January
•
Storms batter the Cascade and Sierra Nevada Mountains.
Californian rivers rise causing mud slides in Siskiyou County that wash out
railroad tracks. The San Francisco Examiner reports that tides are the highest
in memory. Harbor ships are driven onto mudflats, while the schooner Kodiak
loses its bow when it collides with another vessel.
•
Owing directly to the US's commercial expansion into foreign
markets, San Francisco's population reaches 350,000 including a significant
immigrant population.
•
The US House of Representatives takes up the case of Utah
Congressman, Robert Brigham, an avowed polygamist. Brigham, a Mormon, had three
wives and fifteen children. He would eventually be expelled from the House by a
vote of 268 to 50. Polygamy was officially prohibited by the Mormon Church in
1890.
•
Residents of El Paso, Texas pay 25 cents admission to witness the
execution of a prisoner in nearby Juarez, Mexico. The proceeds were delivered
to the man's widow.
•
The disputed election of a tax collector in San Francisco results
in a riot and leads to the shooting of one man. Shots were fired as tax
collector-elect Scott was taking his oath. John O' Brien, an assistant of
Scott's, was wounded by Charles E. Droad, a deputy of candidate Sheehan, the
man who lost the election. Sheehan protested Scott's election, saying Scott had
not resided in San Francisco for the required 5 years..
•
Sioux Indian Chief Spotted Tail dies in Paris. He was one of the best
known of the war chiefs of the Sioux tribe. He played a considerable role in
the Native American uprisings of 1876, which led to the massacre of General
Custer and his troops.
February
•
The steamer "Australia" arrives in San Francisco from
Honolulu reporting 41 deaths from "the plague," and a total of 52 cases. City
officials, in an effort to control the spread of "the plague," burn down an
entire block in Chinatown. As the fire gets out of control, 4500 people are
left homeless.
March
•
The Social Democratic Party holds its national convention in
Indianapolis, Indiana, nominating Eugene V. Debs of Indiana for president
and Job Harrison of California for vice-president.
April
•
The US Senate passes a bill setting aside preservation land in New
Mexico for rapidly dwindling buffalo populations.
•
Apache Indians in Tucson, Arizona are reported to have "raided"
white citizens.
•
Hawaii joins Alaska, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arizona as a US
territory. Sanford B. Dole is appointed governor of the new territory.
•
Blas Aguirre, a native of Texas, is extradited to Juarez, Mexico
from El Paso, Texas. Aguirre was accused of participating in a raid across the
border that resulted in the death of a Mexican citizen. Aguirre was charged
with murder.
May
•
A deadly explosion at the Winter Quarters mine in Scofield, Utah,
kills over 200 miners.
June
•
A federal quarantine, forbidding anyone to leave the city without
permission from a US health officer, is ordered in San Francisco over fears
caused by bubonic plague.
•
Medical experts in San Francisco hold discussions about using
x-rays to treat tuberculosis.
•
Nestor Montoya, a member of the New Mexican State Legislature,
establishes "La Bandera Americana" a Spanish language newspaper. It was the
second newspaper founded by the well known defender of Hispanic rights. Montoya
founded La Voz del Pueblo in 1889.
September
•
A deadly hurricane ravages Galveston, Texas, killing
between 6,000 and 8,000.
October
•
Having tended to the battered and homeless for two months, Clara
Barton announces that the Red Cross can now leave Galveston, Texas.
November
•
Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, is the site of a
debate over academic freedom after university president David Starr Jordan
dismisses Professor Edward A. Ross for making what Jordan considered to be
radical political statements.
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