-
Benjamin Harrison took the oath of office as president and gave an uplifting inaugural address.
-
Great Fire in Seattle destroys 25 downtown blocks.
-
William Tecumseh Sherman, Civil War general, died in New York City at the age of 71.
-
Writer and naturalist John Muir founded the Sierra Club. Muir's campaigning for conservation would exert an influence on American life in the 20th century.
-
Abolitionist author Frederick Douglass died in Washington, D.C. at the age of 77.
-
The first modern Olympic games, the idea of Pierre de Coubertin, are held in Athens, Greece.
-
Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, died in Hartford, Connecticut at the age of 85.
-
The American battleship U.S.S. Maine exploded in the harbor at Havana, Cuba, a mysterious event that will lead to the United States going to war with Spain.
-
The United States declared war on Spain.
-
Writer Horatio Alger died in Massachusetts at the age of 67.