← 1884 1883 1882 1885 in the United States → 1886 1887 1888
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 year1885 in the United States.

• President:

Chester A. Arthur (R-New York) (until March 4)

Grover Cleveland (D-New York) (starting March 4)

• Vice President:

vacant (until March 4)

Thomas A. Hendricks (D-Indiana) (March 4 – November 25)

vacant (starting November 25)

• Chief Justice:Morrison Waite (Ohio)
• Speaker of the House of Representatives:John G. Carlisle (D-Kentucky)
• Congress:48th (until March 4),49th (starting March 4)

• February 9 – The firstJapanese arrive inHawaii.
• February 16 –Charles Dow publishes the first edition of theDow Jones Industrial Average. The index stands at a level of 62.76, and represents the dollar average of 14 stocks: 12 railroads and two leading American industries.^[1]
• February 18 –Mark Twain publishesAdventures of Huckleberry Finn in the United States.
• February 21 –United States PresidentChester A. Arthur dedicates theWashington Monument.
• March 3 – A subsidiary of the American Bell Telephone Company,American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T), is incorporated inNew York.
• March 4 –Grover Cleveland is sworn in as the 22ndpresident of the United States, andThomas A. Hendricks is sworn in as the 21stvice president.

• April 30
  • A bill is signed in the New York State legislature forming theNiagara Falls State Park.
  • Boston Pops Orchestra is formed.
• May – TheDepression of 1882–85 ends.
• June 17 – TheStatue of Liberty arrives inNew York Harbor.

• July 11 – San Diego Building and Loan Association founded, predecessor ofGreat American Bank.
• July 14 –Sarah E. Goode is the first female African-American to apply for and receive apatent, for the invention of the hideaway bed.
• July 23 – Formerpresident andCivil War generalUlysses S. Grant dies inMount McGregor, New York.
• August 25 – AuthorLaura Ingalls Wilder marriesAlmanzo Wilder.
• September 2 – TheRock Springs massacre occurs inRock Springs, Wyoming; 150 white miners attack their Chinese coworkers, killing 28, wounding 15, and forcing several hundred more out of town.
• September 8 –Saint Thomas Academy is founded inMinnesota.

• October 13 – TheGeorgia Institute of Technology is established inAtlanta,Georgia as the Georgia School of Technology.
• November 25 – Vice PresidentThomas A. Hendricks dies in office.
• December 1 – TheU.S. Patent Office acknowledges this date as the dayDr Pepper is served for the very first time; the exact date of Dr Pepper's invention is unknown.

• The firstskyscraper (theHome Insurance Building) is built inChicago,Illinois, USA (10 floors).
• Michigan Technological University (originally Michigan Mining School) opens its doors for the first time in what is to become the Houghton County Fire Hall.
• Camp Dudley, the oldest continually running boys' camp in America, is founded.

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

• August 29 –John L. Sullivan becomes FirstWorld Heavyweight Boxing Champion.
• September 30 – TheChicago White Stockings clinch their ThirdNational League pennant with a 2–1 win over theNew York Giants.

• January 7 –Edwin Swatek, swimmer and water polo player (died1966)
• January 11 –Alice Paul, suffragist (died1977)
• January 15 –Grover Lowdermilk, baseball player (died1968)
• January 27
  • Jerome Kern, musical theater composer (died1945)
  • Harry Ruby, musician, composer and writer (died1974)
• February 7 –Sinclair Lewis fiction writer, recipient ofNobel Prize in Literature in 1930 (died1951 in Italy)
• February 13 –Bess Truman,First Lady of the United States,Second Lady of the United States (died1982)
• February 17 –Steve Evans, baseball player (died1943)
• February 18 –Richard S. Edwards, admiral (died1956)
• March 6 –Ring Lardner, writer (died1933)
• April 1 –Wallace Beery, actor (died1949)
• April 7 –Bee Ho Gray, Wild West star, silent film actor and vaudeville performer (died1951)
• April 13 –Vean Gregg, baseball player (died1964)
• May 2
  • Hedda Hopper, columnist (died1966)
  • Lee W. Stanley, cartoonist (died1970)
• May 7 –George "Gabby" Hayes, Western film character actor (died1969)
• May 14 –Ben J. Tarbutton, businessman and politician (died1962)
• May 30 –Arthur E. Andersen, accountant (died1947)
• June 29 –Andrew Tombes, comedian and character actor (died1976)
• July 4 –Louis B. Mayer, film producer (died1957)
• July 6 –Charles Wisner Barrell, writer (died1974)
• July 10 –Mary O'Hara, author and screenwriter (died1980)^[2]
• July 15 –Tom Kennedy, actor (died1965)
• July 22 –John Thomas Kennedy, general and Medal Honour recipient (died1969)
• August 15 –Edna Ferber, novelist, short story writer, and playwright (died1968)^[3]
• September 7 –Elinor Wylie (Elinor Morton Hoyt), poet and novelist (died1928)
• September 11 –Julian C. Smith, general (died1975)
• September 15 –James P. Boyle, politician (died1939)
• September 22 –George Gaul, actor (died1939)
• October 3 –Sophie Treadwell, dramatist and journalist (died1970)
• October 9 –Raymond DeWalt, inventor and businessman (died1961)
• October 30 –Ezra Pound, poet (died1972 in Italy)
• November 1 –Edgar J. Kaufmann, merchant and patron ofFallingwater (died1955)
• November 11 –George S. Patton, General (died1945 in Heidelberg, Germany)
• November 28 –John Willard, playwright and actor (d.1942)
• December 2 –George Minot, physiologist, recipient ofNobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1934 (died1950)
• December 6 –Ernest Palmer, cinematographer (died1978)
• December 10 –Elizabeth Baker, economist and academic (died1973)
• December 19 –King Oliver, jazz cornet player and bandleader (died1938)
• December 26 –Bazoline Estelle Usher, African American educator (died1992)

• Eugene Prussing, lawyer and philanthropist^[4]

• January 13 –Schuyler Colfax, 17thvice president of the United States from 1869 to 1873 (born1823)
• January 24 –Martin Delany, African American abolitionist, journalist and physician (born1812)
• February 12 –Alexandre Mouton, U.S. Senator from Louisiana from 1843 to 1846 (born1804)
• March 17 –Susan Warner (pseudonym Elizabeth Weatherell), religious and children's writer (born1819)
• May 4 –Irvin McDowell,Union Army officer known for defeat in theFirst Battle of Bull Run (born1818)
• May 17 –Jonathan Young, U.S. Navy commodore (born1826)
• May 19 –Robert Emmet Odlum, swimming instructor, dies as result of becoming the first person to jump from theBrooklyn Bridge (born1851)
• May 20 –Frederick Theodore Frelinghuysen, 29thUnited States Secretary of State (born1817)
• July 23 –Ulysses S. Grant, 18thpresident of the United States from 1869 to 1877 (born1822)
• August 10 –James W. Marshall, contractor, builder ofSutter's Mill (born1810)
• September 3 –William M. Gwin, U.S. Senator from California from 1850 to 1855 and from 1857 to 1861 (born1805)
• October 5 –Thomas C. Durant, railroad financier (born1820)
• October 29 –George B. McClellan, soldier, civil engineer, railroad executive and politician (born1826)
• November 25 –Thomas A. Hendricks, 21st vice president of the United States from March to November 1885 (born1819)
• December 8 –William Henry Vanderbilt, entrepreneur (born1821)
• December 21 –George S Patton, General (born1885)
• December 13 –Benjamin Gratz Brown, politician (born1826)
• December 15 –Robert Toombs, U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1853 to 1861 (born1810)
• December 29 –James E. Bailey, U.S. Senator from Tennessee from 1877 to 1881 (born1821)

• Timeline of United States history (1860–1899)

• Media related to1885 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons

• 1885 in the United States
• 1880s in the United States
• 1885 by country
• 1885 in North America
• Years of the 19th century in the United States

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