List of events
Events from the year 1879 in the United States .
Incumbents [ edit ] Governors and lieutenant governors Governors [ edit ] Governor of Alabama : Rufus W. Cobb (Democratic ) Governor of Arkansas : William Read Miller (Democratic ) Governor of California : William Irwin (Democratic ) Governor of Colorado : John Long Routt (Republican ) (until January 14), Frederick Walker Pitkin (Republican ) (starting January 14) Governor of Connecticut : Richard D. Hubbard (Democratic ) (until January 9), Charles B. Andrews (Republican ) (starting January 9) Governor of Delaware : John P. Cochran (Democratic ) (until January 21), John W. Hall (Democratic ) (starting January 21) Governor of Florida : George Franklin Drew (Democratic ) Governor of Georgia : Alfred H. Colquitt (Democratic ) Governor of Illinois : Shelby Moore Cullom (Republican ) Governor of Indiana : James D. Williams (Democratic ) Governor of Iowa : John H. Gear (Republican ) Governor of Kansas : George T. Anthony (Republican ) (until January 13), John P. St. John (Republican ) (starting January 13) Governor of Kentucky : James B. McCreary (Democratic ) (until September 2), Luke P. Blackburn (Democratic ) (starting September 2) Governor of Louisiana : Francis T. Nicholls (Democratic ) Governor of Maine : Seldon Connor (Republican ) (until January 8), Alonzo Garcelon (Democratic ) (starting January 8) Governor of Maryland : John Lee Carroll (Democratic ) Governor of Massachusetts : Alexander H. Rice (Republican ) (until January 2), Thomas Talbot (Republican ) (starting January 2) Governor of Michigan : Charles Croswell (Republican ) Governor of Minnesota : John S. Pillsbury (Republican ) Governor of Mississippi : John M. Stone (Democratic ) Governor of Missouri : John Smith Phelps (Democratic ) Governor of Nebraska : Silas Garber (Republican ) (until January 9), Albinus Nance (Republican ) (starting January 9) Governor of Nevada : Lewis R. Bradley (Democratic ) (until January 6), John H. Kinkead (Republican ) (starting January 6) Governor of New Hampshire : Benjamin F. Prescott (Republican ) (until June 5), Natt Head (Republican ) (starting June 5) Governor of New Jersey : George B. McClellan (Democratic ) Governor of New York : Lucius Robinson (Democratic ) (until end of December 31) Governor of North Carolina : Zebulon Baird Vance (Democratic ) (until February 5), Thomas Jordan Jarvis (Democratic ) (starting February 5) Governor of Ohio : Richard M. Bishop (Democratic ) Governor of Oregon : W. W. Thayer (Democratic ) Governor of Pennsylvania : John F. Hartranft (Republican ) (until January 21), Henry M. Hoyt (Republican ) (starting January 21) Governor of Rhode Island : Charles C. Van Zandt (Republican ) Governor of South Carolina : Wade Hampton III (Democratic ) (until February 26), William Dunlap Simpson (Democratic ) (starting February 26) Governor of Tennessee : James D. Porter (Democratic ) (until February 16), Albert S. Marks (Democratic ) (starting February 16) Governor of Texas : Richard B. Hubbard (Democratic ) (until January 21), Oran M. Roberts (Democratic ) (starting January 21) Governor of Vermont : Redfield Proctor (Republican ) Governor of Virginia : Frederick W. M. Holliday (Democratic ) Governor of West Virginia : Henry M. Mathews (Democratic ) Governor of Wisconsin : William E. Smith (Republican ) Lieutenant governors [ edit ] Lieutenant Governor of California : James A. Johnson (Democratic ) Lieutenant Governor of Colorado : Lafayette Head (Republican ) (until January 14), Horace Austin Warner Tabor (Republican ) (starting January 14) Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut : Francis Loomis (Democratic ) (until January 9), David Gallup (Republican ) (starting January 9) Lieutenant Governor of Florida : Noble A. Hull (Democratic ) (until month and day unknown), vacant (starting month and day unknown) Lieutenant Governor of Illinois : Andrew Shuman (Republican ) Lieutenant Governor of Indiana : Isaac P. Gray (Democratic ) Lieutenant Governor of Iowa : Frank T. Campbell (Republican ) Lieutenant Governor of Kansas : Lyman U. Humphrey (Republican ) Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky : John C. Underwood (Democratic ) (until September 2), James E. Cantrill (Democratic ) (starting September 2) Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana : Louis A. Wiltz (Democratic ) Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts : Horatio G. Knight (Republican ) (until January 2), John D. Long (Republican ) (starting January 2) Lieutenant Governor of Michigan : Alonzo Sessions (Republican ) Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota : James Wakefield (Republican ) Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi : William H. Sims (Democratic ) Lieutenant Governor of Missouri : Henry Clay Brockmeyer (Democratic ) Lieutenant Governor of Nebraska : Othman A. Abbott (Republican ) (until January 9), Edmund C. Carns (Republican ) (starting January 9) Lieutenant Governor of Nevada : Jewett W. Adams (Democratic ) Lieutenant Governor of New York : William Dorsheimer (Democratic ) (until end of December 31) Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina : Thomas J. Jarvis (Democratic ) (until February 5), vacant (starting February 5) Lieutenant Governor of Ohio : Jabez W. Fitch (Democratic ) Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania : John Latta (Democratic ) (until January 21), Charles Warren Stone (Republican ) (starting January 21) Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island : Albert Howard (political party unknown) Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina : William Dunlap Simpson (Democratic ) (until February 26), vacant (starting February 26) Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee : Hugh M. McAdoo (Democratic ) (until month and day unknown), John R. Neal (Democratic ) (starting month and day unknown) Lieutenant Governor of Texas : vacant (until January 21), Joseph Draper Sayers (Democratic ) (starting January 21) Lieutenant Governor of Vermont : Eben Pomeroy Colton (Republican ) Lieutenant Governor of Virginia : James A. Walker (Democratic ) Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin : James M. Bingham (Republican )
December 31: Edison demonstrates his light bulb . 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 .[1] May 10 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 .[2] 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 (it lasts 13½ hours before burning out). 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 .[3] Ongoing [ edit ] January 3 – Grace Coolidge , First Lady of the United States and Second Lady of the United States as wife of Calvin Coolidge (died 1957 ) January 12 January 13 – Melvin Jones , founder of Lions Clubs International (died 1961 ) January 20 – Ruth St. Denis , dancer (died 1968) February 3 – Guy Gillette , U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1936 to 1945 (died 1973 ) February 12 – George McGill , U.S. Senator from Kansas from 1930 to 1939 (died 1963 ) February 17 – Dorothy Canfield Fisher , activist and novelist (died 1958 ) March 6 – William P. Cronan , 19th Naval Governor of Guam (died 1929 ) March 18 – Emma Carus , opera singer (died 1927 ) March 27 – Edward Steichen , photographer, painter and curator (died 1973 ) April 1 – Louise Gunning , vaudeville singer (died 1960 ) April 9 – Thomas Meighan , film actor (died 1936 ) April 14 – James Branch Cabell , novelist (died 1958) April 24 – Oris Paxton Van Sweringen , financier (died 1936) May 3 – Clyde L. Herring , U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1937 to 1943 (died 1945 ) May 12 May 19 May 22 – Eastwood Lane , composer (died 1951 ) June 3 – Raymond Pearl , biologist (died 1940 ) June 13 – Lois Weber , film director and screenwriter (died 1939 ) June 21 – Henry Creamer , songwriter (died 1930 ) July 1 July 10 – Charles P. Snyder , admiral (died 1964 ) July 28 – Lucy Burns , women's rights campaigner (died 1966 ) August 2 – James M. Tunnell , U.S. Senator from Delaware from 1941 to 1947 (died 1957) August 8 – Wesley Newcomb Hohfeld , professor of jurisprudence (died 1918 ) August 15 – Ethel Barrymore , actress (died 1959 ) August 20 – Ralph Budd , railroad president (died 1962 ) August 27 – Otis F. Glenn , U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1928 to 1933 (died 1959) August 28 – Sydney Ayres , silent film actor (died 1916 ) September 13 – James Larkin Pearson , poet and newspaper publisher, North Carolina Poet Laureate from 1953 to 1981 (died 1981 ) September 14 – Margaret Sanger , birth control advocate (died 1966)[4] September 19 – Louis Joseph Vance , novelist (died 1933 ) October 2 – Wallace Stevens , poet (died 1955 ) October 5 – Francis Peyton Rous , pathologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1966 (died 1970 ) October 12 – Chris Smith , African American vaudeville composer and performer (died 1949 ) October 15 – Jane Darwell , née Patti Woodard, actress (died 1967 ) October 21 – Eugene Burton Ely , pioneer aviator (died 1911 in aviation accident) November 2 – Marion Jones Farquhar , tennis player (died 1965 )[5] November 4 – Will Rogers , humorist (died 1935 ) November 5 – Hannah J. Patterson , suffragist and social activist (died 1937 ) November 10 – Vachel Lindsay , poet (died 1931 ) November 15 – Lewis Stone , actor, known for playing Judge Hardy (died 1953 ) November 26 – Charles Goddard , playwright and screenwriter (died 1951 ) November 28 – Guy V. Howard , U.S. Senator from Minnesota from 1936 to 1937 (died 1954 ) December 1 – Beth Slater Whitson , lyricist (died 1930 ) December 4 – Richard Von Albade Gammon , University of Georgia football fullback (died 1897 ) December 5 – Clyde Cessna , aviator, aircraft designer and manufacturer (died 1954) December 10 – Jouett Shouse , politician (died 1968) December 12 – Laura Hope Crews , actress (died 1942 ) December 15 – Bert H. Miller , U.S. Senator from Idaho in 1949 (died 1949 ) December 20 – Earle Ovington , aviator, flew first experimental airmail (died 1936 ) December 25 – Grace George , actress (died 1961 ) December 26 – Christie Benet , U.S. Senator from South Carolina in 1918 (died 1951) December 28 – Billy Mitchell , general, military aviation pioneer (died 1936) Gurdon Chapell February 2 – Richard Henry Dana Sr. , poet, critic and lawyer (born 1787 ) March 2 March 16 – George Goldthwaite , U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1871 to 1877 (born 1809 ) April 12 – Richard Taylor , Confederate general (born 1826 ) April 30 – Sarah Josepha Hale , writer (born 1788 ) May 24 – William Lloyd Garrison , abolitionist (born 1805 ) June 1 June 26 – Richard H. Anderson , United States Army officer during the Mexican–American War , Confederate general during the American Civil War (born 1821 )[6] July 4 – Sarah Dorsey , novelist and historian (born 1829 ) July 7 – George Caleb Bingham , realist painter (born 1811 ) July 11 – William Allen , U.S. Senator from Ohio from 1837 to 1849 (born 1803 ) July 16 – Frederick Langenheim , pioneer of panoramic photography (born 1809 in Germany ) July 26 – Robert Ward Johnson , U.S. Senator from Arkansas from 1862 to 1865 (born 1814 ) August 30 – John Bell Hood , Confederate general (born 1831 ) September 8 – William Morris Hunt , painter (born 1824 ) September 30 – Francis Gillette , U.S. Senator from Connecticut from 1854 to 1855 (born 1807 ) October 11 – Ethel Lynn Beers , poet (born 1827 ) October 13 – Henry Charles Carey , economist (born 1793 ) October 31 November 1 – Zachariah Chandler , U.S. Senator from Michigan from 1857 to 1875 and in 1879 (born 1813 ) December 31 – George S. Houston , Governor of Alabama from 1874 to 1878 and U.S. Senator from Alabama in 1879 (born 1811 ) See also [ edit ] References [ edit ] External links [ edit ]