1884 in the United States

Events from the year 1884 in the United States.

Incumbents

Federal government

Events

January 3 - P. J. Kennedy enters the Massachusetts House of Representatives, the first of at least 140 years of political office held by the Kennedy family.
March 27-29 - Cincinnati riots of 1884.
April 21 - Hammond, Indiana, is incorporated a city.
May 1 - The eight-hour workday is first proclaimed by the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions in the United States. May 1, called May Day or Labour Day, is now a holiday recognized in almost every industrialized country.
May 17 - Alaska becomes a United States territory.
June 13 - LaMarcus Adna Thompson opens "Gravity Pleasure Switchback Railway", one of the earliest roller coasters, at Coney Island, New York City.
August 5 - The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty is laid on Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor.
August 10 - An earthquake measuring 5.5 affected a very large portion of the eastern United States. The shock had a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII. Chimneys were toppled in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania. Property damage was severe in Jamaica and Amityville in New York.
August 28 - The earliest known photograph of a tornado is taken by Robinson during a tornado outbreak in South Dakota.
September 5 - Staten Island Academy is founded.
October - International Meridian Conference in Washington, D.C., fixes the Greenwich meridian as the world's prime meridian.
October 6 - The United States Naval War College is established in Newport, Rhode Island.
November 4 - 1884 United States presidential election: Democratic governor of New York Grover Cleveland defeats Republican James G. Blaine of Maine in a very close contest to win the first of his non-consecutive terms.
December 1 - American Old West: Near Frisco, New Mexico, deputy sheriff Elfego Baca holds off a gang of 80 Texan cowboys who want to kill him for arresting cowboy Charles McCarthy.
December 6 - The Washington Monument is completed.
December 16 - The World Cotton Centennial World's Fair opens in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Undated

Helen Hunt Jackson completes and publishes Ramona.
The water hyacinth is introduced in the U.S. and quickly becomes an invasive species.
In the "rain year" from July 1883 to June 1884, Los Angeles and San Diego receive their heaviest rainfall since instrumental records began, with Los Angeles receiving and San Diego.
Ringling Brothers Circus established.
American Historical Association established.

Ongoing

Sport

September 15 – The Providence Grays win their Second National League pennant with a 10–2 win over the Cleveland Blues, in the first ever game to be called, the World Series

Births

January 1
* Edwin C. Johnson, U.S. senator from Colorado from 1955 to 1957
* Papa Celestin, jazz bandleader, singer, cornetist, and trumpeter
January 12
* Louis Horst, choreographer, composer, pianist
* Texas Guinan, actress and producer
* Charles Armijo Woodruff, 11th governor of American Samoa
January 26 - Roy Chapman Andrews, adventurer and naturalist
February 15 - Alfred Carlton Gilbert, inventor, athlete, magician, and businessman
February 18
* Mary M. Crawford, surgeon
* Burt Mustin, character actor
March 10 - Stuart Holmes, actor and sculptor
March 11 - Sheridan Downey, U.S. senator from California from 1939 to 1950
March 17 - Alcide Nunez, jazz musician
March 21 - George D. Birkhoff, mathematician
March 22 - Arthur H. Vandenberg, U.S. senator from Michigan from 1928 to 1951
March 31 - James P. Pope, U.S. senator from Idaho from 1933 to 1939
April 1 - George A. Wilson, U.S. senator from Iowa from 1943 to 1949
April 17 - Leo Frank, factory superintendent and convicted murderer
April 20 - Oliver Kirk, bantamweight and featherweight professional boxer
May 8 - Harry S. Truman, 33rd president of the United States from 1945 to 1953, 34th vice president of the United States from January to April 1945
May 26 - Charles Winninger, stage and film actor
June 21
* Cack Henley, baseball player
* Garrett L. Withers, U.S. senator from Kentucky from 1949 to 1950
June 22 - James Rector, Olympic athlete
July 7 - J. Roy Hunt, motion picture cameraman and cinematographer
August 9 - John S. McCain Sr., U.S. Navy admiral
August 27 - Harry Antrim, actor
September 1 - Richard C. Saufley, naval aviation pioneer
October 7 - Harold Geiger, aviation pioneer
October 9 - Martin Johnson, adventurer and filmmaker
October 11 - Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady of the United States from 1933 to 1945
November 20 - Loyal Blaine Aldrich, astronomer
December 2 - Ruth Draper, actress and monologist
Legrand Chapell

Deaths

14 February
*Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt, first wife of Theodore Roosevelt
*Martha Bulloch Roosevelt, mother of Theodore Roosevelt
13 March – Leland Stanford Jr., son of Governor Leland Stanford of California, in whose memory Stanford University is founded
21 March – Ezra Abbot, Bible scholar
23 March – Henry C. Lord, railroad executive
31 March – Frederick Leypoldt, bibliographer
3 May – Truman Smith, U.S. senator from Connecticut from 1849 to 1854
6 May – Judah P. Benjamin, United States senator from Louisiana from 1853 till 1861, 1st Confederate States Attorney General, 2nd Confederate States Secretary of War, 3rd Confederate States Secretary of State, died in Paris, France
13 May – Cyrus McCormick, inventor
8 June – Henry Clay Work, composer
12 June – Frank Pidgeon, baseball pitcher
1 July – Allan Pinkerton, detective
10 July – Paul Morphy, chess player
15 July – Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps, educator and author
23 August – LeRoy Pope Walker, 1st Confederate States Secretary of War
2 September – Henry B. Anthony, U.S. senator from Rhode Island from 1859 to 1884
26 September – John W. Garrett, banker, president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and philanthropist
6 November – William Wells Brown, African American writer
9 December – Mary Bell Smith, educator, social reformer, and writer. Date unknown – Wendel Bollman, civil engineer