1873

Events from the year 1873 in the United States.
==Incumbents==
===Federal Government===
* President: Ulysses S. Grant (R-IL)
* Vice President: Schuyler Colfax (R-IN) (until March 4), Henry Wilson (R-MA) (starting March 4)
* Chief Justice: Salmon P. Chase (OH) (until May 7)
* Speaker of the House of Representatives: James G. Blaine (R-ME)
* Congress: 42nd (until March 4), 43rd (starting March 4)
==Events==
===January - March===
* January 1 – The California Penal Code goes into effect.
* January 17 – Indian Wars: The first Battle of the Stronghold is fought during the Modoc War.
* February 20 – The University of California opens its first medical school in San Francisco.
* March 1 – E. Remington and Sons of Ilion, New York, start production of the first practical typewriter.
* March 2 – Downers Grove, Illinois is incorporated.
* March 3 – Censorship: The U.S. Congress enacts the Comstock Law, making it illegal to send any "obscene, lewd, or lascivious" books through the mail.
* March 4 – President Ulysses S. Grant begins his second term. Henry Wilson sworn in as Vice President of the United States.
* March 15 – The Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity is founded at the Massachusetts Agricultural College.
* March 22 – Emancipation Day for Puerto Rico: Slaves are freed (with a few exceptions).
===April - June===
* April 1
** The Coinage Act of 1873 comes into force, ending bimetallism in the U.S. and placing the nation firmly on the gold standard.
** Hinsdale, Illinois is incorporated.
* April 13 – Between 62 and 153 Republican freedmen and state militia die in the Colfax massacre while attempting to protect the Grant Parish courthouse, including about 50 who surrendered.
* April 15 – Indian Wars: The Second Battle of the Stronghold is fought.
* May 1 – First U.S. postal card is issued.
* May 2 – Henry Rose exhibits barbed wire at an Illinois county fair, which is taken up by Joseph Glidden and Jacob Haish, who invent a machine to mass-produce it.
* May 20 – Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis receive United States patent#139121 for using copper rivets to strengthen the pockets of denim work pants. Levi Strauss & Co. begin manufacturing the famous Levi's brand of jeans, using fabric from the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company in Manchester, New Hampshire.
* May 23
** The Preakness Stakes horse race first runs in Baltimore, Maryland.
** Postal cards are sold in San Francisco for the first time.
* June 2 – Construction begins on the Clay Street Hill Railroad in San Francisco.
* June 4 – Indian Wars: The Modoc War ends with the capture of Kintpuash ("Captain Jack").
===July - September===
* July 21 – At Adair, Iowa, Jesse James and the James-Younger Gang pull off the first successful train robbery in the American West (US$3,000 from the Rock Island Express).
* August 4 – Indian Wars: While protecting a railroad survey party in Montana, the Seventh Cavalry, under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, clashes for the first time with the Sioux, near the Tongue River (only 1 man on each side is killed).
* September 6 – Regular cable car service begins on Clay Street, San Francisco.
* September 17 – The Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College, later Ohio State University, opens its doors with 25 students, including 2 women.
* September 18 – The New York stock market crash triggers the Panic of 1873, part of the Long Depression.
===October - December===
* October 30 – P.T. Barnum's circus, The Greatest Show on Earth, debuts in New York City.
* November 14 – Coors Brewing Company begins making beer in Golden, Colorado.
* December 15 – Women of Fredonia, New York march against the retail liquor dealers in town, inaugurating the Women's Crusade of 1873–74. This leads to the creation of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union.
* December 23 – Women's Crusade spreads to Hillsboro, Ohio.
* December 25 – Delta Gamma sorority founded in Oxford, Mississippi.
==Memoriam==
* February 1 – Matthew Fontaine Maury, oceanographer (aged 67; Lexington, VA, USA)
* March 4 – Alfred Iverson Sr., U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1855 to 1861 (aged 74; Macon, GA, USA)
* March 10 – John Torrey, botanist (aged 76; New York City, NY, USA)
* March 27 – James Dixon, U.S. Senator from Connecticut from 1857 to 1869 (aged 58; Hartford, CT, USA)
* March 31 – Hugh Maxwell, lawyer and politician (aged 86; New York City, NY, USA)
* April 11 – Edward Canby, general (aged 55; Tule Lake, CA, USA)
* May 7 – Salmon P. Chase, 6th Chief Justice of the United States, 25th United States Secretary of the Treasury (aged 65; New York City, NY, USA)
* May 9 – Frederick Goddard Tuckerman, poet (aged 52; Greenfield, MA, USA)
* June 11 – Richard Saltonstall Rogers, shipping merchant and politician (aged 83; Salem, MA, USA)
* October 5 – William Todd, businessman and Canadian senate nominee (aged 70; St. Stephen, NB, Canada)
* November 9 – Stephen Mallory, U.S. Senator from Florida from 1851 to 1861 (aged 61; Pensacola, FL, USA)
* November 19 – John P. Hale, politician and lawyer (aged 67; Dover, NH, USA)
* November 27 – Richard Yates, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1865 to 1871 (aged 58; St. Louis, MO, USA)
* December 14 – Louis Agassiz, geologist and zoologist (aged 66; Cambridge, MA, USA)
* December 24 – Johns Hopkins, entrepreneur and benefactor (aged 78; Baltimore, MD, USA)
==External links==
* 1873 in the United States
Category:United States History: Volume 10