1879 in the United States
Centuries:	18th century – 19th century – 20th century
Decades:	1850s  1860s  – 1870s –  1880s  1890s
Years:	1876 1877 1878 – 1879 – 1880 1881 1882
Flag:	38 stars (1877 – 1890)

Events from the year 1879 in the United States.

[edit] Events

December 31: Edison demonstrates his light bulb.

• January – The current constitution of The State of California, USA is ratified.
• January 1 – The Specie Resumption Act takes effect. The Greenback is valued the same as gold for the first time since the American Civil War.
• February 12 – At New York City's Madison Square Garden, the first artificial ice rink in North America opens.
• February 15 – Women's rights: American President Rutherford B. Hayes signs a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the Supreme Court of the United States.
• February 22 – In Utica, New York, Frank Woolworth opens the first of many of 5 and 10-cent Woolworth stores.
• March 3 – The United States Geological Survey is created.
• May 30 – New York City's Gilmore's Garden is renamed Madison Square Garden by William Henry Vanderbilt, and is opened to the public at 26th Street and Madison Avenue.
• July 19 – Doc Holliday kills for the first time after a man shoots up Holliday's New Mexico saloon.
• September 25 – Deadwood, South Dakota fire: Two-thousand people left homeless. Three hundred 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 the White River Ute Indian Reservation in Colorado.
• October 22 – Using a filament of carbonized thread, Thomas Edison tests the first practical electric light bulb (it lasts 13½ hours before burning out).
• December 31 – Thomas Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting to the public for the first time in Menlo Park, New Jersey.

[edit] Undated

• Simmons College of Kentucky, a historically black school, is founded.
• The Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) is formed.
• Mary Baker Eddy founds the Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston.^[1]
• Henry George publishes Progress and Poverty.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Media related to 1879 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons