1887 in the United States
Events from the year 1887 in the United States.Incumbents
Federal Government">Federal government of the United States">Federal Government
Lieutenant Governors
Events
- January 20 - The United States Senate allows the Navy to lease Pearl Harbor in Hawaii as a naval base.
- January 28 - In a snowstorm at Fort Keogh, Montana, the largest snowflakes on record are reported. They are 15 inches wide and 8 inches thick.
- February 2 - In Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, the first Groundhog Day is observed.
- February 4 - The Interstate Commerce Act, passed by Congress, is signed into law, with the intention of regulating the railroad industry.
- February 8 - The Dawes Act is signed into law by President Grover Cleveland.
- February - The Atlanta Cyclorama is first displayed in Detroit as "Logan's Great Battle".
- March 3 - Anne Sullivan begins teaching Helen Keller.
- March 7 - North Carolina State University is established as North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts.
- March 19 - Cogswell College is established as a high school by Dr. Henry D. Cogswell in San Francisco, the first technical training institution in the West.
- April 4 - Argonia, Kansas elects Susanna M. Salter as the first female mayor in the U.S.
- May 14 - The cornerstone of the new Stanford University, in northern California, is laid.
- June 28 - Minot, North Dakota is incorporated as a city.
- July 10 - The Grand Hotel opens in Mackinac, Michigan
- August - The U.S. National Institutes of Health is founded at the Marine Hospital, Staten Island, New York, as the Laboratory of Hygiene.
Undated
- Teachers College, later part of Columbia University, is founded by Grace Hoadley Dodge as the New York School for the Training of Teachers; Nicholas Murray Butler is its first president.
Ongoing
- Gilded Age
Sport
- September 28 – The Detroit Wolverines win the National League pennant with a 7-3 victory over the Indianapolis Hoosiers.
- November 24 - Yale wins the Consensus College Football National Championship
Births
- January 22 - David W. Stewart, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1926 to 1927
- February 6 - Ernest Gruening, U.S. Senator from Alaska from 1959 to 1969
- February 7 - Eubie Blake, African American jazz composer-pianist
- February 26 - William Frawley, actor best known for played Fred Mertz in I Love Lucy
- March 22 - Chico Marx, comedian
- April 9 - Florence Price, African American classical composer
- July 16 - Shoeless Joe Jackson, baseball outfielder
- September 8 - Jacob L. Devers, U.S. Army general
- September 9 - Alf Landon, Republican politician, presidential candidate
- November 15 - Georgia O'Keeffe, painter
- December 19 - George R. Swift, U.S. Senator from Alabama in 1946
Deaths
- March 8 - Henry Ward Beecher, clergyman and reformer
- March 24 - Justin Holland, classical guitarist and civil rights activist
- May 19 - Charles E. Stuart, U.S. Senator from Michigan from 1853 to 1859
- June 4 - William A. Wheeler, 19th Vice President of the United States from 1877 to 1881
- June 25 - James Speed, U.S. Attorney General from 1864 to 1866 under Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson
- July 18
- * Dorothea Dix, mental health reformer
- * Robert M. T. Hunter, Virginian lawyer, politician, 14th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, 2nd Confederate States Secretary of State
- July 25 - John Taylor, 3rd President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
- August 14 - Aaron A. Sargent, U.S. Senator from California from 1873 to 1879
- August 18 - Orson Squire Fowler, phrenologist and leading proponent of the octagon house
- August 23 - Sarah Yorke Jackson, Acting First Lady of the United States
- November 8 - Doc Holliday, gunfighter, gambler and dentist
- November 11 - August Spies, labor activist, newspaper editor and anarchist
