1884

Events from the year **1884 in the United States**.

Governors
* Governor of Alabama: Edward A. O'Neal (Democratic)
* Governor of Arkansas: James Henderson Berry (Democratic)
* Governor of California: George Stoneman (Republican)
* Governor of Colorado: James Benton Grant (Democratic)
* Governor of Connecticut: Thomas M. Waller (Democratic)
* Governor of Delaware: Charles C. Stockley (Democratic)
* Governor of Florida: William D. Bloxham (Democratic)
* Governor of Georgia: Henry D. McDaniel (Democratic)
* Governor of Illinois: John Marshall Hamilton (Republican)
* Governor of Indiana: Albert G. Porter (Republican)
* Governor of Iowa: Buren R. Sherman (Republican)
* Governor of Kansas: George W. Glick (Democratic)
* Governor of Kentucky: J. Proctor Knott (Democratic)
* Governor of Louisiana: Samuel D. McEnery (Democratic)
* Governor of Maine: Frederick Robie (Republican)
* Governor of Maryland: William T. Hamilton (Democratic) (until January 9), Robert Milligan McLane (Democratic) (starting January 9)
* Governor of Massachusetts: Benjamin F. Butler (Democratic) (until January 3), George D. Robinson (Republican) (starting January 3)
* Governor of Michigan: Josiah Begole (Democratic)
* Governor of Minnesota: Lucius F. Hubbard (Republican)
* Governor of Mississippi: Robert Lowry (Democratic)
* Governor of Missouri: Thomas Theodore Crittenden (Democratic)
* Governor of Nebraska: James W. Dawes (Republican)
* Governor of Nevada: Jewett W. Adams (Democratic)
* Governor of New Hampshire: Samuel W. Hale (Republican)
* Governor of New Jersey: George C. Ludlow (Democratic) (until January 15), Leon Abbett (Democratic) (starting January 15)
* Governor of New York: Grover Cleveland (Democratic)
* Governor of North Carolina: Thomas Jordan Jarvis (Democratic)
* Governor of Ohio: Charles Foster (Republican) (until January 14), George Hoadly (Democratic) (starting January 14)
* Governor of Oregon: Z. F. Moody (Republican)
* Governor of Pennsylvania: Robert E. Pattison (Democratic)
* Governor of Rhode Island: Augustus O. Bourn (Republican)
* Governor of South Carolina: Hugh Smith Thompson (Democratic)
* Governor of Tennessee: William B. Bate (Democratic)
* Governor of Texas: John Ireland (Democratic)
* Governor of Vermont: John L. Barstow (Republican) (until October 2), Samuel E. Pingree (Republican) (starting October 2)
* Governor of Virginia: William E. Cameron (Re-adjuster)
* Governor of West Virginia: Jacob B. Jackson (Democratic)
* Governor of Wisconsin: Jeremiah McLain Rusk (Republican)

Lieutenant Governors
* Lieutenant Governor of California: John Daggett (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Colorado: William H. Meyer (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: George G. Sumner (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Florida: Livingston W. Bethel (no political party)
* Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: William J. Campbell (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: Thomas Hanna (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Iowa: Orlando H. Manning (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kansas: David Wesley Finney (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: James R. Hindman (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana: vacant (until month and day unknown), Clay Knobloch (Democratic) (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: Oliver Ames (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: Moreau S. Crosby (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota: Charles A. Gilman (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi: G. D. Shands (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: Robert Alexander Campbell (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Nebraska: Alfred W. Agee (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Nevada: Charles E. Laughton (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of New York: David B. Hill (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina: James L. Robinson (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Ohio: Rees G. Richards (Republican) (until January 14), John George Warwick (Democratic) (starting January 14)
* Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania: Chauncey Forward Black (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Oscar Rathbun (political party unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: John Calhoun Sheppard (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee: Benjamin F. Alexander (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Texas: Francis M. Martin (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Samuel E. Pingree (Republican) (until October 2), Ebenezer J. Ormsbee (Republican) (starting October 2)
* Lieutenant Governor of Virginia: John F. Lewis (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin: Sam S. Fifield (Republican)

## 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)