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1883 in the United States

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1883 in the United States

Events from the year 1883 in the United States.

Contents

Federal Government

  • President: Chester A. Arthur (R-New York)
  • Vice President: vacant
  • Chief Justice: Morrison Waite (Ohio)
  • Speaker of the House of Representatives: J. Warren Keifer (R-Ohio) (until March 4), John G. Carlisle (D-Kentucky) (starting December 3)
  • Congress: 47th (until March 4), 48th (starting March 4)

    • January–March

  • January 10 – A fire at the Newhall Hotel in Milwaukee kills 73 people.
  • January 16 – The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, reforming the United States civil service with the aim to end the spoils system, becomes law.
  • January 19 – The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires begins service in Roselle, New Jersey (it was built by Thomas Edison).
  • February 23 – Alabama becomes the first U.S. state to enact an antitrust law.
  • February 28 – The first vaudeville theater is opened, in Boston, Massachusetts.

    • April–June

  • May 24 – Brooklyn Bridge is opened to traffic after 13 years of construction.
  • May 30 – In New York City, a rumor that the Brooklyn Bridge is going to collapse causes a stampede which crushes 12 people.

    • July–September

  • July 4 – The world's first rodeo is held in Pecos, Texas.
  • September 5 – Mary F. Hoyt becomes the first woman appointed to the U.S. federal civil service (and the second person appointed by examination (in which she came top) instituted under the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act) when she becomes a clerk in the Bank Redemption Agency of the Department of the Treasury.
  • September 15 – The University of Texas at Austin opens to students.
  • September 29 – A consortium of flour mill operators in Minneapolis, Minnesota, forms the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad as a means to get their product to the Great Lakes ports but avoid the high tariffs of Chicago.

    • October–December

  • October 15 – The Supreme Court of the United States declares part of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 to be unconstitutional, since the Court allows private individuals and corporations to discriminate based on race.
  • November 3 – American Old West: Self-described "Black Bart the Po-et" gets away with his last stagecoach robbery, but leaves an incriminating clue that eventually leads to his capture.
  • November 18 – U.S. and Canadian railroads institute 5 standard continental time zones, ending the confusion of thousands of local times.
  • November 28 – Whitman College is chartered as a 4-year college in Walla Walla, Washington.

    • Undated

  • The Wolf's Head Society (known as The Third Society until 1888) is founded at Yale University.
  • Duncan, Arizona is founded.
  • A depression starts in Seattle, United States.
  • The Capital Area Humane Society of Ohio was founded.

    • Ongoing

  • Gilded Age (1869–c. 1896)
  • Depression of 1882–85 (1882–1885)

    • Births

  • January 25 – Homer Bone, United States Senator from Washington from 1933 till 1944. Died in 1970.
  • July 4 – Rube Goldberg, cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer, and inventor. Died in 1970.
  • April 3 – Walter Walker, United States Senator from Colorado in 1932. Died in 1956.

    • Deaths

  • January 10 – Samuel Mudd, physician imprisoned for conspiring with John Wilkes Booth in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln (born 1833)
  • February 16 – Stephen P. Hempstead, 2nd Governor of Iowa from 1850 till 1854. (born 1812)
  • March 4 – Alexander H. Stephens, the only Vice President of the Confederate States of America. (born 1812)
  • April 28 – William M. Browne, United Kingdom born politician and newsman, Acting Confederate States Secretary of State in 1862 (born 1823)
  • May 15 – Josiah Gorgas, Northern-born Confederate general (born 1818)
  • June 14 – Eugene Casserly, United States Senator from California from 1869 till 1873. (born 1820)
  • July 22 – Edward Ord, engineer and United States Army officer who saw action in the Seminole War, the Indian Wars, and the American Civil War (died 1818)
  • November 20 – Augustus C. Dodge, United States Senator from Iowa from 1848 till 1855. (born 1812)
  • November 26 – Sojourner Truth, abolitionist and women's rights activist

    • References

    1883 in the United States Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA