1876 in the United States
Events from the year 1876 in the United States. Incumbents Federal government President: Ulysses S. Grant (R-Illinois) Vice President: vacant Chief Justice: Morrison Waite (Ohio) Speaker of the House of Representatives: Michael C. Kerr (D-Indiana) (until August 19), Samuel J. Randall (D-Pennsylvania) (starting December 4) Congress: 44th Events January–March February 2 – The National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs is formed at a meeting in Chicago, Illinois; it replaces the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players. Morgan Bulkeley of the Hartford Dark Blues is selected as the league's first president. February 22 – Johns Hopkins University is founded in Baltimore, Maryland. February/March – The Harvard Lampoon humor magazine is founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts. March – Librarian Melvil Dewey first publishes the Dewey Decimal Classification system. March 2 – Secretary of War William W. Belknap resigns his office in the wake of the trader post scandal. March 7 – Alexander Graham Bell is granted a patent for an invention he calls the telephone. March 10 – Alexander Graham Bell makes the first successful call by saying "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.." April–June April 17 – Friends Academy is founded by Gideon Frost at Locust Valley,