AMERICA 250: 1876 MONTH BY MONTH

America’s 250th birthday is coming up in July, so over the next few months Balladeer’s Blog will take a look at various anniversary years. Last month I did 1826, so this time it’s 1876. Next will be 1926 and 1976.

1876

U.S. President: Ulysses S. Grant    Vice President: Vacant. Henry Wilson had died on Nov 22nd, 1875 and the 25th Amendment requiring a new Vice President to fill any such vacancy would not be passed until 1967.     Speaker of the House: Michael C. Kerr     Chief Justice: Morrison R. Waite

Number of Senators: 76    Number of House Representatives: 293    Number of Supreme Court Justices: 9

JANUARY

12th – Future writer Jack London is born.

13th – Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts, noted for his anti-slavery position even before the U.S. Civil War, passes away.

26th – The Northampton Bank in Massachusetts is robbed of $1,600,000 (worth $49,400,000 here in 2026), the largest such robbery in U.S. history at the time. The robbery was planned by America’s “King of the Bank Robbers” George Leonidas Leslie. George Leslie was involved in an astonishing EIGHTY PERCENT of U.S. bank robberies from 1869-1878.

     After this caper, Leslie broke ties with accomplices Thomas Dunlap and Robert Scott over their gratuitous use of violence since George preferred bloodless affairs. 

FEBRUARY

Exact Date Unknown – The first issue of the satirical publication The Harvard Lampoon was nailed to a tree on campus. 

2nd – The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs is formed. Significantly, the organization replaced the National Association of Baseball Players, setting the stage for owner and management abuse of players.

3rd – Albert Spalding started his sports equipment business.

7th – Regarding the Whiskey Ring Scandal, one of many from President Grant’s administration (I love Grant as a general, but as president his appointees were almost as bad as Harding’s), Orville Babcock is acquitted. 

9th – In Eastport, Maine Julius Wolff opens America’s first canned sardine factory. Hey, it’s no “old bean factory” (fans of bad movies will get it) but it’s still pretty good.

14th – Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray apply separately for telephone patents.

22nd – Johns Hopkins University is founded in Baltimore, MD.

28th – Alabama’s Number 2 Oxmoor Furnace became the first in the district to produce iron from locally obtained ore and coke.

MARCH

Exact Date Unknown – Melvil Dewey first PUBLISHED his Dewey Decimal System.

2nd – Mere minutes before Congress ias about to vote on impeaching him, Grant’s Secretary of War William Belknap resigns over kickbacks he and his wife supposedly received from the Trader Post Scandal. You could make up Game Cards regarding the Grant Administration Scandals and the people linked to them.

3rd – The Kentucky Meat Shower supposedly happens. Between 11am and Noon, small pieces of raw meat are reported falling from the sky. Major newspapers and even Scientific American covered the aftermath. The incident is blamed on vulture ejecta, blood rain or Nostoc. Charles Fort of all people speculated that the incident never really happened. Okay, when Charles Fort is the voice of reason …

7th – Alexander Graham Bell is awarded the telephone patent by the U.S. Patent Office.

10th – Bell places the first successful phone call to his assistant Thomas Watson. According to Charles Fort, Watson answered on his end by saying “New phone. Who dis?” (I’m kidding.)

16th – The first female boxing match in the U.S. took place at Harry Hill’s Theater in New York between Rose Harland and Nelly Saunders. The win was awarded on points but historical sources differ on which woman won.

17th – In the Battle of Powder River in Montana Territory, U.S. forces launched an ugly attack on Northern Cheyenne and Oglala Sioux, setting up the Sioux War of 1876.

APRIL

3rd – Wyatt Earp was fired from the Wichita Police Force following a public disturbance.

11th – The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks is founded in New York.

17th – Friends Academy is founded by Gideon Frost at Locust Grove, NY.

18th – Daniel O’Leary completed a 500-mile walk in 139 hrs. and 32 min.

22nd – The very first official National League game is played. The Boston Red Caps win 6-5 at the Philadelphia Athletics.

MAY

10th – The Centennial Exposition, marking America’s upcoming 100th birthday, opens in Philadelphia.

15th – At the 2nd Annual Kentucky Derby the horse Vagrant wins, ridden by jockey Bobby Swim.

16th – Charles E. Hires offers his new Hires Root Beer at the Centennial Exposition.

17th – The 7th Cavalry, under the command of George Armstrong Custer, leaves Fort Lincoln.

18th – Wyatt Earp begins work as a lawman under Dodge City’s Marshal Larry Deger.  

25th – At the 4th Preakness Stakes the horse Shirley wins, ridden by jockey G. Barbee.

JUNE

4th – The Transcontinental Express arrives in San Francisco via the First Transcontinental Railroad. It departed from New York City 83 hours and 39 minutes earlier.

10th – At the 10th Belmont Stakes the horse Algerine wins, ridden by William Donohue.

11th – At the Republican Convention, Rutherford B. Hayes is named the party’s candidate for president.

14th – The California Street Cable Car Railroad Company is enfranchised.

15th – Republican Sara Spencer becomes the first woman to ever address the nominating convention for one of the two major political parties. 

17th – In the ongoing war out west, the Battle of the Rosebud takes place between the U.S. and its Shoshoni and Crow allies on one side and the Sioux and Cherokee on the other. Crazy Horse leads the Sioux and Cherokee in a massive victory.   

25th-26th – The Battle of the Little Bighorn results in 1,100 – 2,500 Native Americans under Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse wiping out George Armstrong Custer’s force of 700 men.

27th – The Democrat Party Convention nominates Samuel J. Tilden as the party’s candidate for president. 

JULY

4th – One hundredth birthday of the United States is celebrated. Among the coast-to-coast festivities is the first use of electric lighting in San Francisco. Also, Batholdi visits Bedloe Island, the future site of the Statue of Liberty.

15th – Baseball’s first official No-Hitter as Pitcher George Bradley and the St. Louis Brown Stockings defeat the Hartford Dark Blues 2-0.

20th – America’s first intercollegiate track meet is held in Saratoga, New York with the Princeton Tigers winning. 

31st – The U.S. Coast Guard Academy is established in New Bedford, Connecticut.

AUGUST

1st – Colorado is admitted as the 38th State.

2nd – During a poker game in Deadwood, Dakota Territory, gunslinger Wild Bill Hickok is shot to death from behind while holding what became known as the Dead Man’s Hand of a Full House with Aces over Eights. 

8th – Thomas Edison is awarded a U.S. Patent for the autographic writing device.

12th – In the 4th America’s Cup yacht race the U.S. ship Madeline defeats Canada’s entry the Countess of Dufferin. 

14th – Prairie View State in Texas becomes one of the first Historically Black Colleges and Universities in America. 

SEPTEMBER

September ? – Stillman College in Alabama held its first classes.

6th – The Southern Pacific Railroad line from Los Angeles to San Francisco is completed.

7th – Jesse James, Cole Younger and their James-Younger Gang try to pull off bank robberies in Northfield, Minnesota but are stopped by armed citizens fed up with the depredations of the criminal outfit. The Younger Brothers are arrested and other gang members killed but Frank and Jesse James manage to escape.

19th – Melville Bissell patents the carpet sweeper.

26th – The Chicago White Stockings win the very first National League of Professional Baseball Clubs Championship.  

OCTOBER

3rd – John Long Routt is elected as Colorado Governor. 

4th – Texas A&M University opens for classes.

6th – In Philadelphia the American Library Association is organized.

26th – South Carolina Governor Chamberlain sends troops to quell racial violence which has been raging in Cainhoy since October 16th. .  

23rd – The New Orleans Mint reopens as an assay office.

NOVEMBER

7th – The Election of 1876 is held. It becomes known as the Disputed Election of 1876 because of various scandalous incidents I’ve covered in countless other blog posts here. In an ugly outcome that was repeated in 2000 and 2020 the likely losing candidate was installed as president – in this case Republican Rutherford B. Hayes.   

     Also the 7th – Edward Bouchet becomes the first African American to earn a PhD. It happens at Yale.

10th – The Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia ends.

23rd – Columbia, Harvard and Princeton form the Intercollegiate Football Association, leading to the eventual formation of the conference called the Ivy League.

DECEMBER

5th – The Brooklyn Theater Fire kills 295-300 people.

     Also the 5th – Daniel Stillson patents the first practical pipe wrench.

6th – America’s first crematorium opens at Washington, Pennsylvania.

7th – The National League expels the New York Mutuals and the Philadelphia Athletics for failing to complete their schedules.

9th – The Yale Bulldogs win the College Football National Championship.

29th – The collapse of a railroad bridge over the Ashtabula River in Ohio kills 92 and injures 64, making it the worst railroad disaster in American history up to that point.

31st – A powerful snowstorm dumped 28 inches of snow on parts of Alabama.