1876

Events from the year **1876 in the United States**.

* Speaker of the House of Representatives: Michael C. Kerr (D-IN) (until August 19), Samuel J. Randall (D-PA) (starting December 4)
* Congress: 44th

Governors
* Governor of Alabama: George S. Houston (Democratic)
* Governor of Arkansas: Augustus Hill Garland (Democratic)
* Governor of California: William Irwin (Democratic)
* Governor of Colorado: John Long Routt (Republican) (starting August 1)
* Governor of Connecticut: Charles R. Ingersoll (Democratic)
* Governor of Delaware: John P. Cochran (Democratic)
* Governor of Florida: Marcellus Stearns (Republican)
* Governor of Georgia: James M. Smith (Democratic)
* Governor of Illinois: John Lourie Beveridge (Republican)
* Governor of Indiana: Thomas A. Hendricks (Democratic)
* Governor of Iowa: Cyrus C. Carpenter (Republican) (until January 13), Samuel J. Kirkwood (Republican) (starting January 13)
* Governor of Kansas: Thomas A. Osborn (Republican)
* Governor of Kentucky: James B. McCreary (Democratic)
* Governor of Louisiana: William Pitt Kellogg (Republican)
* Governor of Maine: Nelson Dingley Jr. (Republican) (until January 5), Seldon Connor (Republican) (starting January 5)
* Governor of Maryland: James B. Groome (Democratic) (until January 12), John Lee Carroll (Democratic) (starting January 12)
* Governor of Massachusetts: William Gaston (Democratic) (until January 6), Alexander H. Rice (Republican) (starting January 6)
* Governor of Michigan: John J. Bagley (Republican)
* Governor of Minnesota: Cushman K. Davis (Republican) (until January 7), John S. Pillsbury (Republican) (starting January 7)
* Governor of Mississippi: Adelbert Ames (Republican) (until March 29), John M. Stone (Democratic) (starting March 29)
* Governor of Missouri: Charles Henry Hardin (Democratic)
* Governor of Nebraska: Silas Garber (Republican)
* Governor of Nevada: Lewis R. Bradley (Democratic)
* Governor of New Hampshire: Person C. Cheney (Republican)
* Governor of New Jersey: Joseph D. Bedle (Democratic)
* Governor of New York: Samuel J. Tilden (Democratic)
* Governor of North Carolina: Curtis Hooks Brogden (Republican)
* Governor of Ohio: William Allen (Democratic) (until January 10), Rutherford B. Hayes (Republican) (starting January 10)
* Governor of Oregon: La Fayette Grover (Democratic)
* Governor of Pennsylvania: John F. Hartranft (Republican)
* Governor of Rhode Island: Henry Lippitt (Republican)
* Governor of South Carolina: Daniel Henry Chamberlain (Republican) (until December 14), Wade Hampton III (Democratic) (starting December 14)
* Governor of Tennessee: James D. Porter (Democratic)
* Governor of Texas: Richard Coke (Democratic) (until December 21), Richard B. Hubbard (Democratic) (starting December 21)
* Governor of Vermont: Asahel Peck (Republican) (until October 5), Horace Fairbanks (Republican) (starting October 5)
* Governor of Virginia: James L. Kemper (Democratic)
* Governor of West Virginia: John J. Jacob (Democratic)
* Governor of Wisconsin: William Robert Taylor (Democratic) (until January 3), Harrison Ludington (Republican) (starting January 3)

Lieutenant Governors
* Lieutenant Governor of Alabama: Robert F. Ligon (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), vacant (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of California: James A. Johnson (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Colorado: Lafayette Head (Republican) (starting August 1)
* Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: George G. Sill (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Florida: vacant
* Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: Archibald A. Glenn (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: Leonidas Sexton (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Iowa: Joseph Dysart (Republican) (until January 13), Joshua G. Newbold (Republican) (starting January 13)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kansas: Melville J. Salter (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: John C. Underwood (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana: Caesar Antoine (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: Horatio G. Knight (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: Henry H. Holt (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota: Alphonso Barto (Republican) (until January 7), James Wakefield (Republican) (starting January 7)
* Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi: Alexander K. Davis (Republican) (until month and day unknown), John M. Stone (Democratic) (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: Norman Jay Coleman (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Nevada: Jewett W. Adams (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of New York: William Dorsheimer (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina: vacant
* Lieutenant Governor of Ohio: Alphonso Hart (Republican) (until January 10), Thomas Lowry Young (Republican) (starting January 10)
* Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania: John Latta (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Henry Tillinghast Sisson (political party unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: Richard Howell Gleaves (Republican) (until December 14), William Dunlap Simpson (Democratic) (starting December 14)
* Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee: Thomas H. Paine (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Texas: Richard B. Hubbard (Democratic) (until December 21), vacant (starting December 21)
* Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Lyman G. Hinckley (Republican) (until October 5), Redfield Proctor (Republican) (starting October 5)
* Lieutenant Governor of Virginia: Henry Wirtz Thomas (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin: Charles D. Parker (Democratic)

## Events

### January - March

* January 1 – Heinz Tomato Ketchup introduced.
* February 2 – The National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs is formed at a meeting in Chicago, Illinois; it replaced the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players. Morgan Bulkeley of the Hartford Dark Blues is selected as the league's first President.
* February 22 – Johns Hopkins University is founded in Baltimore, Maryland.
* February 28 – *The Harvard Lampoon* humor magazine is founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
* March 7 – Alexander Graham Bell is granted a patent for an invention he calls the telephone (patent #174,466).
* March 10 – Alexander Graham Bell makes the first successful call by saying "*Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.*."

### April - June

* April 17 – Friends Academy is founded by Gideon Frost at Locust Valley, New York.
* May 10 – The Centennial Exposition begins in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
* May 18 – Wyatt Earp starts work in Dodge City, Kansas, serving under Marshal Larry Deger.
* June 4 – The Transcontinental Express arrives in San Francisco, California via the First Transcontinental Railroad, 83 hours and 39 minutes after having left New York City.
* June 11 – Rutherford B. Hayes selected by the Republicans as Presidential Candidate.
* June 17 – Indian Wars: Battle of the Rosebud: 1,500 Sioux and Cheyenne led by Crazy Horse beat back General George Crook's forces at Rosebud Creek in Montana Territory.
* June 24 – First published review of *The Adventures of Tom Sawyer* by Mark Twain, in a British magazine; the book's first edition has appeared earlier in June in England. (The book is published in the U.S. in December 1876.)
* June 25 – Indian Wars: Battle of the Little Bighorn: an army under Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer is defeated by 1,500-2,500 Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, suffering over 300 casualties.
* June 27 – Samuel J. Tilden selected by the Democrats as Presidential candidate.

### July - September

* July 4 – The United States celebrates its centennial.
* August 1 – Colorado admitted becomes the 38th U.S. state.
* August 2 – Wild Bill Hickok is killed during a poker game in Deadwood, Dakota
* August 8 – Thomas Edison receives a patent for his mimeograph.
* September 6 – Southern Pacific line from Los Angeles to San Francisco completed.
* September 7 – In Northfield, Minnesota, Jesse James and the James-Younger Gang attempt to rob the town's bank but are surrounded by an angry mob and are nearly wiped out.

### October - December

* October 4 – Texas A&M University opens for classes.
* October 6 – American Library Association founded in Philadelphia.
* November 7 – The presidential election ends indecisively with 184 Electoral College votes for Samuel J. Tilden, 165 for Rutherford B. Hayes, and 20 in dispute. The new president was not decided until 1877.
* November 10 – The Centennial Exposition ends in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
* November 23 – Corrupt Tammany Hall leader William Marcy Tweed (better known as Boss Tweed) is delivered to authorities in New York City after being captured in Spain.
* November 25 – Indian Wars: In retaliation for the dramatic American defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, United States Army troops under General Ranald S. Mackenzie sack Chief Dull Knife's sleeping Cheyenne village at the headwaters of the Powder River (the soldiers destroy all of the villagers' winter food and clothing, and then slash their ponies' throats).
* December 5 – The Brooklyn Theater Fire kills at least 278, possibly more than 300.
* December 6 – The first cremation in the United States takes place in a crematory built by Francis Julius LeMoyne.
* December 29 – Ashtabula River railroad disaster over the Ashtabula River near Ashtabula, Ohio kills 92 and injures 64.

## Sport

* September 26 - Chicago White Stockings win the First National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs Championship.
* December 9 - Yale win College Football National Championship.

## Memoriam

* January 10 – Gordon Granger, U.S. and Union Army general (aged 54; Santa Fe, NM Territory, USA)
* January 15 – Eliza McCardle Johnson, First Lady of the United States, Second Lady of the United States as wife of Andrew Johnson (aged 65; Greenville, TN, USA)
* February 18 – Charlotte Cushman, actress (aged 59; Boston, MA, USA)
* April 9 – Charles Goodyear, politician (aged 71; Charlottesville, VA, USA)
* April 23 – Archibald Dixon, U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1852 to 1855 (aged 74; Henderson, KY, USA)
* May 7 – William Buell Sprague, clergyman and biographer (aged 80; Flushing, NY, USA)
* June 20 – John Neal, eccentric and influential writer, critic, lecturer, and activist (aged 82; Portland, ME, USA)
* June 25 – George Armstrong Custer, U.S. Army colonel (in battle) (aged 36; Little Bighorn, MT Territory, USA)
* August 2 – Wild Bill Hickok, gunfighter and gambler (murdered) (aged 39; Deadwood, Dakota Territory (Now SD), USA)
* August 23 – Joseph R. Underwood, U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1847 to 1853 (aged 84; Bowling Green, KY, USA)
* September 27 – Braxton Bragg, U.S. and Confederate Army general (aged 59; Galveston, TX, USA)
* October 1 – James Lick, land baron (aged 80; San Francisco, CA, USA)
* December 3 – Samuel Cooper, United States Army officer during the Second Seminole War and the Mexican–American War, highest-ranking Confederate general during the American Civil War (aged 78; Alexandria, VA, USA)
* December 9 – George Trenholm, 2nd Confederate States Secretary of the Treasury (aged 69; Charleston, SC, USA)