ectric chair was used for the first time on the murderer William Kemmler.
10/7/1890. Wyoming was admitted as the 44th State of the USA.
3/7/1890, Idaho became the 43rd State of the Union.
2/7/1890. The US government passed the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, banning trade monopolies. With more than 90% of the US oil trade in the hands of the Rockerfeller family, and sugar, wheat, and alcohol prices also governed by mysterious ‘trusts’, the US government felt that these trusts threatened the economic structure of the USA. A judge, Mr Justice Harlan, said that these trusts were another form of slavery, as capital became concentrated in the hands of a few.
1/6/1890, The US Census Bureau began using Herman Hollerith’s tabulating machine to count census returns. Hollerith’s company eventually became IBM.
14/4/1890, The Pan-American Union was established at the first International Congress of American States.
28/3/1890, Washington State University was established in Pullman, Washington.
8/3/1890, North Dakota State University was founded in Fargo, North Dakota.
11/11/1889. Washington became the 42nd State of the Union.
8/11/1889, Montana became the 41st State of the Union.
2/11/1889, North and South Dakota became the 39th and 40th States of the Union.
3/6/1889, The first ‘long-distance’ electric power transmission line in the US was completed. It ran 14 miles from a generator at Williamette Falls to downtown Portland, Oregon.
22/4/1889, The great land rush in the US, see 2/5/1890.
8/3/1889, John Ericsson, Swedish-US inventor and engineer, died in New York City (born in Langbanshyttan, Sweden, 31/7/1803).
22/2/1889, US President Grover Cleveland signed a Bill admitting North and South Dakota, Montana, and Washington, as US States.
1/1/1889, The State of New York adopted the electric chair for capital punishment.
25/10/1888, Richard Byrd, US naval officer and polar explorer, was born in Winchester, Virginia.
9/10/1888, The 555-foot high white marble Washington Monument was opened. It was designed by Robert Mills.
18/4/1888, Roscoe Conkling, US lawyer and politician, died in New York City (born 30/10/1829 in Albany, New York).
4/3/1888, Amos Alcott, US educationalist, born 29/11/1799, died.
25/12/1887, Conrad Hilton, American hotelier, was born in San Antonio, New Mexico.
23/11/1887. Violence erupted in a sugar cane workers strike in Louisiana, and at least 20 Black people were killed.
21/11/1886, Charles Adams, US diplomat (born 18/8/1807 in Boston) died in Boston.
28/10/1886, The Statue of Liberty in New York was unveiled by President Grover Cleveland. It was presented by France to mark the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and designed by the French sculptor Auguste Bartholdi; it took more than nine years to complete.
4/5/1886, The Haymarket Square Riot in Chicago. A bomb exploded at a trades union rally, killing 7 policemen and injuring 70 other people. Four people were executed by the State of Illinois, and the incident greatly eroded public support for the trades union movement.
1/5/1886. Over 100,00 workers across the USA went on strike for an 8 hour day. A bomb thrown by Anarchists in Chicago on 4/5/1886 killed 7 police and strikers and injured 60 more. The perpetrator was never found but a judge ruled that seven who had incited the event were as guilty and sentenced them to death. One committed suicide, four were executed, and two had their sentences commuted.
10/9/1885. The town of Stafford, Kansas, was officially incorporated as such. The boundaries of Stafford County were fixed by the US legislature in 1868, and was named in honour of Lewis Stafford, a Civil War soldier who was killed ion the Battle of Young’s Point. For several years the county had no permanent settlers, but was inhabited by buffalo hunters, cowboys, and surveyors. The first permanent inhabitants arrived in May 1874. Early industries included the gathering of buffalo hides and bones left by earlier settlers; buffalo bones fetched US$3-US$9 a ton. Many of the first houses were made of earth, or sod, hence the first town here was called ‘So