1878

Events from the year 1878 in the United States.
==Incumbents==
===Federal Government===
* President: Rutherford B. Hayes (R-OH)
* Vice President: William A. Wheeler (R-NY)
* Chief Justice: Morrison Waite (OH)
* Speaker of the House of Representatives: Samuel J. Randall (D-PA)
* Congress: 45th
==Events==
* January 28 – The Yale News becomes the first daily college newspaper in the United States.
* February 18 – The Lincoln County War begins in Lincoln County, New Mexico.
* February 19 – The phonograph is patented by Thomas Edison.
* February 23 – Bland–Allison Act, leading to first minting of the Morgan dollar.
* February 28 – Mississippi State University is created by the Mississippi Legislature (under the name The Agricultural and Mechanical College of the State of Mississippi).
* March 26 – University of California, Hastings College of the Law is founded.
* April 4 – The Gunfight at Blazer's Mill occurs in Lincoln County, New Mexico.
* May 2 – The Washburn "A" Mill in Minneapolis, Minnesota explodes, killing 18.
* May 14 – Salem witchcraft trial, the last of its kind in the U.S., opens in Salem, Massachusetts.
* June 18 – Posse Comitatus Act signed into law to limit the powers of the federal government of the United States in using the United States Army to enforce domestic policy within the U.S.
* July 12 – Yellow fever epidemic begins in New Orleans. It will eventually kill 4,500 people.
* July 26 – In California, the poet and American West outlaw calling himself "Black Bart" makes his last clean getaway when he steals a safe box from a Wells Fargo stagecoach. The empty box is found later with a taunting poem inside.
* August 9 – The Wallingford Tornado of 1878, the deadliest tornado in Connecticut history, destroys the town of Wallingford, killing 34 people and injuring 70 or more.
* September 30 – The ship Priscilla arrives in Hawaii from Funchal, Madeira, marking the beginning of the Portuguese immigration to the Hawaiian Islands (1878–1913).
* October 1 – Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) opens as Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College.
* November 18 – Soprano Marie Selika Williams becomes the first African American artist to perform at the White House.
==Sport==
* October 2 – The Buffalo Bisons of the International League defeat the National League champion Boston Red Caps behind the pitching of Pud Galvin to become Baseball's First Undisputed Champion.
==Memoriam==
* February 11 – Charles Magill Conrad, U.S. Senator from Louisiana from 1842 to 1843 (aged 73; New Orleans, LA, USA)
* March 2 – Benjamin Wade, U.S. Senator from Ohio from 1851 to 1869 (aged 77; Jefferson, OH, USA)
* March 6 – Asa Biggs, U.S. Senator from North Carolina from 1855 to 1858 (aged 67; Norfolk, VA, USA)
* March 29 – Mark Hopkins Jr., entrepreneur (aged 64; Yuma, AZ Territory, USA)
* May 25 – John Scott Harrison, member of the United States House of Representatives from Ohio, son of William Henry Harrison, father of Benjamin Harrison (aged 73; North Bend, OH, USA)
* June 16 – Crawford Long, American surgeon and pharmacist (aged 62; Athens, GA, USA)
* June 27 – Sidney Breese, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1843 to 1849 (aged 77; Pinckneyville, IL, USA)
* September 23 – Kinloch Falconer, 23rd Secretary of State of Mississippi (aged 39; Holly Springs, MS, USA)
* October 5 – George Boyer Vashon, African-American attorney, educationalist, abolitionist, essayist and poet (aged 54; Rodney, MS, USA)
* November 16 – Sarah Harris Fayerweather, African-American whose 1832 admission to a Connecticut school resulted in the first integrated schoolhouse (aged 66; South Kingstown, RI, USA)
==External links==
* 1878 in the United States
Category:United States History: Volume 10