 30 – John Bell Hood, Confederate general
September 8 – William Morris Hunt, painter
September 30 – Francis Gillette, U.S. Senator from Connecticut from 1854 to 1855
October 11 – Ethel Lynn Beers, poet
October 13 – Henry Charles Carey, economist
October 31
* Jacob Abbott, children's writer
* Joseph Hooker, Union Army general during the American Civil War
November 1 – Zachariah Chandler, U.S. Senator from Michigan from 1857 to 1875 and in 1879
December 31 – George S. Houston, Governor of Alabama from 1874 to 1878 and U.S. Senator from Alabama in 1879