1888 in the United States

Events from the year 1888 in the United States.

Federal government

 * President: Grover Cleveland (D-New York)
 * Vice President: vacant
 * Chief Justice:
 * Morrison Waite (Ohio) (until March 23)
 * Melville Fuller (Illinois) (starting October 8)


 * Speaker of the House of Representatives: John G. Carlisle (D-Kentucky)
 * Congress: 50th

{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" ! Governors and lieutenant governors

Governors
• Governor of Alabama: Thomas Seay (Democratic)

• Governor of Arkansas: Simon Pollard Hughes Jr. (Democratic)

• Governor of California: Robert Waterman (Republican)

• Governor of Colorado: Alva Adams (Democratic)

• Governor of Connecticut: Phineas C. Lounsbury (Republican)

• Governor of Delaware: Benjamin T. Biggs (Democratic)

• Governor of Florida: Edward A. Perry (Democratic)

• Governor of Georgia: John B. Gordon (Democratic)

• Governor of Illinois: Richard J. Oglesby (Republican)

• Governor of Indiana: Isaac P. Gray (Democratic)

• Governor of Iowa: William Larrabee (Republican)

• Governor of Kansas: John A. Martin (Republican)

• Governor of Kentucky: Simon B. Buckner (Democratic)

• Governor of Louisiana: Samuel D. McEnery (Democratic) (until May 20), Francis T. Nicholls (Democratic) (starting May 20)

• Governor of Maine: Sebastian Streeter Marble (Republican)

• Governor of Maryland: Henry Lloyd (Democratic) (until January 11), Elihu Emory Jackson (Democratic) (starting January 11)

• Governor of Massachusetts: Oliver Ames (Republican)

• Governor of Michigan: Cyrus G. Luce (Republican)

• Governor of Minnesota: Andrew R. McGill (Republican)

• Governor of Mississippi: Robert Lowry (Democratic)

• Governor of Missouri: Albert P. Morehouse (Democratic)

• Governor of Nebraska: John Milton Thayer (Republican)

• Governor of Nevada: Charles C. Stevenson (Republican)

• Governor of New Hampshire: Charles H. Sawyer (Republican)

• Governor of New Jersey: Robert Stockton Green (Democratic)

• Governor of New York: David B. Hill (Democratic)

• Governor of North Carolina: Alfred Moore Scales (Democratic)

• Governor of Ohio: Joseph B. Foraker (Republican)

• Governor of Oregon: Sylvester Pennoyer (Democratic)

• Governor of Pennsylvania: James A. Beaver (Republican)

• Governor of Rhode Island: John W. Davis (Democratic) (until May 29), Royal C. Taft (Republican) (starting May 29)

• Governor of South Carolina: John Peter Richardson III (Democratic)

• Governor of Tennessee: Robert Love Taylor (Democratic)

• Governor of Texas: Lawrence Sullivan Ross (Democratic)

• Governor of Vermont: Ebenezer J. Ormsbee (Republican) (until October 4), William P. Dillingham (Republican) (starting October 4)

• Governor of Virginia: Fitzhugh Lee (Democratic)

• Governor of West Virginia: Emanuel Willis Wilson (Democratic)

• Governor of Wisconsin: Jeremiah McLain Rusk (Republican)

Lieutenant governors
• Lieutenant Governor of California: Stephen M. White (Democratic)

• Lieutenant Governor of Colorado: Norman H. Meldrum (Democratic)

• Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: James L. Howard (Republican)

• Lieutenant Governor of Florida: Milton H. Mabry (Democratic)

• Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: John Smith (Republican)

• Lieutenant Governor of Indiana: Robert S. Robertson/Alonzo G. Smith (Republican/Democratic)

• Lieutenant Governor of Iowa: John A. T. Hull (Republican)

• Lieutenant Governor of Kansas: Alexander P. Riddle (Republican)

• Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: James William Bryan (political party unknown)

• Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana: Clayton Knobloch (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), James Jeffries (Democratic) (starting month and day unknown)

• Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: John Q. A. Brackett (political party unknown)

• Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: James H. MacDonald (Republican)

• Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota: Albert E. Rice (Republican)

• Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi: G. D. Shands (Democratic)

• Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: vacant

• Lieutenant Governor of Nebraska: Hibbard H. Shedd (Republican)

• Lieutenant Governor of Nevada: Henry C. Davis (political party unknown) (until month and day unknown), Samuel W. Chubbuck (political party unknown) (starting month and day unknown)

• Lieutenant Governor of New York: Edward F. Jones (Democratic)

• Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina: Charles M. Stedman (Democratic)

• Lieutenant Governor of Ohio: Silas A. Conrad (Republican) (until January 9), William C. Lyon (Republican) (starting January 9)

• Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania: William T. Davies (Republican)

• Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Samuel R. Honey (political party unknown) (until May 29), Enos Lapham (political party unknown) (starting May 29)

• Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: William L. Mauldin (Democratic)

• Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee: Z. W. Ewing (Democratic)

• Lieutenant Governor of Texas: Thomas B. Wheeler (Democratic)

• Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Levi K. Fuller (Republican) (until October 4), Urban A. Woodbury (Republican) (starting October 4)

• Lieutenant Governor of Virginia: John Edward "Parson" Massey (Democratic)

• Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin: George W. Ryland (Republican)
 * }

Events

 * January 13 – The National Geographic Society is founded in Washington, D.C.
 * February 27 – In West Orange, New Jersey, Thomas Edison meets with Eadweard Muybridge, who proposes a scheme for sound film.
 * March 8 – The Agriculture College of Utah, (later Utah State University) is founded in Logan, Utah.
 * March 11 – The "Great Blizzard of 1888" begins along the East Coast of the United States, shutting down commerce and killing more than 400.
 * March 25 – Opening of an international Congress for Women's Rights organized by Susan B. Anthony in Washington, D.C., leading to formation of the International Council of Women, a key event in the international women's movement.
 * May 1 – Fort Belknap Indian Reservation is established by the United States Congress.
 * May 5 – The International Association of Machinists is founded in Atlanta, Georgia.
 * June 3 – Ernest Thayer's baseball poem "Casey at the Bat" is first published (under the pen name "Phin") as the last of his humorous contributions to The San Francisco Examiner.
 * June 19 – The Republican Convention opens at the Auditorium Building, Chicago. Benjamin Harrison and Levi Morton win the nominations for President and Vice President, respectively.
 * July 25 – Frank Edward McGurrin, a court stenographer from Salt Lake City, Utah, purportedly the only person using touch typing at this time, wins a decisive victory over Louis Traub in a typing contest held in Cincinnati, Ohio. This date can be called the birthday of the touch typing method that becomes widely used.
 * August 10 – Lynching of Amos Miller: 23-year-old African American farmhand Amos Miller is hanged by a mob from the balcony of Williamson County Courthouse (Franklin, Tennessee).
 * August 25 – William Seward Burroughs patents the adding machine.
 * September 4 – Eastman Kodak Company founded by George Eastman.
 * September 8 – President of the United States Grover Cleveland declares the Chinese "impossible of assimilation with our people and dangerous to our peace and welfare" (in a letter accepting renomination for the office of President).
 * October – The mediumship of the Fox sisters is confessed to be fraudulent.
 * October 9 – The Washington Monument officially opens to the general public in D.C.
 * November 6 – 1888 United States presidential election: Democratic Party incumbent Grover Cleveland wins the popular vote, but loses the Electoral College vote to Republican challenger Benjamin Harrison, therefore losing the election.
 * November 27 – The sorority Delta Delta Delta is founded at Boston University.
 * November 29 – Celebration of Thanksgiving and the first day of Hanukkah coincide.
 * December 1 – The Washington Bridge opens to permit-holding pedestrians over the Harlem River in New York City, connecting the boroughs of Manhattan and The Bronx.

Undated

 * The Baldwin School is founded in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, as "Miss [Florence] Baldwin's School for Girls, Preparatory for Bryn Mawr College".
 * Global pharmaceutical and health care brands are founded:
 * G.D. Searle by Gideon Daniel Searle in Omaha, Nebraska.
 * Abbott Laboratories as Abbott Alkaloidal by Dr. Wallace C. Abbott in Illinois.
 * Katz's Delicatessen is founded in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
 * New Mexico State University is founded in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Ongoing

 * Gilded Age (1869–c. 1896)

Sport

 * October 25 – The New York Giants clinch their First National League Championship series with an 11–3 win over the St. Louis Browns. The final 2 games will be played for revenue purposes with St. Louis winning both contests for an overall series result of 6 games to 4 in favor of the Giants.
 * November 24 - Yale wins the Consensus College Football National Championship

Births

 * January 1 – John Garand, inventor and designer of the M1 Garand (died 1974)
 * January 16 – Robert Henry English, admiral (died 1943)
 * c. January 20 – Huddie William Ledbetter (Lead Belly), folk and blues singer (died 1949)
 * February 22 – Owen Brewster, U.S. Senator from Maine from 1941 to 1952 (died 1961)
 * February 25 – John Foster Dulles, U.S. Secretary of State from 1953 to 1959 (died 1959)
 * March 4 – Knute Rockne, American football player and coach (died 1931)
 * March 10 – Ilo Wallace, Second Lady of the United States as wife of Henry A. Wallace (died 1981)
 * March 26 – Gerald Murphy, socialite (died 1964)
 * March 29 – James E. Casey, businessman and founder of UPS (died 1983)
 * April 8 – Dennis Chávez, U.S. Senator from New Mexico from 1935 to 1962 (died 1962)
 * April 26 – Anita Loos, writer (died 1981)
 * May 11
 * Irving Berlin, composer (died 1989)
 * Willis Augustus Lee, admiral and sport shooter (died at sea 1945)
 * May 15 – John E. Miller, U.S. Senator from Arkansas from 1937 to 1941 (died 1981)
 * June 3 – Tom Brown, jazz musician (died 1958)
 * June 6 – Pete Wendling, composer, pianist and piano roll recording artist (died 1974)
 * June 16 – Peter Stoner, mathematician, astronomer and Christian apologist (died 1980)
 * June 23 – F. Ryan Duffy, judge and politician (died 1979)
 * July 5 – Herbert Spencer Gasser, physiologist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1944 (died 1963)
 * July 8 – John R. Sinnock, 8th Chief Engraver of the United States Mint (died 1947)
 * July 10 – Hazel Abel, U.S. Senator from Nebraska in 1954 (died 1966)
 * July 20 – Geneve L. A. Shaffer, realtor, lecturer and author (died 1976)
 * July 22 – Kirk Bryan, geologist (died 1950)
 * July 23 – Raymond Chandler, novelist (died 1959)
 * July 31 – William Warren Barbour, U.S. Senator from New Jersey from 1931 to 1937 (died 1943)
 * August 5 – George W. Christians, founder of the Crusader White Shirts (died 1983)
 * August 6 – Stephen Galatti, American Field Service director (d. 1964)
 * August 16 – Armand J. Piron, jazz musician (died 1943)
 * August 19 – Sam G. Bratton, U.S. Senator from New Mexico from 1925 to 1933 (died 1963)
 * September 2 – Charles C. Gossett, U.S. Senator from Idaho from 1945 to 1946 (died 1974)
 * September 6 – Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., politician (died 1969)
 * September 26
 * J. Frank Dobie, folklorist and journalist (died 1964)
 * T. S. Eliot, American-born poet, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948 (died 1965 in the United Kingdom)
 * October 4 – Lucy Tayiah Eads, Kaw tribal chief (died 1961)
 * October 7 – Henry A. Wallace, 33rd vice president of the United States from 1941 to 1945 (died 1965)
 * October 16
 * Eugene O'Neill, dramatist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1936 (died 1953)
 * Paul Popenoe, eugenicist (died 1979)
 * October 30 – Alan Goodrich Kirk, admiral (died 1963)
 * November 13 – Philip Francis Nowlan, science fiction writer, creator of the Buck Rogers character (died 1940)
 * November 17 – J. Melville Broughton, U.S. Senator from North Carolina from 1948 to 1949 (died 1949)
 * November 23 – Harpo Marx, comedian (died 1964)
 * November 24 – Roy Earl Parrish, politician (died 1918)
 * November 28 – Edgar Church, comic book collector (died 1978)
 * December 18 – Robert Moses, public works director (died 1981)

Deaths

 * January 21 – Adolph Douai, German-American socialist and abolitionist newspaper editor, journalist and teacher (born 1819)
 * February 8 – Robert H. Anderson, infantry officer in the United States Army and brigadier general in the Confederate States Army (born 1835)
 * February 11 – William Kelly, inventor (born 1811)
 * March 4 – Amos Bronson Alcott, educator and writer (born 1799)
 * March 6 – Louisa May Alcott, author (born 1832)
 * March 7 – Christopher Memminger, German-born American politician, 1st Confederate States Secretary of the Treasury (born 1803)
 * March 19 – John Pendleton King, U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1833 to 1837 (born 1799)
 * March 23 - Morrison Waite, 7th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (born 1816)
 * April 18 – Roscoe Conkling, leader of the Stalwart faction of the Republican Party (born 1829)
 * May 6 – Abraham Joseph Ash, rabbi (born c. 1813)
 * July 23 – Williams Carter Wickham, lawyer, politician, and Confederate general (born 1820)
 * August 14 – Charles Crocker, railroad executive (born 1822)
 * August 16 – John Pemberton, pharmacist and inventor of Coca-Cola (born 1831)
 * August 22 – Charles W. Cathcart, U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1845 to 1853 (born 1809)
 * September 30 – Eunice Newton Foote, physicist and women's rights campaigner (born 1819)
 * October 16 – John Wentworth, mayor of Chicago from 1857 to 1858 and 1860 to 1861 (born 1815)
 * November 20 – Nathaniel Currier, illustrator (born 1813)
 * December 18 – Eagle Woman, Lakota leader (born 1820)