← 1878 1877 1876 1879 in the United States → 1880 1881 1882
Decades:	1850s 1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s
See also:	History of the United States (1865–1918) Timeline of the history of the United States (1860-1899) List of years in the United States

Events from the year1879 in the United States.

• President:Rutherford B. Hayes (R-Ohio)
• Vice President:William A. Wheeler (R-New York)
• Chief Justice:Morrison Waite (Ohio)
• Speaker of the House of Representatives:Samuel J. Randall (D-Pennsylvania)
• Congress:45th (until March 4),46th (starting March 4)

• January – The constitution ofCalifornia is ratified.
• January 1 – The Specie Resumption Act takes effect: theGreenback is valued the same asgold for the first time since theAmerican Civil War.
• February 12 – AtNew York City'sMadison Square Garden, the first artificialice rink inNorth America opens.
• February 15 –Women's rights:PresidentRutherford B. Hayes signs a bill allowing femaleattorneys to argue cases before theSupreme Court of the United States.
• February 22 – InUtica, New York,Frank Woolworth opens the first of many of 5 and 10-cent Woolworth stores.
• March 3 – TheUnited States Geological Survey is created.
• April 8 –Milk sold in glass bottles for the first time.
• April 12 –Mary Baker Eddy founds theChurch of Christ, Scientist inBoston.^[1]
• May 10
  • TheArchaeological Institute of America (AIA) is formed.
  • Meteorite falls nearEstherville, Iowa.
• May 30 –New York City's Gilmore's Garden is renamedMadison Square Garden after PresidentJames Madison byWilliam Henry Vanderbilt, and is opened to the public at 26th Street and Madison Avenue.
• June 21 – InfielderWilliam White plays in one game for theProvidence Grays and in conjecture becomes the firstAfrican American to playMLB.
• July 1 –Christian RestorationistCharles Taze Russell publishes the first issue of the monthlyZion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence which, asThe Watchtower, will become themost widely circulated magazine in the world.
• July 8 – The ill-fated U.S.Jeannette Expedition departs San Francisco in an attempt to reach theNorth Pole by pioneering a route through theBering Strait.
• July 19 –Doc Holliday kills for the first time after a man shoots up Holliday'sNew Mexico saloon.
• September –Henry George self-publishes his major workProgress and Poverty.^[2]
• 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 theWhite River UteIndian Reservation inColorado.
• October 22 – Using a filament ofcarbonized thread,Thomas Edison tests the first practical electriclight bulb (it lasts 13½ hours before burning out).
• November –Simmons College of Kentucky, a historically black school, is founded.
• December 31 –Thomas Edison demonstratesincandescent lighting to the public for the first time inMenlo Park, New Jersey.
• Undated –Laton Alton Huffman photographs Native American womanPretty Nose.^[3]

• Gilded Age (1869–c. 1896)
• Depression of 1873–79 (1873–1879)

• September 26 – TheProvidence Grays defeat theBoston Red Caps 7–6 to clinch their FirstNational League pennant

• January 3 –Grace Coolidge,First Lady of the United States andSecond Lady of the United States as wife ofCalvin Coolidge (died1957)
• January 12
  • Ray Harroun, race car driver (died1968)
  • Calbraith Perry Rodgers, pioneer aviator, makes first transcontinental U.S. flight (died1912 in aviation accident)
• January 13 –Melvin Jones, founder ofLions Clubs International (died1961)
• January 20 –Ruth St. Denis, dancer (died 1968)
• February 3 –Guy Gillette, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1936 to 1945 (died1973)
• February 12 –George McGill, U.S. Senator from Kansas from 1930 to 1939 (died1963)
• February 17 –Dorothy Canfield Fisher, activist and novelist (died1958)
• March 6 –William P. Cronan, 19thNaval Governor of Guam (died1929)
• March 18 –Emma Carus, opera singer (died1927)
• March 27 –Edward Steichen, photographer, painter and curator (died1973)
• April 1 –Louise Gunning, vaudeville singer (died1960)
• April 9 –Thomas Meighan, film actor (died1936)
• April 14 –James Branch Cabell, novelist (died 1958)
• April 24 –Oris Paxton Van Sweringen, financier (died 1936)
• May 3 –Clyde L. Herring, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1937 to 1943 (died1945)
• May 12
  • George Landenberger, U.S. Navy captain and 23rdGovernor of American Samoa (died 1936)
  • Georgia Ann Robinson, community worker, first African American woman to be appointed a Los Angeles police officer (died 1961)
• May 19
  • Nancy Astor, née Langhorne, American-born British politician (died1964 in the United Kingdom)
  • Waldorf Astor, American-born British politician and newspaper proprietor (died1952 in the United Kingdom)
• May 22 –Eastwood Lane, composer (died1951)
• June 3 –Raymond Pearl, biologist (died1940)
• June 13 –Lois Weber, film director and screenwriter (died1939)
• June 21 –Henry Creamer, songwriter (died1930)
• July 1
  • Nicky Arnstein, professional gambler and con artist, married toFanny Brice (died1965)
  • H. Craig Severance, architect (died1941)
• July 10 –Charles P. Snyder, admiral (died1964)
• July 28 –Lucy Burns, women's rights campaigner (died1966)
• August 2 –James M. Tunnell, U.S. Senator from Delaware from 1941 to 1947 (died 1957)
• August 8 –Wesley Newcomb Hohfeld, professor of jurisprudence (died1918)
• August 15 –Ethel Barrymore, actress (died1959)
• August 20 –Ralph Budd, railroad president (died1962)
• August 27 –Otis F. Glenn, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1928 to 1933 (died 1959)
• August 28 –Sydney Ayres, silent film actor (died1916)
• September 13 –James Larkin Pearson, poet and newspaper publisher,North Carolina Poet Laureate from 1953 to 1981 (died1981)
• September 14 –Margaret Sanger, birth control advocate (died 1966)^[4]
• September 19 –Louis Joseph Vance, novelist (died1933)
• October 2 –Wallace Stevens, poet (died1955)
• October 5 –Francis Peyton Rous, pathologist, recipient of theNobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1966 (died1970)
• October 12 –Chris Smith, African American vaudeville composer and performer (died1949)
• October 15 –Jane Darwell, née Patti Woodard, actress (died1967)
• October 21 –Eugene Burton Ely, pioneer aviator (died1911 in aviation accident)
• November 2 –Marion Jones Farquhar, tennis player (died1965)^[5]
• November 4 –Will Rogers, humorist (died1935)
• November 5 –Hannah J. Patterson, suffragist and social activist (died1937)
• November 10 –Vachel Lindsay, poet (died1931)
• November 15 –Lewis Stone, actor, known for playing Judge Hardy (died1953)
• November 26 –Charles Goddard, playwright and screenwriter (died1951)
• November 28 –Guy V. Howard, U.S. Senator from Minnesota from 1936 to 1937 (died1954)
• December 1 –Beth Slater Whitson, lyricist (died1930)
• December 4 –Richard Von Albade Gammon,University of Georgia football fullback (died1897)
• December 5 –Clyde Cessna, aviator, aircraft designer and manufacturer (died 1954)
• December 10 –Jouett Shouse, politician (died 1968)
• December 12 –Laura Hope Crews, actress (died1942)
• December 15 –Bert H. Miller, U.S. Senator from Idaho in 1949 (died1949)
• December 20 –Earle Ovington, aviator, flew first experimental airmail (died1936)
• December 25 –Grace George, actress (died1961)
• December 26 –Christie Benet, U.S. Senator from South Carolina in 1918 (died 1951)
• December 28
  • Arthur O. Austin, electrical engineer and inventor (died 1964)
  • Billy Mitchell, general, military aviation pioneer (died 1936)

• February 2 –Richard Henry Dana Sr., poet, critic and lawyer (born1787)
• March 2
  • John Eberhard Faber, pencil manufacturer (born1822 in Germany)
  • Wade Keyes, ActingConfederate States Attorney General in 1861 and 1863–1864 (born1821)
• March 16 –George Goldthwaite, U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1871 to 1877 (born1809)
• April 12 –Richard Taylor,Confederate general (born1826)
• April 30 –Sarah Josepha Hale, writer (born1788)
• May 24 –William Lloyd Garrison, abolitionist (born1805)
• June 1
  • James Shields, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1849 to 1855, from Minnesota from 1858 to 1859 and from Missouri in 1879 (born1810 in Ireland)
  • Louisa Caroline Huggins Tuthill, children's writer (born1799)
• June 26 –Richard H. Anderson,United States Army officer during theMexican–American War,Confederate general during theAmerican Civil War (born1821)^[6]
• July 4 –Sarah Dorsey, novelist and historian (born1829)
• July 7 –George Caleb Bingham, realist painter (born1811)
• July 11 –William Allen, U.S. Senator from Ohio from 1837 to 1849 (born1803)
• July 16 –Frederick Langenheim, pioneer of panoramic photography (born1809 in Germany)
• July 26 –Robert Ward Johnson, U.S. Senator from Arkansas from 1862 to 1865 (born1814)
• August 30 –John Bell Hood,Confederate general (born1831)
• September 8 –William Morris Hunt, painter (born1824)
• September 30 –Francis Gillette, U.S. Senator from Connecticut from 1854 to 1855 (born1807)
• October 11 –Ethel Lynn Beers, poet (born1827)
• October 13 –Henry Charles Carey, economist (born1793)
• October 31
  • Jacob Abbott, children's writer (born 1803)
  • Joseph Hooker, Union Army general during the American Civil War (born1814)
• November 1 –Zachariah Chandler, U.S. Senator from Michigan from 1857 to 1875 and in 1879 (born1813)
• December 31 –George S. Houston, Governor of Alabama from 1874 to 1878 and U.S. Senator from Alabama in 1879 (born1811)

• Timeline of United States history (1860–1899)

• Media related to1879 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons

• 1879 in the United States
• 1870s in the United States
• 1879 by country
• 1879 in North America
• Years of the 19th century in the United States

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