President Grover Cleveland , photo circa 1888, loses his re-election campaign this year, but is re-elected in 1892. January 13 – The National Geographic Society is founded in Washington, D.C.
February 27 – In West Orange, New Jersey , Thomas Edison meets with Eadweard Muybridge , who proposes a scheme for sound film .
March 8 – The Agriculture College of Utah, (later Utah State University ) is founded in Logan, Utah .
March 11 – The "Great Blizzard of 1888 " begins along the East Coast of the United States , shutting down commerce and killing more than 400.
March 25 – Opening of an international Congress for Women's Rights organized by Susan B. Anthony in Washington, D.C., leading to formation of the International Council of Women , a key event in the international women's movement.
May 1 – Fort Belknap Indian Reservation is established by the United States Congress .
May 5 – The International Association of Machinists is founded in Atlanta , Georgia.
June 3 – Ernest Thayer 's baseball poem "Casey at the Bat " is first published (under the pen name "Phin") as the last of his humorous contributions to The San Francisco Examiner
June 19 – The Republican Convention opens at the Auditorium Building, Chicago . Benjamin Harrison and Levi Morton win the nominations for President and Vice President , respectively.
July 25 – Frank Edward McGurrin , a court stenographer from Salt Lake City, Utah, purportedly the only person using touch typing at this time, wins a decisive victory over Louis Traub in a typing contest held in Cincinnati, Ohio. This date can be called the birthday of the touch typing method that becomes widely used.
August 6 – Thomas Seay is reelected the 27th governor of Alabama defeating W. T. Ewing .
August 10 – Lynching of Amos Miller : 23-year-old African American farmhand Amos Miller is hanged by a mob from the balcony of Williamson County Courthouse (Franklin, Tennessee) .
August 25 – William Seward Burroughs patents the adding machine .
September 4 – Eastman Kodak Company founded by George Eastman .
September 8 – President of the United States Grover Cleveland declares the Chinese "impossible of assimilation with our people and dangerous to our peace and welfare" (in a letter accepting renomination for the office of President).
October – The mediumship of the Fox sisters is confessed to be fraudulent.
October 9 – The Washington Monument officially opens to the general public in D.C.
November 6 – 1888 United States presidential election : Democratic Party incumbent Grover Cleveland wins the popular vote, but loses the Electoral College vote to Republican challenger Benjamin Harrison , therefore losing the election.
November 27 – The sorority Delta Delta Delta is founded at Boston University .
November 29 – Celebration of Thanksgiving and the first day of Hanukkah coincide.
December 1 – The Washington Bridge opens to permit-holding pedestrians over the Harlem River in New York City , connecting the boroughs of Manhattan and The Bronx .[ 1]
January 1 – John Garand , inventor and designer of the M1 Garand (died 1974 )[ 4]
January 16 – Robert Henry English , admiral (died 1943 )[ 5]
c. January 20 – Huddie William Ledbetter (Lead Belly ), folk and blues singer (died 1949 )
February 22 – Owen Brewster , U.S. Senator from Maine from 1941 to 1952 (died 1961 )
February 25 – John Foster Dulles , U.S. Secretary of State from 1953 to 1959 (died 1959 )
March 4 – Knute Rockne , American football player and coach (died 1931 )
March 10 – Ilo Wallace , Second Lady of the United States as wife of Henry A. Wallace (died 1981 )
March 26 – Gerald Murphy , socialite (died 1964 )
March 29 – James E. Casey , businessman and founder of UPS (died 1983 )
April 8 – Dennis Chávez , U.S. Senator from New Mexico from 1935 to 1962 (died 1962 )
April 26 – Anita Loos , writer (died 1981 )
May 11
May 15 – John E. Miller , U.S. Senator from Arkansas from 1937 to 1941 (died 1981 )
June 3 – Tom Brown , jazz musician (died 1958 )
June 6 – Pete Wendling , composer, pianist and piano roll recording artist (died 1974 )
June 16 – Peter Stoner , mathematician, astronomer and Christian apologist (died 1980 )
June 23 – F. Ryan Duffy , judge and politician (died 1979 )
July 5 – Herbert Spencer Gasser , physiologist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1944 (died 1963 )
July 8 – John R. Sinnock , 8th Chief Engraver of the United States Mint (died 1947 )
July 10 – Hazel Abel , U.S. Senator from Nebraska in 1954 (died 1966 )
July 20 – Geneve L. A. Shaffer , realtor, lecturer and author (died 1976 )
July 22 – Kirk Bryan , geologist (died 1950 )
July 23 – Raymond Chandler , novelist (died 1959 )
July 31 – William Warren Barbour , U.S. Senator from New Jersey from 1931 to 1937 (died 1943 )
August 5 – George W. Christians , founder of the Crusader White Shirts (died 1983 )
August 6 – Stephen Galatti , American Field Service director (d. 1964 )
August 16 – Armand J. Piron , jazz musician (died 1943 )
August 19 – Sam G. Bratton , U.S. Senator from New Mexico from 1925 to 1933 (died 1963 )
September 2 – Charles C. Gossett , U.S. Senator from Idaho from 1945 to 1946 (died 1974 )
September 6 – Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. , politician (died 1969 )
September 26
October 4 – Lucy Tayiah Eads , Kaw tribal chief (died 1961 )
October 7 – Henry A. Wallace , 33rd vice president of the United States from 1941 to 1945 (died 1965 )
October 16
October 30 – Alan Goodrich Kirk , admiral (died 1963 )
November 13 – Philip Francis Nowlan , science fiction writer, creator of the Buck Rogers character (died 1940 )
November 17 – J. Melville Broughton , U.S. Senator from North Carolina from 1948 to 1949 (died 1949 )
November 23 – Harpo Marx , comedian (died 1964 )
November 24 – Roy Earl Parrish , politician (died 1918 )[ 6]
November 28 – Edgar Church , comic book collector (died 1978 )
December 18 – Robert Moses , public works director (died 1981 )
January 21 – Adolph Douai , German-American socialist and abolitionist newspaper editor, journalist and teacher (born 1819 )
February 8 – Robert H. Anderson , infantry officer in the United States Army and brigadier general in the Confederate States Army (born 1835 )
February 11 – William Kelly , inventor (born 1811 )
March 4 – Amos Bronson Alcott , educator and writer (born 1799 )
March 6 – Louisa May Alcott , author (born 1832 )[ 7]
March 7 – Christopher Memminger , German-born American politician, 1st Confederate States Secretary of the Treasury (born 1803 )
March 19 – John Pendleton King , U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1833 to 1837 (born 1799)
March 23 - Morrison Waite , 7th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (born 1816 )
April 18 – Roscoe Conkling , leader of the Stalwart faction of the Republican Party (born 1829 )
May 6 – Abraham Joseph Ash , rabbi (born c. 1813)[ 8]
July 23 – Williams Carter Wickham , lawyer, politician, and Confederate general (born 1820 )
August 14 – Charles Crocker , railroad executive (born 1822 )
August 16 – John Pemberton , pharmacist and inventor of Coca-Cola (born 1831 )
August 22 – Charles W. Cathcart , U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1845 to 1853 (born 1809 )
September 30 – Eunice Newton Foote , physicist and women's rights campaigner (born 1819 )
October 16 – John Wentworth , mayor of Chicago from 1857 to 1858 and 1860 to 1861 (born 1815 )
November 20 – Nathaniel Currier , illustrator (born 1813 )
December 18 – Eagle Woman , Lakota leader (born 1820 )
^ "Washington Bridge" (PDF) . New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission . 1982-09-14.^ "Searle family" . Forbes . 2015. Retrieved 2022-11-12 .^ Burrell, Brandon (2013). Abbott Laboratories: Provisioning a Vision ^ "John C. Garand" . Encyclopædia Britannica . Retrieved Sep 22, 2023 .^ "English (DD-696)" . Naval History and Heritage Command . Apr 27, 2016. Retrieved Oct 13, 2023 .^ "State Senator Roy E. Parrish Dies in Battle" . The Wheeling Intelligencer . Retrieved 2023-07-21 .^ "Louisa May Alcott | Biography, Childhood, Family, Books, & Facts" . Encyclopedia Britannica . Retrieved 26 June 2020 .^ Cyrus Adler and Judah David Eisenstein (1901–1906). "ASH, ABRAHAM JOSEPH" . In Singer, Isidore ; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia
.svg)
Cyrus Adler and Judah David Eisenstein (1901–1906). "ASH, ABRAHAM JOSEPH". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
Media related to 1888 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons