1897 in the United States

Incumbents

Federal Government">Federal government of the United States">Federal Government

• President: Grover Cleveland , William McKinley
• Vice President: Adlai E. Stevenson I , Garret Hobart
• Chief Justice: Melville Fuller
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Thomas Brackett Reed
• Congress: 54th, 55th

  Governors

Lieutenant Governors

Events

January–March

• January 2 - Alpha Omicron Pi sorority is founded at Barnard College in New York City
• February 19 – United States Copyright Office established as a department in the Library of Congress.
• February 22 – Black Hills National Forest is established.
• March 4 – William McKinley is sworn in as the 25th President of the United States.

  April–June

• April 19 – The first Boston Marathon is run, with fifteen men competing, and won by John McDermott.
• April 27 – Grant's Tomb is dedicated in New York.
• May 1 – The Tennessee Centennial Exposition opens in Nashville, for 6 months, illuminated by many electric lights.
• June 1 – American miners begin a strike, which successfully establishes the United Mine Workers Union and brings about the 8-hour work day to mines.
• June 2 – Mark Twain, responding to rumors that he is dead, is quoted by the New York Journal as saying, "The report of my death was an exaggeration."

July–September

• July 17 – The Klondike Gold Rush begins when the first successful prospectors arrive in Seattle.
• July 31 – Mount Saint Elias, the second highest peak in the United States and Canada, is first ascended.
• August 21 – Oldsmobile is founded in Lansing, Michigan by Ransom E. Olds.
• August 31 – Thomas Edison is granted a patent for the Kinetoscope, a precursor of the movie projector.
• September 1 – The Boston subway opens, becoming the first underground metro in North America.
• September 10 – Lattimer Massacre: A sheriff's posse kills more than 19 unarmed immigrant miners in Pennsylvania.
• September 21 – In response to a letter written by 8-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon, The Sun publishes an editorial by Francis Pharcellus Church stating, "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus".

  October–December

• October 12 – The USS Baltimore is recommissioned, since 1890, for several months of duty in the Hawaiian Islands.
• October 23 – The Kappa Delta sorority is founded at State Female Normal School now Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia.
• November 1 - The Library of Congress Building in Washington, D.C., designed by Paul J. Pelz, is opened.

  Undated

• Elbridge Ayer Burbank begins painting portraits of Native Americans in the United States from life.
• Women photographers Zaida Ben-Yusuf and Gertrude Käsebier open portrait studios in New York City.
• The Auburn University Marching Band is created at Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama.

  Ongoing

• Gay Nineties
• Progressive Era
• Lochner era

  Births

• January 3 - Marion Davies, film actress
• February 27 - Marian Anderson, African American contralto
• March 2 - Minor Hall, jazz drummer
• March 4 - Lefty O'Doul, baseball player and restaurateur
• March 8 - Charles W. Brooks, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1940 to 1949
• March 11 - Henry Cowell, composer
• April 26 - Eddie Eagan, Olympic gold medal boxer and bobsledder
• May 6 - William A. Purtell, U.S. Senator from Connecticut in 1952 and from 1953 to 1959
• June 6 - Homer E. Capehart, U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1945 to 1963
• July 9 - Albert C. Wedemeyer, U.S. Army general
• July 10 - John Gilbert, silent film actor
• July 24 - Amelia Earhart, aviation pioneer and author
• September 24 - Lee Fenner, American footballer
• September 25 - William Faulkner, novelist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949
• November 2 - Richard Russell, Jr., U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1933 to 1971
• November 8 - Dorothy Day, journalist and social activist

  Deaths

• June 14 1897 Juan Domingo Montoya civil war combat veteran. Mosquero canyon, New Mexico. Valverde, glorieta pass
• April 10 - Daniel W. Voorhees, U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1877 to 1897
• August 14 - James Z. George, U.S. Senator from Mississippi from 1881 to 1897
• October 3 - Samuel J. R. McMillan, U.S. Senator from Minnesota from 1875 to 1887
• October 11 - Charles W. Jones, Ireland-born U.S. Senator from Florida from 1875 to 1887
• October 29 -
• * Henry George, writer, politician and political economist
• * William J. Babcock, Medal of Honor recipient
• November 3 - Thomas Lanier Clingman, North Carolina congressman, senator and confederate general