1896 in the United States

Decades:	1870s ; 1880s ; 1890s ; 1900s ; 1910s ;
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 November 10, 2025

Incumbents

Federal government

Governors and lieutenant governors
Governors Governor of Alabama: William C. Oates (Democratic) (until December 1), Joseph F. Johnston (Democratic) (starting December 1) Governor of Arkansas: James Paul Clarke (Democratic) Governor of California: James Budd (Democratic) Governor of Colorado: Albert McIntire (Republican) Governor of Connecticut: Owen Vincent Coffin (Republican) Governor of Delaware: William T. Watson (Democratic) Governor of Florida: Henry L. Mitchell (Democratic) Governor of Georgia: William Yates Atkinson (Democratic) Governor of Idaho: William J. McConnell (Republican) Governor of Illinois: John Peter Altgeld (Democratic) Governor of Indiana: Claude Matthews (Democratic) Governor of Iowa: Frank D. Jackson (Republican) (until January 16), Francis M. Drake (Republican) (starting January 16) Governor of Kansas: Edmund N. Morrill (Republican) Governor of Kentucky: William O. Bradley (Republican) Governor of Louisiana: Murphy James Foster (Democratic) Governor of Maine: Henry B. Cleaves (Republican) Governor of Maryland: Frank Brown (Democratic) (until January 8), Lloyd Lowndes Jr. (Republican) (starting January 8) Governor of Massachusetts: Frederic T. Greenhalge (Republican) (until March 5), Roger Wolcott (Republican) (starting March 5) Governor of Michigan: John T. Rich (Republican) Governor of Minnesota: David M. Clough (Republican) Governor of Mississippi: John M. Stone (Democratic) (until January 20), Anselm J. McLaurin (Democratic) (starting January 20) Governor of Missouri: William Joel Stone (Democratic) Governor of Montana: John E. Rickards (Republican) Governor of Nebraska: Silas A. Holcomb (Democratic) Governor of Nevada: John Edward Jones (Silver) (until April 10), Reinhold Sadler (Silver) (starting April 10) Governor of New Hampshire: Charles A. Busiel (Republican) Governor of New Jersey: George Theodore Werts (Democratic) (until January 21), John W. Griggs (Republican) (starting January 21) Governor of New York: Levi P. Morton (Republican) (until end of December 31) Governor of North Carolina: Elias Carr (Democratic) Governor of North Dakota: Roger Allin (Republican) Governor of Ohio: William McKinley (Republican) (until January 13), Asa S. Bushnell (Republican) (starting January 13) Governor of Oregon: William Paine Lord (Republican) Governor of Pennsylvania: Daniel H. Hastings (Republican) Governor of Rhode Island: Charles W. Lippitt (Republican) Governor of South Carolina: John Gary Evans (Democratic) Governor of South Dakota: Charles H. Sheldon (Republican) Governor of Tennessee: Peter Turney (Democratic) Governor of Texas: Charles A. Culberson (Democratic) Governor of Utah: until January 4: Caleb Walton West (political party unknown) January 4-6: vacant starting January 6: Heber Manning Wells (Republican) Governor of Vermont: Urban A. Woodbury (Republican) (until October 8), Josiah Grout (Republican) (starting October 8) Governor of Virginia: Charles Triplett O'Ferrall (Democratic) Governor of Washington: John McGraw (Republican) Governor of West Virginia: William A. MacCorkle (Democratic) Governor of Wisconsin: William H. Upham (Republican) Governor of Wyoming: William A. Richards (Republican) Lieutenant governors Lieutenant Governor of California: William T. Jeter (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Colorado: Jared L. Brush (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: Lorrin A. Cooke (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Idaho: F. J. Mills (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: Joseph B. Gill (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: Mortimer Nye (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Iowa: Warren S. Dungan (Republican) (until January 16), Matt Parrott (Republican) (starting January 16) Lieutenant Governor of Kansas: James A. Troutman (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: William J. Worthington (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana: Robert H. Snyder (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: Roger Wolcott (Republican) (until month and day unknown), vacant (starting month and day unknown) Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: Joseph R. McLaughlin (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota: Frank A. Day (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi: M. M. Evans (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), J. H. Jones (Democratic) (starting month and day unknown) Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: John B. O'Meara (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Montana: Alexander Campbell Botkin (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Nebraska: Robert E. Moore (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Nevada: Reinhold Sadler (Silver) (until April 10), vacant (starting April 10) Lieutenant Governor of New York: Charles T. Saxton (Republican) (until end of December 31) Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina: Rufus A. Doughton (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of North Dakota: John H. Worst (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Ohio: Andrew L. Harris (Republican) (until January 13), Asa W. Jones (Republican) (starting January 13) Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania: Walter Lyon (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Edwin Allen (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: Washington H. Timmerman (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota: Charles N. Herreid (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee: Ernest Pillow (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Texas: George Taylor Jester (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Zophar M. Mansur (Republican) (until October 8), Nelson W. Fisk (Republican) (starting October 8) Lieutenant Governor of Virginia: Robert Craig Kent (Democratic) Lieutenant Governor of Washington: F. H. Luce (Republican) Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin: Emil Baensch (Republican)

Events

January–March

January 4 – Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state (see History of Utah).
February 6–August 12 – Yaqui Uprising in Arizona and Mexico.
March 23 – The New York State Legislature passes the Raines Law, restricting Sunday alcoholic beverage sales to hotels.

April–June

April 9 – The National Farm School (later Delaware Valley College) is chartered in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.
May 18 – Plessy v. Ferguson : The U.S. Supreme Court introduces the "separate but equal" doctrine and upholds racial segregation.
May 26 – Eleven years after its foundation, a group of 12 purely industrial stocks are chosen to form the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The index is composed entirely of industrial shares for the first time.^[1]
May 26 – Campbell Axe Murders - James Dunham murders his wife, her family and two of their servants at their family farm in Campbell, California.
May 27 – 1896 St. Louis–East St. Louis tornado: The costliest and third deadliest tornado in U.S. history levels a mile wide swath of downtown St. Louis, Missouri, incurring over $10,000,000 in damages at contemporaneous prices,^[2] killing more than 255 and injuring over 1,000 people.
June 4 – The Ford Quadricycle, the first Ford vehicle ever developed, is completed, eventually leading Henry Ford to build the empire that "put America on wheels".
June 28 – Twin Shaft Disaster: An explosion in the Newton Coal Company's Twin Shaft Mine in Pittston City, Pennsylvania results in a massive cave-in that kills 58 coal miners.^[3]^[4]^[5]

July–September

July 9 – William Jennings Bryan delivers his Cross of Gold speech at the Democratic National Convention, which nominates him for President of the United States.
July 30 – Shortly after 6:30 pm, at a crossing just west of Atlantic City, New Jersey, two trains collide, crushing five loaded passenger coaches, killing 50 and seriously injuring approximately 60, in the 1896 Atlantic City rail crash.
August 9 – Joseph F. Johnston is elected the 30th governor of Alabama defeating Albert Taylor Goodwyn.
September 15 – The Crash at Crush train wreck stunt is held in Texas.

October–December

October 16 – The design of the flag of Knoxville, Tennessee is officially approved by the Knoxville City Council.
October 30 – Augusta, Kentucky: The Augusta High School cornerstone is laid, marking the end of the Augusta Methodist College.
November 3 – U.S. presidential election, 1896: Republican William McKinley defeats William Jennings Bryan. This is later regarded as a realigning election, starting the Fourth Party System in which Republicans dominate politics until 1913.
November 30 – The St. Augustine Monster, a large carcass later postulated to be the remains of a gigantic octopus, is found washed ashore near St. Augustine, Florida.
December 1 – Joseph F. Johnston is sworn in as the 30th governor of Alabama replacing William C. Oates.^[6]
December 7 – The 54th United States Congress began its second session.
December 25 – John Philip Sousa composes his magnum opus, the "Stars and Stripes Forever".

Undated

The New York Telephone Company is formed.
Sperry & Hutchinson begin offering S&H Green Stamps to U.S. retailers.

Ongoing

Gilded Age (1869–c. 1896)
Gay Nineties (1890–1899)
Progressive Era (1890s–1920s)

Births

January 4 – Everett Dirksen, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1951 to 1969 (died 1969)
January 8 – Arthur Ford, psychic, founded the Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship (died 1971)
January 14 – John Dos Passos, novelist (died 1970)
January 18 – C. M. Eddy, Jr., author (died 1967)
January 20 – George Burns, actor and singer (died 1996)
January 21 – J. Carrol Naish, actor (died 1973)
January 31
- Olive Carey, actress (died 1988)
- Lewis Strauss, chair of the United States Atomic Energy Commission (died 1974)
February 7 – Bonner Fellers, United States Army general (died 1973)
February 21 – Homa J. Porter, Texas businessman and political activist (died 1986)
February 25 – John Little McClellan, U.S. Senator from Arkansas from 1943 to 1977 (died 1977)
February 28 – Philip Showalter Hench, physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1950 (died 1965)
February 29 – William A. Wellman, film director (died 1975)
March 1 – Harry Winston, diamond dealer (died 1978)
March 23 – Edwin Eugene Aldrin, aviator and army colonel (died 1974)
April 8 – Yip Harburg, lyricist (died 1981)
April 21 – Ralph Hungerford, 33rd Governor of American Samoa (died 1977)
April 26 – Edward John Thye, 26th Governor of Minnesota from 1943 to 1947 and U.S. Senator from Minnesota from 1947 to 1959 (died 1969)
May 30 – Howard Hawks, film director (died 1977)
June 7
- Douglas Campbell, World War I flying ace (died 1990)
- Robert S. Mulliken, physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1966 (died 1986)
June 19 – Bessie Wallis Warfield, later Duchess of Windsor, socialite (died 1986 in France)
June 28 – Constance Binney, American actress (died 1989)
July 8 – James B. Wilson, American footballer (died 1986)
July 9
- Thomas Barlow, basketball player (died 1983)
- Cullen Landis, film actor and director (died 1975)
July 15 – Gladys Edgerly Bates, sculptor (died 2003)
July 18
- Patrick O'Boyle, prelate (died 1987)
- Thelma Payne, diver (died 1988)
July 19
- Percy Spencer, inventor of the microwave oven (died 1969)
- Stafford L. Warren, physician and radiologist, inventor of the mammogram (died 1981)
July 21
- Bourke B. Hickenlooper, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1945 to 1969 (died 1971)
- Gladys Hulette, actress (died 1991)
July 28 – Barbara La Marr, born Reatha Dale Watson, silent film actress (died 1926)
August 15 – Paul Outerbridge, photographer (died 1958)
August 22 – W. E. Lawrence, actor (died 1947)
August 26 – Besse Cooper, supercentenarian (died 2012)
September 8 – Howard Dietz, lyricist (died 1983)
September 10 – Adele Astaire, dancer and singer (died 1981)
September 15 – Robert B. McClure, general (died 1973)
September 21 – Walter Breuning, supercentenarian; last known surviving male born in 1896 (died 2011)
September 24 – F. Scott Fitzgerald, author known for the novel The Great Gatsby (died 1940)
September 29 – George H. Bender, U.S. Senator from Ohio from 1954 to 1957 (died 1961)
October 22 – Earle C. Clements, U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1950 to 1957 (died 1985)
October 30 – Ruth Gordon, actress and screenwriter (died 1985)
November 8 – Bucky Harris, baseball player (died 1977)
November 14 – Mamie Eisenhower, née Doud, First Lady of the United States as wife of Dwight D. Eisenhower (died 1979)
November 16 – Jim Jordan, actor (died 1988)
November 25
- Priscilla Dean, silent film actress (died 1987)
- Jessie Royce Landis, actress (died 1972)
- Virgil Thomson, composer (died 1989)
December 6 – Ira Gershwin, lyricist (died 1983)
December 17 – Robert Francis Anthony Studds, admiral and engineer, fourth Director of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey (died 1962)
December 21 – Leroy Robertson, composer and educator (died 1971)
Date unknown
- John E. Yunker, North Dakota public servant and politician (died 1968)

Deaths

January 6 – Thomas W. Knox, author and journalist (born 1835)
January 11 – George G. Wright, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1871 to 1877 (born 1820)
January 15 – Mathew B. Brady, pioneering photographer (born 1822)
January 19 – Bernhard Gillam, political cartoonist (born 1856)
February 7 – William Hayden English, politician (born 1822)
February 22 – George D. Robinson, lawyer and politician, 34th Governor of Massachusetts (born 1834)
February 23 – George Davis, Confederate States Senator from North Carolina, 4th and last Confederate States Attorney General (born 1820)
February 25 – Joseph P. Fyffe, admiral (born 1832)
March 19 – R. Edward Earll, ichthyologist and museum curator (b. 1853)
April 9 – Gustav Koerner, statesman (born 1809 in Frankfurt)
April 19 – Arthur I. Boreman, U.S. Senator from West Virginia from 1869 to 1875 (born 1823)
May 5 – Jacob Fjelde, sculptor (born 1855 in Norway)
May 7 – Herman Webster Mudgett, alias H. H. Holmes, serial killer, executed (born 1861)
May 11 – Henry Cuyler Bunner, novelist and poet (born 1855)
May 13 – Nora Perry, poet, journalist and children's author (born 1831)
May 31 – Homer V. M. Miller, U.S. Senator in Georgia from 1871 (born 1814)
June 2 – Ozora P. Stearns, U.S. Senator from Minnesota in 1871 (born 1831)
June 4 – Austin Corbin, president of Long Island Rail Road (born 1827)
June 12 – Thomas P. Leathers, steamboat captain (born 1816)
June 13 – Alpheus Felch, 5th Governor of Michigan from 1846 till 1847 and U.S. Senator from Michigan from 1847 to 1853 (born 1804)
June 25 – Lyman Trumbull, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1855 to 1873 (born 1813)
July 1 – Harriet Beecher Stowe, abolitionist and author best known for the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (born 1811)
July 14 – Luther Whiting Mason, music educator (born 1818)
July 19 – Abraham H. Cannon, Mormon apostle (born 1859)
July 22 – George Wallace Jones, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1848 till 1859 (born 1804)
August 9 – Alonzo J. Edgerton, U.S. Senator from Minnesota in 1881 (born 1827)
August 14 – Olin Levi Warner, sculptor (born 1844)
August 17 – Mary Abigail Dodge (Gail Hamilton), essayist (born 1833)
October 13 – Thomas W. Ferry, U.S. Senator from Michigan from 1871 till 1883 (born 1827)
October 23 – Columbus Delano, statesman (born 1809)
November 22 – George Washington Gale Ferris Jr., inventor of the Ferris wheel, typhoid (born 1859)
Date unknown – Asahel C. Beckwith, U.S. Senator from Wyoming in 1893 (born 1827)

References

↑ "Dow Record Book Adds Another First". Philly.com. Archived from the original on October 4, 2013. Retrieved 2013-07-08.
↑ Brooks, Harold E.; Doswell, Charles A., III (February 2001). "Normalized Damage from Major Tornadoes in the United States: 1890–1999". Weather and Forecasting . 16 (1). American Meteorological Society: 168–76. Bibcode:2001WtFor..16..168B. doi: 10.1175/1520-0434(2001)016<0168:NDFMTI>2.0.CO;2 . Archived from the original (abstract) on January 1, 2013.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
↑ "Twin Shaft Disaster". The Historical Marker Database. HMdb.org. Retrieved 2018-01-30.
↑ The New York Times.
↑ "Pittston, Pennsylvania Twin Shaft Mine Cave In June 27, 1896". GenDisasters. Archived from the original on 2008-11-21. Retrieved 2009-01-25.
↑ Ala. General Assembly. Journal of the House of Representatives. 1896–1897 sess., 368, accessed July 28, 2023

External links

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[1] "Dow Record Book Adds Another First". Philly.com. Archived from the original on October 4, 2013. Retrieved 2013-07-08.

[2] Brooks, Harold E.; Doswell, Charles A., III (February 2001). "Normalized Damage from Major Tornadoes in the United States: 1890–1999". Weather and Forecasting . 16 (1). American Meteorological Society: 168–76. Bibcode:2001WtFor..16..168B. doi: 10.1175/1520-0434(2001)016<0168:NDFMTI>2.0.CO;2 . Archived from the original (abstract) on January 1, 2013.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

[3] "Twin Shaft Disaster". The Historical Marker Database. HMdb.org. Retrieved 2018-01-30.

[4] The New York Times.

[5] "Pittston, Pennsylvania Twin Shaft Mine Cave In June 27, 1896". GenDisasters. Archived from the original on 2008-11-21. Retrieved 2009-01-25.

[6] Ala. General Assembly. Journal of the House of Representatives. 1896–1897 sess., 368, accessed July 28, 2023

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