1896

Events from the year **1896 in the United States**.

Governors
* Governor of Alabama: William C. Oates (Democratic) (until December 1), Joseph F. Johnston (Democratic) (starting December 1)
* Governor of Arkansas: James Paul Clarke (Democratic)
* Governor of California: James Budd (Democratic)
* Governor of Colorado: Albert Washington McIntire (Republican)
* Governor of Connecticut: Owen Vincent Coffin (Republican)
* Governor of Delaware: William T. Watson (Democratic)
* Governor of Florida: Henry L. Mitchell (Democratic)
* Governor of Georgia: William Yates Atkinson (Democratic)
* Governor of Idaho: William J. McConnell (Republican)
* Governor of Illinois: John Peter Altgeld (Democratic)
* Governor of Indiana: Claude Matthews (Democratic)
* Governor of Iowa: Frank D. Jackson (Republican) (until January 16), Francis M. Drake (Republican) (starting January 16)
* Governor of Kansas: Edmund N. Morrill (Republican)
* Governor of Kentucky: William O. Bradley (Republican)
* Governor of Louisiana: Murphy James Foster Sr. (Democratic)
* Governor of Maine: Henry B. Cleaves (Republican)
* Governor of Maryland: Frank Brown (Democratic) (until January 8), Lloyd Lowndes Jr. (Republican) (starting January 8)
* Governor of Massachusetts: Frederic T. Greenhalge (Republican) (until March 5), Roger Wolcott (Republican) (starting March 5)
* Governor of Michigan: John T. Rich (Republican)
* Governor of Minnesota: David M. Clough (Republican)
* Governor of Mississippi: John M. Stone (Democratic) (until January 20), Anselm J. McLaurin (Democratic) (starting January 20)
* Governor of Missouri: William Joel Stone (Democratic)
* Governor of Montana: John E. Rickards (Republican)
* Governor of Nebraska: Silas A. Holcomb (Democratic)
* Governor of Nevada: John Edward Jones (Silver) (until April 10), Reinhold Sadler (Silver) (starting April 10)
* Governor of New Hampshire: Charles A. Busiel (Republican)
* Governor of New Jersey: George Theodore Werts (Democratic) (until January 21), John W. Griggs (Republican) (starting January 21)
* Governor of New York: Levi P. Morton (Republican)
* Governor of North Carolina: Elias Carr (Democratic)
* Governor of North Dakota: Roger Allin (Republican)
* Governor of Ohio: William McKinley (Republican) (until January 13), Asa S. Bushnell (Republican) (starting January 13)
* Governor of Oregon: William Paine Lord (Republican)
* Governor of Pennsylvania: Daniel H. Hastings (Republican)
* Governor of Rhode Island: Charles W. Lippitt (Republican)
* Governor of South Carolina: John Gary Evans (Democratic)
* Governor of South Dakota: Charles H. Sheldon (Republican)
* Governor of Tennessee: Peter Turney (Democratic)
* Governor of Texas: Charles A. Culberson (Democratic)
* Governor of Utah:
	+ until January 4: Caleb Walton West (political party unknown)
	+ January 4-January 6: vacant
	+ starting January 6: Heber Manning Wells (Republican)
* Governor of Vermont: Urban A. Woodbury (Republican) (until October 8), Josiah Grout (Republican) (starting October 8)
* Governor of Virginia: Charles Triplett O'Ferrall (Democratic)
* Governor of Washington: John McGraw (Republican)
* Governor of West Virginia: William A. MacCorkle (Democratic)
* Governor of Wisconsin: William H. Upham (Republican)
* Governor of Wyoming: William A. Richards (Republican)

Lieutenant Governors
* Lieutenant Governor of California: William T. Jeter (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Colorado: Jared L. Brush (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: Lorrin A. Cooke (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Idaho: F. J. Mills (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: Joseph B. Gill (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: Mortimer Nye (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Iowa: Warren S. Dungan (Republican) (until January 16), Matt Parrott (Republican) (starting January 16)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kansas: James Armstrong Troutman (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: William Jackson Worthington (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana: Robert H. Snyder (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: Roger Wolcott (Republican) (until month and day unknown), vacant (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: Joseph R. McLaughlin (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota: Frank A. Day (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi: M. M. Evans (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), J. H. Jones (Democratic) (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: John B. O'Meara (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Montana: Alexander Campbell Botkin (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Nebraska: Robert E. Moore (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Nevada: Reinhold Sadler (Silver) (until April 10), vacant (starting April 10)
* Lieutenant Governor of New York: Charles T. Saxton (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina: Rufus A. Doughton (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of North Dakota: John H. Worst (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Ohio: Andrew L. Harris (Republican) (until January 13), Asa W. Jones (Republican) (starting January 13)
* Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania: Walter Lyon (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Edwin Allen (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: Washington H. Timmerman (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of South Dakota: Charles N. Herreid (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee: Ernest Pillow (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Texas: George Taylor Jester (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Zophar M. Mansur (Republican) (until October 8), Nelson W. Fisk (Republican) (starting October 8)
* Lieutenant Governor of Virginia: Robert Craig Kent (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Washington: F. H. Luce (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin: Emil Baensch (Republican)

## Events

### January - March

* January 4 – Utah admitted becomes the 45th U.S. state.
* February 5 – Yaqui Uprising in Arizona and Mexico.
* March 23 – The New York State Legislature passes the Raines Law, restricting Sunday alcoholic beverage sales to hotels.

### April - June

* April 9 – The National Farm School (later Delaware Valley College) is chartered in Doylestown, Pennsylvania.
* May 18 – *Plessy v. Ferguson*: The U.S. Supreme Court introduces the "separate but equal" doctrine and upholds racial segregation.
* May 26 – Eleven years after its foundation, a group of 12 purely industrial stocks are chosen to form the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The index is composed entirely of industrial shares for the first time.
* May 27 – 1896 St. Louis–East St. Louis tornado: The costliest and third deadliest tornado in U.S. history levels a mile wide swath of downtown St. Louis, Missouri, incurring over $10,000,000 in damages at contemporaneous prices, killing more than 255 and injuring over 1,000 people.
* June 4 – The Ford Quadricycle, the first Ford vehicle ever developed, is completed, eventually leading Henry Ford to build the empire that "put America on wheels".
* June 28 – Twin Shaft Disaster: An explosion in the Newton Coal Company's Twin Shaft Mine in Pittston City, Pennsylvania results in a massive cave-in that kills 58 coal miners.

### July - September

* July 9 – William Jennings Bryan delivers his Cross of Gold speech at the Democratic National Convention, which nominates him for President of the United States.
* July 30 – Shortly after 6:30 pm, at a crossing just west of Atlantic City, New Jersey, two trains collide, crushing five loaded passenger coaches, killing 50 and seriously injuring approximately 60, in the 1896 Atlantic City rail crash.
* September 15 – The Crash at Crush train wreck stunt is held in Texas.

### October - December

* October 30 – Augusta, Kentucky: The Augusta High School cornerstone is laid, marking the end of the Augusta Methodist College.
* November 3 – U.S. presidential election, 1896: Republican William McKinley defeats William Jennings Bryan. This is later regarded as a realigning election, starting the Fourth Party System in which Republicans dominate politics until 1913.
* November 30 – The St. Augustine Monster, a large carcass later postulated to be the remains of a gigantic octopus, is found washed ashore near St. Augustine, Florida.
* December 7 – The 54th United States Congress began its second session.
* December 25 – John Philip Sousa composes his magnum opus, the "Stars and Stripes Forever".

## Memoriam

* January 6 – Thomas W. Knox, author and journalist (aged 60; New York City, NY, USA)
* January 11 – George G. Wright, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1871 to 1877 (aged 75; Des Moines, IA, USA)
* January 15 – Mathew Brady, pioneering photographer (aged 74; New York City, NY, USA)
* January 19 – Bernhard Gillam, political cartoonist (aged 39; Canajoharie, NY, USA)
* January 25 – Asahel C. Beckwith, U.S. Senator from Wyoming in 1893 (aged 67; Evanston, WY, USA)
* February 7 – William Hayden English, politician (aged 73; Indianapolis, IN, USA)
* February 22 – George D. Robinson, lawyer and politician, 34th Governor of Massachusetts (aged 62; Chicopee, MA, USA)
* February 23 – George Davis, Confederate States Senator from North Carolina, 4th and last Confederate States Attorney General (aged 75; Wilmington, NC, USA)
* February 25 – Joseph P. Fyffe, admiral (aged 63; Champaign County, OH, USA)
* March 19 – R. Edward Earll, ichthyologist and museum curator (aged 42; Washington, DC, USA)
* April 9 – Gustav Koerner, statesman (aged 86; Belleville, IL, USA)
* April 19 – Arthur I. Boreman, U.S. Senator from West Virginia from 1869 to 1875 (aged 72; Parkersburg, WV, USA)
* May 5 – Jacob Fjelde, sculptor (aged 41; Minneapolis, MN, USA)
* May 7 – H. H. Holmes, serial killer, executed (aged 34; Philadelphia, PA, USA)
* May 11 – Henry Cuyler Bunner, novelist and poet (aged 40; Nutley, NJ, USA)
* May 13 – Nora Perry, poet, journalist and children's author (aged 65; Dudley, MA, USA)
* May 31 – Homer V. M. Miller, U.S. Senator from Georgia in 1871 (aged 82; Atlanta, GA, USA)
* June 2 – Ozora P. Stearns, U.S. Senator from Minnesota in 1871 (aged 65; Pacific Beach, CA, USA)
* June 4 – Austin Corbin, president of Long Island Rail Road (aged 68; Newport, NH, USA)
* June 12 – Thomas P. Leathers, steamboat captain (aged 80; Natchez, MS, USA)
* June 13 – Alpheus Felch, 5th Governor of Michigan from 1846 to 1847 and U.S. Senator from Michigan from 1847 to 1853 (aged 91; Ann Arbor, MI, USA)
* June 22 – Benjamin Bristow, 30th U.S. Secretary of the Treasury from 1874 to 1876 (aged 64; New York City, NY, USA)
* June 25 – Lyman Trumbull, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1855 to 1873 (aged 82; Chicago, IL, USA)
* July 1 – Harriet Beecher Stowe, abolitionist and author best known for the novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (aged 85; Hartford, CT, USA)
* July 14 – Luther Whiting Mason, music educator (aged 78; Buckfield, ME, USA)
* July 16 – William E. Russell, 37th Governor of Massachusetts (aged 39; Sainte-Adelaide-de-Pabos, QC, Canada)
* July 19 – Abraham H. Cannon, Mormon apostle (aged 37; Salt Lake City, UT, USA)
* July 22 – George Wallace Jones, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1848 to 1859 (aged 92; Dubuque, IA, USA)
* August 9 – Alonzo J. Edgerton, U.S. Senator from Minnesota in 1881 (aged 69; Sioux Falls, SD, USA)
* August 14 – Olin Levi Warner, sculptor (aged 52; New York City, NY, USA)
* August 17 – Mary Abigail Dodge (Gail Hamilton), essayist (aged 63; Hamilton, MA, USA)
* October 13 – Thomas W. Ferry, U.S. Senator from Michigan from 1871 to 1883 (aged 69; Grand Haven, MI, USA)
* October 23 – Columbus Delano, statesman (aged 87; Mount Vernon, OH, USA)
* November 22 – George Washington Gale Ferris Jr., inventor of the Ferris wheel, typhoid (aged 37; Pittsburgh, PA, USA)