← 1882 1881 1880 1883 in the United States → 1884 1885 1886
Decades:	1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s
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 year1883 in the United States.

• President:Chester A. Arthur (R-New York)
• Vice President:vacant
• Chief Justice:Morrison Waite (Ohio)
• Speaker of the House of Representatives:

J. Warren Keifer (R-Ohio) (until March 4)

John G. Carlisle (D-Kentucky) (starting December 3)

• Congress:47th (until March 4),48th (starting March 4)

• January 10 – A fire at the Newhall Hotel inMilwaukee kills 73 people.
• January 16 – ThePendleton Civil Service Reform Act, reforming theUnited States civil service with the aim to end thespoils system, becomes law.
• January 19 – The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires begins service inRoselle, New Jersey (it was built byThomas Edison).
• February 23 –Alabama becomes the firstU.S. state to enact anantitrust law.
• February 28 – The firstvaudeville theater is opened, inBoston, Massachusetts.
• March
  • Congressauthorizes first steel vessels in theUnited States Navy.
  • Susan Hayhurst becomes first woman to get a pharmacy degree in the United States.

• April 13 – InColorado, prospectorAlferd Packer convicted ofmanslaughter after being accused ofcannibalism.
• April 30 – New York GovernorGrover Cleveland signs a bill authorizing protection of land forNiagara Falls State Park, which would eventually lead to the Niagara Reservation being established two years later in 1885.
• May 19 –Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show debuts In Omaha Nebraska
• May 24 –Brooklyn Bridge is opened to traffic after 13 years of construction.
• May 30 – InNew York City, a rumor that the Brooklyn Bridge is going to collapse causes a stampede which crushes 12 people.

• August – SenatorGeorge Vest, along with PresidentChester A. Arthur, with cabinet members, begin a fishing trip toYellowstone Park for two weeks, becoming the first sitting president to visit the park, and bringing national attention to Yellowstone.
• August 1 – President Chester A. Arthur opens the firstSouthern Exposition In Louisville.
• September 5 – Mary F. Hoyt becomes the first woman appointed to theU.S. federal civil service (and the second person appointed by examination (in which she came top) instituted under the Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act) when she becomes a clerk in the Bank Redemption Agency of theDepartment of the Treasury.
• September 15 – TheUniversity of Texas at Austin opens to students.
• September 29 – A consortium of flour mill operators inMinneapolis, Minnesota, forms theMinneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad as a means to get their product to theGreat Lakes ports but avoid the high tariffs ofChicago.

• October 15 – TheSupreme Court of the United States declares part of theCivil Rights Act of 1875 to be unconstitutional, since the Court allows private individuals and corporations to discriminate based onrace.
• November 3
  • American Old West: Self-described "Black Bart the Po-et" gets away with his laststagecoach robbery, but leaves an incriminating clue that eventually leads to his capture.
  • Danville Massacre: Race riots inDanville, Virginia kill 4 black Americans.
• November 18 – U.S. andCanadianrailroads institute 5 standard continentaltime zones, ending the confusion of thousands of local times.
• November 28 –Whitman College is chartered as a 4-year college inWalla Walla, Washington.

• TheWolf's Head Society (known asThe Third Society until 1888) is founded atYale University.
• Duncan, Arizona is founded.
• Adepression starts inSeattle, Washington, United States.
• The Capital Area Humane Society of Ohio is founded.
• Bernard Kroger establishes the firstKrogergrocery store, inCincinnati,Ohio.

• Gilded Age (1869–c. 1896)
• Depression of 1882–85 (1882–1885)

• September 27 – TheBoston Red Stockings clinch their FirstNational League pennant with a 4–1 win over theCleveland Blues.

• January 10
  • Francis X. Bushman, screen actor (died1966)
  • Florence Reed, actress (died1967)
• January 19 –Waite Phillips, businessman and philanthropist (died1964)
• January 20 –Enoch L. Johnson, political boss and racketeer (died1968)
• January 25 –Homer Bone, U.S. Senator from Washington from 1933 to 1944 (died1970)
• January 30 –Eddie Collins, vaudeville-veteran comic (died1940)
• March 3 –Edwin Carewe, Native American director (died1940)
• March 19 –Joseph Stilwell, general (died1946)
• April 2 –Pearl Doles Bell, film scenarist, novelist and editor (died1968)
• April 3 –Walter Walker, U.S. Senator from Colorado in 1932 (died1956)
• April 12 –Imogen Cunningham, photographer (died1976)
• May 22 –Jane Grey, actress (died1944)
• May 23 –Douglas Fairbanks, swashbuckling silent film actor (died1939)
• June 7 –Sylvanus Morley,Mayanist (died1948)
• June 21 –Richard Remer, athlete (died1973)
• June 25 –Paul Bartholomew, architect (died1973)
• June 26 –Mary van Kleeck, labor activist (died1972)
• July 4 –Rube Goldberg, cartoonist, sculptor, author, engineer and inventor (died 1970)
• July 24 –Nelle Wilson Reagan, mother ofUnited States PresidentRonald Reagan (d.1962)
• August 18 –Sidney Hatch, athlete (died1966)
• September 5 –Mel Sheppard, athlete (died1942)
• September 19 –Mabel Vernon, suffragist (died1975)
• November 8 –Charles Demuth, painter (died1935)
• November 25 –Merrill C. Meigs, newspaper publisher and aviation promoter (died1968)
• November 26 –Belle da Costa Greene, librarian (died1950)
• December 19 –Barry Byrne, architect (died1967)
• December 22 –Edna Goodrich, actress (died1972)
• December 31 –Leo Otis Colbert, admiral and engineer, director of theUnited States Coast and Geodetic Survey (died1968)

• January 10 –Samuel Mudd, physician imprisoned for conspiring withJohn Wilkes Booth in theassassination of Abraham Lincoln (born1833)
• January 12 –Clark Mills, sculptor (born1810)
• January 13 –Webster Wagner, inventor, manufacturer and politician (born1817)
• February 16 –Stephen P. Hempstead, 2nd Governor of Iowa from 1850 to 1854 (born1812)
• March 4 –Alexander H. Stephens, only vice president of theConfederate States of America (born1812)
• March 15 –Henry C. Wayne, U.S. Army officer,Confederate brigadier general (born 1815)
• March 26 – Joseph Saberton, U.S. Army private,Union Army (born 1830)
• March 28 –Napoleon Bonaparte Buford, general and railroad executive (born1807)
• April 4 –Peter Cooper, industrialist, inventor, philanthropist and candidate for President of the U.S. (born1791)
• April 6 –Benjamin Wright Raymond, politician, twice mayor of Chicago (born1801)
• April 28 –William M. Browne, politician and newsman, ActingConfederate States Secretary of State in 1862 (born1823 in Ireland)
• May 15 –Josiah Gorgas, Northern-bornConfederate general (born1818)
• June 14
  • Charles Timothy Brooks, poet and translator (born1813)
  • Eugene Casserly, U.S. Senator from California from 1869 to 1873 (born1820)
• July 15 –General Tom Thumb, dwarf performer (born1838)
• July 22 –Edward Ord, engineer and U.S. Army officer who saw action in theSeminole War, theIndian Wars and theAmerican Civil War (born1818)
• July 23 –Ginery Twichell, transportation manager and politician (born1811)
• July 24 –Thomas Swann, politician and president of Baltimore and Ohio Railroad from 1847 to 1853 (born1809)
• July 27 –Montgomery Blair, politician and lawyer (born1813)
• September 16 –Junius Brutus Booth Jr., actor and theatre manager (born1821)
• October 4 –Henry Farnam, surveyor, railroad president and philanthropist (born1809)
• October 22 –Thomas Mayne Reid, novelist (born1818 in Ireland)
• November 20 –Augustus C. Dodge, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1848 to 1855 (born1812)
• November 24 –Albert Fitch Bellows, landscape painter (born1829)
• November 26 –Sojourner Truth, African American abolitionist and women's rights activist (born c.1797)
• December 27 –Andrew A. Humphreys, general and civil engineer (born1810)
• Mary S. B. Shindler, poet (born1810)

• Timeline of United States history (1860–1899)

• Media related to1883 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons

• 1883 in the United States
• 1880s in the United States
• 1883 by country
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• Years of the 19th century in the United States

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