1884

Events from the year 1884 in the United States.
==Incumbents==
===Federal Government===
* President: Chester A. Arthur (R-NY)
* Vice President: vacant
* Chief Justice: Morrison Waite (OH)
* Speaker of the House of Representatives: John G. Carlisle (D-KY)
* Congress: 48th
==Events==
* March 28 – Cincinnati riots of 1884 begins.
* March 30 – Cincinnati riots of 1884 ends.
* April 21 – Hammond, Indiana is incorporated a city, forming Northwest Indiana.
* May 1 – The eight-hour workday is first proclaimed by the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions in the United States. May 1, called May Day or Labour Day, is now a holiday recognized in almost every industrialized country.
* May 17 – Alaska becomes a United States territory.
* June 13 – LaMarcus Adna Thompson opens "Gravity Pleasure Switchback Railway", one of the earliest roller coasters, at Coney Island, New York City.
* August 5 – The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty is laid on Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor.
* August 10 – An earthquake measuring 5.5 Mfa (based on the felt area) affected a very large portion of the eastern United States. The shock had a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong). Chimneys were toppled in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania. Property damage was severe in Jamaica and Amityville in New York.
* August 28 – The first recorded photo of a tornado is taken by F.N. Robinson in Howard, South Dakota.
* September 5 – Staten Island Academy is founded.
* October 1 – International Meridian Conference in Washington, D.C. fixes the Greenwich meridian as the world's prime meridian.
* October 6 – The United States Naval War College is established in Newport, Rhode Island.
* November 4 – 1884 United States presidential election: Democratic Governor of New York Grover Cleveland defeats Republican James G. Blaine in a very close contest to win the first of his non-consecutive terms.
* December 1 – American Old West: Near Frisco, New Mexico, deputy sheriff Elfego Baca holds off a gang of 80 Texan cowboys who want to kill him for arresting cowboy Charles McCarthy (the cowboys were terrorizing the area's Hispanos and Baca was working against them).
* December 6 – The Washington Monument is completed.
* December 10 – Mark Twain writes The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
* December 16 – The World Cotton Centennial World's Fair opens in New Orleans, Louisiana.
==Sport==
* September 15 – The Providence Grays win their Second (and Final) National League pennant with a 10–2 win over the Cleveland Blues, in the first ever game to be called, the World Series.
==Memoriam==
* February 14
** Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt, first wife of Theodore Roosevelt (aged 22; Manhattan, NY, USA)
** Martha Bulloch Roosevelt, mother of Theodore Roosevelt (aged 48; New York City, NY, USA)
* March 3 – Wendel Bollman, civil engineer (aged 70; Baltimore, MD, USA)
* March 13 – Leland Stanford Jr., son of Governor Leland Stanford of California, in whose memory Stanford University is founded (aged 15; Florence, Italy)
* March 21 – Ezra Abbot, Bible scholar (aged 64; Cambridge, MA, USA)
* March 23 – Henry C. Lord, railroad executive (aged 59; Riverside, OH, USA)
* March 31 – Frederick Leypoldt, bibliographer (aged 48; New York City, NY, USA)
* May 3 – Truman Smith, U.S. Senator from Connecticut from 1849 to 1854 (aged 92; Stamford, CT, USA)
* May 6 – Judah P. Benjamin, U.S. Senator from Louisiana from 1853 to 1861, 1st Confederate States Attorney General, 2nd Confederate States Secretary of War, 3rd Confederate States Secretary of State (aged 72; Paris, France)
* May 12 – Charles O'Conor, lawyer and politician (aged 80; Nantucket, MA, USA)
* May 13 – Cyrus McCormick, inventor (aged 75; Chicago, IL, USA)
* June 8 – Henry Clay Work, composer (aged 51; Hartford, CT, USA)
* June 12 – Frank Pidgeon, baseball pitcher (aged 59; New York City, NY, USA)
* July 1 – Allan Pinkerton, detective (aged 64; Chicago, IL, USA)
* July 10 – Paul Morphy, chess player (aged 47; New Orleans, LA, USA)
* July 15 – Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps, educator and author (aged 91; Baltimore, MD, USA)
* August 23 – LeRoy Pope Walker, 1st Confederate States Secretary of War (aged 67; Huntsville, AL, USA)
* September 2 – Henry B. Anthony, U.S. Senator from Rhode Island from 1859 to 1884 (aged 69; Providence, RI, USA)
* September 26 – John W. Garrett, banker, president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and philanthropist (aged 64; Deer Park, MD, USA)
* November 6 – William Wells Brown, African American writer (aged 69; Chelsea, MA, USA)
==External links==
* 1884 in the United States
Category:United States History: Volume 11