1888 in the United States

Decades:	1860s ; 1870s ; 1880s ; 1890s ; 1900s ;
See also:	History of the United States (1865–1918) ; Timeline of the history of the United States (1860-1899) ; List of years in the United States ;

Last updated June 08, 2025

Incumbents

Federal government

President: Grover Cleveland (D-New York)
Vice President: vacant
Chief Justice:

Morrison Waite (Ohio) (until March 23)

Melville Fuller (Illinois) (starting October 8)

Governors and lieutenant governors
Governors Governor of Alabama: Thomas Seay (Democratic) Governor of Arkansas: Simon Pollard Hughes Jr. (Democratic) Governor of California: Robert Waterman (Republican) Governor of Colorado: Alva Adams (Democratic) Governor of Connecticut: Phineas C. Lounsbury (Republican) Governor of Delaware: Benjamin T. Biggs (Democratic) Governor of Florida: Edward A. Perry (Democratic) Governor of Georgia: John B. Gordon (Democratic) Governor of Illinois: Richard J. Oglesby (Republican) Governor of Indiana: Isaac P. Gray (Democratic) Governor of Iowa: William Larrabee (Republican) Governor of Kansas: John A. Martin (Republican) Governor of Kentucky: Simon B. Buckner (Democratic) Governor of Louisiana: Samuel D. McEnery (Democratic) (until May 20), Francis T. Nicholls (Democratic) (starting May 20) Governor of Maine: Sebastian Streeter Marble (Republican) Governor of Maryland: Henry Lloyd (Democratic) (until January 11), Elihu Emory Jackson (Democratic) (starting January 11) Governor of Massachusetts: Oliver Ames (Republican) Governor of Michigan: Cyrus G. Luce (Republican) Governor of Minnesota: Andrew R. McGill (Republican) Governor of Mississippi: Robert Lowry (Democratic) Governor of Missouri: Albert P. Morehouse (Democratic) Governor of Nebraska: John Milton Thayer (Republican) Governor of Nevada: Charles C. Stevenson (Republican) Governor of New Hampshire: Charles H. Sawyer (Republican) Governor of New Jersey: Robert Stockton Green (Democratic) Governor of New York: David B. Hill (Democratic) Governor of North Carolina: Alfred Moore Scales (Democratic) Governor of Ohio: Joseph B. Foraker (Republican) Governor of Oregon: Sylvester Pennoyer (Democratic) Governor of Pennsylvania: James A. Beaver (Republican) Governor of Rhode Island: John W. Davis (Democratic) (until May 29), Royal C. Taft (Republican) (starting May 29) Governor of South Carolina: John Peter Richardson III (Democratic) Governor of Tennessee: Robert Love Taylor (Democratic) Governor of Texas: Lawrence Sullivan Ross (Democratic) Governor of Vermont: Ebenezer J. Ormsbee (Republican) (until October 4), William P. Dillingham (Republican) (starting October 4) Governor of Virginia: Fitzhugh Lee (Democratic) Governor of West Virginia: Emanuel Willis Wilson (Democratic) Governor of Wisconsin: Jeremiah McLain Rusk (Republican) Lieutenant governors Lieutenant Governor of California: Stephen M. White (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Colorado: Norman H. Meldrum (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: James L. Howard (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Florida: Milton H. Mabry (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: John Smith (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: Robert S. Robertson/Alonzo G. Smith (Republican/Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Iowa: John A. T. Hull (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Kansas: Alexander P. Riddle (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: James William Bryan (political party unknown) Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana: Clay Knobloch (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), James Jeffries (Democratic) (starting month and day unknown) Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: John Q. A. Brackett (political party unknown) Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: James H. MacDonald (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota: Albert E. Rice (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi: G. D. Shands (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: vacant Lieutenant Governor of Nebraska: Hibbard H. Shedd (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Nevada: Henry C. Davis (political party unknown) (until month and day unknown), Samuel W. Chubbuck (political party unknown) (starting month and day unknown) Lieutenant Governor of New York: Edward F. Jones (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina: Charles M. Stedman (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Ohio: Silas A. Conrad (Republican) (until January 9), William C. Lyon (Republican) (starting January 9) Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania: William T. Davies (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Samuel R. Honey (political party unknown) (until May 29), Enos Lapham (political party unknown) (starting May 29) Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: William L. Mauldin (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee: Z. W. Ewing (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Texas: Thomas B. Wheeler (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Levi K. Fuller (Republican) (until October 4), Urban A. Woodbury (Republican) (starting October 4) Lieutenant Governor of Virginia: John Edward "Parson" Massey (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin: George W. Ryland (Republican)

Events

January 13 – The National Geographic Society is founded in Washington, D.C.
February 27 – In West Orange, New Jersey, Thomas Edison meets with Eadweard Muybridge, who proposes a scheme for sound film.
March 8 – The Agriculture College of Utah, (later Utah State University) is founded in Logan, Utah.
March 11 – The "Great Blizzard of 1888" begins along the East Coast of the United States, shutting down commerce and killing more than 400.
March 25 – Opening of an international Congress for Women's Rights organized by Susan B. Anthony in Washington, D.C., leading to formation of the International Council of Women, a key event in the international women's movement.
May 1 – Fort Belknap Indian Reservation is established by the United States Congress.
May 5 – The International Association of Machinists is founded in Atlanta, Georgia.
June 3 – Ernest Thayer's baseball poem "Casey at the Bat" is first published (under the pen name "Phin") as the last of his humorous contributions to The San Francisco Examiner .
June 19 – The Republican Convention opens at the Auditorium Building, Chicago. Benjamin Harrison and Levi Morton win the nominations for President and Vice President, respectively.
July 25 – Frank Edward McGurrin, a court stenographer from Salt Lake City, Utah, purportedly the only person using touch typing at this time, wins a decisive victory over Louis Traub in a typing contest held in Cincinnati, Ohio. This date can be called the birthday of the touch typing method that becomes widely used.
August 6 – Thomas Seay is reelected the 27th governor of Alabama defeating W. T. Ewing.
August 10 – Lynching of Amos Miller: 23-year-old African American farmhand Amos Miller is hanged by a mob from the balcony of Williamson County Courthouse (Franklin, Tennessee).
August 25 – William Seward Burroughs patents the adding machine.
September 4 – Eastman Kodak Company founded by George Eastman.
September 8 – President of the United States Grover Cleveland declares the Chinese "impossible of assimilation with our people and dangerous to our peace and welfare" (in a letter accepting renomination for the office of President).
October – The mediumship of the Fox sisters is confessed to be fraudulent.
October 9 – The Washington Monument officially opens to the general public in D.C.
November 6 – 1888 United States presidential election: Democratic Party incumbent Grover Cleveland wins the popular vote, but loses the Electoral College vote to Republican challenger Benjamin Harrison, therefore losing the election.
November 27 – The sorority Delta Delta Delta is founded at Boston University.
November 29 – Celebration of Thanksgiving and the first day of Hanukkah coincide.
December 1 – The Washington Bridge opens to permit-holding pedestrians over the Harlem River in New York City, connecting the boroughs of Manhattan and The Bronx.^[1]

Undated

The Baldwin School is founded in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, as "Miss [Florence] Baldwin's School for Girls, Preparatory for Bryn Mawr College".
Global pharmaceutical and health care brands are founded:
- G.D. Searle by Gideon Daniel Searle in Omaha, Nebraska.^[2]
- Abbott Laboratories as Abbott Alkaloidal by Dr. Wallace C. Abbott in Illinois.^[3]
Katz's Delicatessen is founded on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
New Mexico State University is founded in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Ongoing

Gilded Age (1869–c. 1896)

Sport

October 25 – The New York Giants clinch their First National League Championship series with an 11–3 win over the St. Louis Browns. The final 2 games will be played for revenue purposes with St. Louis winning both contests for an overall series result of 6 games to 4 in favor of the Giants.
November 24 - Yale wins the Consensus College Football National Championship

Births

January 1 – John Garand, inventor and designer of the M1 Garand (died 1974)^[4]
January 16 – Robert Henry English, admiral (died 1943)^[5]
c. January 20 – Huddie William Ledbetter (Lead Belly), folk and blues singer (died 1949)
February 22 – Owen Brewster, U.S. Senator from Maine from 1941 to 1952 (died 1961)
February 25 – John Foster Dulles, U.S. Secretary of State from 1953 to 1959 (died 1959)
March 4 – Knute Rockne, American football player and coach (died 1931)
March 10 – Ilo Wallace, Second Lady of the United States as wife of Henry A. Wallace (died 1981)
March 26 – Gerald Murphy, socialite (died 1964)
March 29 – James E. Casey, businessman and founder of UPS (died 1983)
April 8 – Dennis Chávez, U.S. Senator from New Mexico from 1935 to 1962 (died 1962)
April 26 – Anita Loos, writer (died 1981)
May 11
- Irving Berlin, composer (died 1989)
- Willis Augustus Lee, admiral and sport shooter (died at sea 1945)
May 15 – John E. Miller, U.S. Senator from Arkansas from 1937 to 1941 (died 1981)
June 3 – Tom Brown, jazz musician (died 1958)
June 6 – Pete Wendling, composer, pianist and piano roll recording artist (died 1974)
June 16 – Peter Stoner, mathematician, astronomer and Christian apologist (died 1980)
June 23 – F. Ryan Duffy, judge and politician (died 1979)
July 5 – Herbert Spencer Gasser, physiologist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1944 (died 1963)
July 8 – John R. Sinnock, 8th Chief Engraver of the United States Mint (died 1947)
July 10 – Hazel Abel, U.S. Senator from Nebraska in 1954 (died 1966)
July 20 – Geneve L. A. Shaffer, realtor, lecturer and author (died 1976)
July 22 – Kirk Bryan, geologist (died 1950)
July 23 – Raymond Chandler, novelist (died 1959)
July 31 – William Warren Barbour, U.S. Senator from New Jersey from 1931 to 1937 (died 1943)
August 5 – George W. Christians, founder of the Crusader White Shirts (died 1983)
August 6 – Stephen Galatti, American Field Service director (d. 1964)
August 16 – Armand J. Piron, jazz musician (died 1943)
August 19 – Sam G. Bratton, U.S. Senator from New Mexico from 1925 to 1933 (died 1963)
September 2 – Charles C. Gossett, U.S. Senator from Idaho from 1945 to 1946 (died 1974)
September 6 – Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., politician (died 1969)
September 26
- J. Frank Dobie, folklorist and journalist (died 1964)
- T. S. Eliot, American-born poet, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948 (died 1965 in the United Kingdom)
October 4 – Lucy Tayiah Eads, Kaw tribal chief (died 1961)
October 7 – Henry A. Wallace, 33rd vice president of the United States from 1941 to 1945 (died 1965)
October 16
- Eugene O'Neill, dramatist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1936 (died 1953)
- Paul Popenoe, eugenicist (died 1979)
October 20 – Milton C. Portmann Professional football player, WWI Army Officer, Attorney. (died 1967)
October 30 – Alan Goodrich Kirk, admiral (died 1963)
November 13 – Philip Francis Nowlan, science fiction writer, creator of the Buck Rogers character (died 1940)
November 17 – J. Melville Broughton, U.S. Senator from North Carolina from 1948 to 1949 (died 1949)
November 23 – Harpo Marx, comedian (died 1964)
November 24 – Roy Earl Parrish, politician (died 1918)^[6]
November 28 – Edgar Church, comic book collector (died 1978)
December 18 – Robert Moses, public works director (died 1981)

Deaths

January 21 – Adolph Douai, German-American socialist and abolitionist newspaper editor, journalist and teacher (born 1819)
February 8 – Robert H. Anderson, infantry officer in the United States Army and brigadier general in the Confederate States Army (born 1835)
February 11 – William Kelly, inventor (born 1811)
March 4 – Amos Bronson Alcott, educator and writer (born 1799)
March 6 – Louisa May Alcott, author (born 1832)^[7]
March 7 – Christopher Memminger, German-born American politician, 1st Confederate States Secretary of the Treasury (born 1803)
March 19 – John Pendleton King, U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1833 to 1837 (born 1799)
March 23 - Morrison Waite, 7th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (born 1816)
April 18 – Roscoe Conkling, leader of the Stalwart faction of the Republican Party (born 1829)
May 6 – Abraham Joseph Ash, rabbi (born c. 1813)^[8]
July 23 – Williams Carter Wickham, lawyer, politician, and Confederate general (born 1820)
August 14 – Charles Crocker, railroad executive (born 1822)
August 16 – John Pemberton, pharmacist and inventor of Coca-Cola (born 1831)
August 22 – Charles W. Cathcart, U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1845 to 1853 (born 1809)
September 30 – Eunice Newton Foote, physicist and women's rights campaigner (born 1819)
October 16 – John Wentworth, mayor of Chicago from 1857 to 1858 and 1860 to 1861 (born 1815)
November 20 – Nathaniel Currier, illustrator (born 1813)
December 18 – Eagle Woman, Lakota leader (born 1820)

References

↑ "Washington Bridge" (PDF). New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. 1982-09-14.
↑ "Searle family". Forbes. 2015. Retrieved 2022-11-12.
↑ Burrell, Brandon (2013). Abbott Laboratories: Provisioning a Vision. Tallahassee: Florida State University.
↑ "John C. Garand". Encyclopædia Britannica . Retrieved Sep 22, 2023.
↑ "English (DD-696)". Naval History and Heritage Command. Apr 27, 2016. Retrieved Oct 13, 2023.
↑ "State Senator Roy E. Parrish Dies in Battle". The Wheeling Intelligencer . 1918-08-08. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-07-21.
↑ "Louisa May Alcott | Biography, Childhood, Family, Books, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 26 June 2020.
↑ Cyrus Adler and Judah David Eisenstein (1901–1906). "ASH, ABRAHAM JOSEPH". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia . New York: Funk & Wagnalls.

External links

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[1] "Washington Bridge" (PDF). New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. 1982-09-14.

[2] "Searle family". Forbes. 2015. Retrieved 2022-11-12.

[3] Burrell, Brandon (2013). Abbott Laboratories: Provisioning a Vision. Tallahassee: Florida State University.

[4] "John C. Garand". Encyclopædia Britannica . Retrieved Sep 22, 2023.

[5] "English (DD-696)". Naval History and Heritage Command. Apr 27, 2016. Retrieved Oct 13, 2023.

[6] "State Senator Roy E. Parrish Dies in Battle". The Wheeling Intelligencer . 1918-08-08. p. 1. Retrieved 2023-07-21.

[7] "Louisa May Alcott | Biography, Childhood, Family, Books, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 26 June 2020.

[8] Cyrus Adler and Judah David Eisenstein (1901–1906). "ASH, ABRAHAM JOSEPH". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia . New York: Funk & Wagnalls.

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v t e 1888 in North America
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