1879

Events from the year **1879 in the United States**.

Governors
* Governor of Alabama: Rufus W. Cobb (Democratic)
* Governor of Arkansas: William Read Miller (Democratic)
* Governor of California: William Irwin (Democratic)
* Governor of Colorado: John Long Routt (Republican) (until January 14), Frederick Walker Pitkin (Republican) (starting January 14)
* Governor of Connecticut: Richard D. Hubbard (Democratic) (until January 9), Charles B. Andrews (Republican) (starting January 9)
* Governor of Delaware: John P. Cochran (Democratic) (until January 21), John W. Hall (Democratic) (starting January 21)
* Governor of Florida: George Franklin Drew (Democratic)
* Governor of Georgia: Alfred H. Colquitt (Democratic)
* Governor of Illinois: Shelby Moore Cullom (Republican)
* Governor of Indiana: James D. Williams (Democratic)
* Governor of Iowa: John H. Gear (Republican)
* Governor of Kansas: George T. Anthony (Republican) (until January 13), John P. St. John (Republican) (starting January 13)
* Governor of Kentucky: James B. McCreary (Democratic) (until September 2), Luke P. Blackburn (Democratic) (starting September 2)
* Governor of Louisiana: Francis T. Nicholls (Democratic)
* Governor of Maine: Seldon Connor (Republican) (until January 8), Alonzo Garcelon (Democratic) (starting January 8)
* Governor of Maryland: John Lee Carroll (Democratic)
* Governor of Massachusetts: Alexander H. Rice (Republican) (until January 2), Thomas Talbot (Republican) (starting January 2)
* Governor of Michigan: Charles Croswell (Republican)
* Governor of Minnesota: John S. Pillsbury (Republican)
* Governor of Mississippi: John M. Stone (Democratic)
* Governor of Missouri: John Smith Phelps (Democratic)
* Governor of Nebraska: Silas Garber (Republican) (until January 9), Albinus Nance (Republican) (starting January 9)
* Governor of Nevada: Lewis R. Bradley (Democratic) (until January 6), John H. Kinkead (Republican) (starting January 6)
* Governor of New Hampshire: Benjamin F. Prescott (Republican) (until June 5), Natt Head (Republican) (starting June 5)
* Governor of New Jersey: George B. McClellan (Democratic)
* Governor of New York: Lucius Robinson (Democratic)
* Governor of North Carolina: Zebulon Baird Vance (Democratic) (until February 5), Thomas Jordan Jarvis (Democratic) (starting February 5)
* Governor of Ohio: Richard M. Bishop (Democratic)
* Governor of Oregon: W. W. Thayer (Democratic)
* Governor of Pennsylvania: John F. Hartranft (Republican) (until January 21), Henry M. Hoyt (Republican) (starting January 21)
* Governor of Rhode Island: Charles C. Van Zandt (Republican)
* Governor of South Carolina: Wade Hampton III (Democratic) (until February 26), William Dunlap Simpson (Democratic) (starting February 26)
* Governor of Tennessee: James D. Porter (Democratic) (until February 16), Albert S. Marks (Democratic) (starting February 16)
* Governor of Texas: Richard B. Hubbard (Democratic) (until January 21), Oran M. Roberts (Democratic) (starting January 21)
* Governor of Vermont: Redfield Proctor (Republican)
* Governor of Virginia: Frederick W. M. Holliday (Democratic)
* Governor of West Virginia: Henry M. Mathews (Democratic)
* Governor of Wisconsin: William E. Smith (Republican)

Lieutenant Governors
* Lieutenant Governor of California: James A. Johnson (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Colorado: Lafayette Head (Republican) (until January 14), Horace Austin Warner Tabor (Republican) (starting January 14)
* Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: Francis Loomis (Democratic) (until January 9), David Gallup (Republican) (starting January 9)
* Lieutenant Governor of Florida: Noble A. Hull (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), vacant (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: Andrew Shuman (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: Isaac P. Gray (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Iowa: Frank T. Campbell (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kansas: Lyman U. Humphrey (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: John C. Underwood (Democratic) (until September 2), James E. Cantrill (Democratic) (starting September 2)
* Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana: Louis A. Wiltz (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: Horatio G. Knight (Republican) (until January 2), John D. Long (Republican) (starting January 2)
* Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: Alonzo Sessions (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota: James Wakefield (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi: William H. Sims (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: Henry Clay Brockmeyer (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Nebraska: Othman A. Abbott (Republican) (until January 9), Edmund C. Carns (Republican) (starting January 9)
* Lieutenant Governor of Nevada: Jewett W. Adams (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of New York: William Dorsheimer (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina: Thomas J. Jarvis (Democratic) (until February 5), vacant (starting February 5)
* Lieutenant Governor of Ohio: Jabez W. Fitch (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania: John Latta (Democratic) (until January 21), Charles Warren Stone (Republican) (starting January 21)
* Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Albert Howard (political party unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: William Dunlap Simpson (Democratic) (until February 26), vacant (starting February 26)
* Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee: Hugh M. McAdoo (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), John R. Neal (Democratic) (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Texas: vacant (until January 21), Joseph Draper Sayers (Democratic) (starting January 21)
* Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Eben Pomeroy Colton (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Virginia: James A. Walker (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin: James M. Bingham (Republican)

## Events

* January 1 – The Specie Resumption Act takes effect: the Greenback is valued the same as gold for the first time since the American Civil War.
* January 2 – The constitution of California is ratified.
* February 12 – At New York City's Madison Square Garden, the first artificial ice rink in North America opens.
* February 15 – Women's rights: American President Rutherford B. Hayes signs a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the Supreme Court of the United States.
* February 22 – In Utica, New York, Frank Woolworth opens the first of many of 5 and 10-cent Woolworth stores.
* March 3 – The United States Geological Survey is created.
* April 8 – Milk sold in glass bottles for the first time.
* April 12 – Mary Baker Eddy founds the Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston.
* May 10
	+ The Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) is formed.
	+ Completion of the first Transcontinental Railroad at Promontory Summit, Utah, where the Central Pacific Railroad and the Union Pacific Railroad rails met on May 10, 1869.
	+ Meteorite falls near Estherville, Iowa.
* May 30 – New York City's Gilmore's Garden is renamed Madison Square Garden after 4th President James Madison by William Henry Vanderbilt, and is opened to the public at 26th Street and Madison Avenue.
* June 21 – Infielder William White plays in one game for the Providence Grays and in conjecture becomes the first African American to play MLB.
* July 1 – Christian Restorationist Charles Taze Russell publishes the first issue of the monthly *Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence* which, as *The Watchtower*, will become the most widely circulated magazine in the world.
* July 8 – The ill-fated U.S. *Jeannette* Expedition departs San Francisco in an attempt to reach the North Pole by pioneering a route through the Bering Strait.
* July 19 – Doc Holliday kills for the first time after a man shoots up Holliday's New Mexico saloon.
* September 1 – Henry George self-publishes his major work *Progress and Poverty*.
* September 25 – Deadwood, South Dakota fire: 2000 people are left homeless and 300 buildings destroyed; total loss of property is estimated at $3 million.
* September 29 – Meeker Massacre: Nathan Meeker and others are killed in an uprising at the White River Ute Indian Reservation in Colorado.
* October 22 – Using a filament of carbonized thread, Thomas Edison tests the first practical electric light bulb (it lasts 13½ hours before burning out).
* November 1 – Simmons College of Kentucky, a historically black school, is founded.
* December 31 – Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting to the public for the first time in Menlo Park, New Jersey.

## Sport

* September 26 – The Providence Grays defeat the Boston Red Caps 7–6 to clinch their First National League pennant.

## Memoriam

* February 2 – Richard Henry Dana Sr., poet, critic and lawyer (aged 91; Boston, MA, USA)
* March 2
	+ John Eberhard Faber, pencil manufacturer (aged 56; New York City, NY, USA)
	+ Wade Keyes, Acting Confederate States Attorney General in 1861 and 1863–1864 (aged 57; Florence, AL, USA)
* March 16 – George Goldthwaite, U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1871 to 1877 (aged 68; Tuscaloosa, AL, USA)
* April 12 – Richard Taylor, Confederate general (aged 53; New York City, NY, USA)
* April 30 – Sarah Josepha Hale, writer (aged 90; Philadelphia, PA, USA)
* May 17 – Asa Packer, businessman (aged 73; Philadelphia, PA, USA)
* May 24 – William Lloyd Garrison, abolitionist (aged 73; New York City, NY, USA)
* June 1
	+ James Shields, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1849 to 1855, from Minnesota from 1858 to 1859 and from Missouri in 1879 (aged 73; Ottumwa, IA, USA)
	+ Louisa Caroline Tuthill, children's writer (aged 79; Princeton, NJ, USA)
* June 26 – Richard H. Anderson, United States Army officer during the Mexican–American War, Confederate general during the American Civil War (aged 57; Beaufort, SC, USA)
* July 4 – Sarah Dorsey, novelist and historian (aged 50; New Orleans, LA, USA)
* July 7 – George Caleb Bingham, realist painter (aged 68; Kansas City, MO, USA)
* July 11 – William Allen, U.S. Senator from Ohio from 1837 to 1849 (aged 75; Chillicothe, OH, USA)
* July 16 – Frederick Langenheim, pioneer of panoramic photography (aged 69; Philadelphia, PA, USA)
* July 26 – Robert Ward Johnson, U.S. Senator from Arkansas from 1862 to 1865 (aged 65; Little Rock, AR, USA)
* August 30 – John Bell Hood, Confederate general (aged 48; New Orleans, LA, USA)
* September 8 – William Morris Hunt, painter (aged 55; Portsmouth, NH, USA)
* September 30 – Francis Gillette, U.S. Senator from Connecticut from 1854 to 1855 (aged 71; Hartford, CT, USA)
* October 11 – Ethel Lynn Beers, poet (aged 52; Orange, NJ, USA)
* October 13 – Henry Charles Carey, economist (aged 85; Philadelphia, PA, USA)
* October 31
	+ Jacob Abbott, children's writer (aged 75; Farmington, ME, USA)
	+ Joseph Hooker, Union Army general during the American Civil War (aged 64; Garden City, NY, USA)
* November 1 – Zachariah Chandler, U.S. Senator from Michigan from 1857 to 1875 and in 1879 (aged 65; Chicago, IL, USA)
* December 31 – George S. Houston, Governor of Alabama from 1874 to 1878 and U.S. Senator from Alabama in 1879 (aged 68; Athens, AL, USA)