Federal government edit

• President: Grover Cleveland (D-New York) (until March 4), William McKinley (R-Ohio) (starting March 4)
• Vice President: Adlai E. Stevenson I (D-Illinois) (until March 4), Garret Hobart (R-New Jersey) (starting March 4)
• Chief Justice: Melville Fuller (Illinois)
• Speaker of the House of Representatives: Thomas Brackett Reed (R-Maine)
• Congress: 54th (until March 4), 55th (starting March 4)

January–March edit

• January 2 – Alpha Omicron Pi sorority is founded at Barnard College in New York City
• February 19 – United States Copyright Office established as a department in the Library of Congress.^[1]
• February 22 – Black Hills National Forest is established.
• March 4 – William McKinley is sworn in as the 25th president of the United States, and Garret Hobart is sworn in as the 24th vice president of the United States.
• March 9 – Cordelia A. Greene Library is established in Castile, New York

April–June edit

• April 19 – The first Boston Marathon is run, with fifteen men competing, and won by John McDermott.^[2]
• April 27 – Grant's Tomb is dedicated in New York.
• May 1 – The Tennessee Centennial Exposition opens in Nashville, for 6 months, illuminated by many electric lights.
• June 1 – American miners begin a strike, which successfully establishes the United Mine Workers Union and brings about the 8-hour work day to mines.
• June 2 – Mark Twain, responding to rumors that he is dead, is quoted by the New York Journal as saying, "The report of my death was an exaggeration."

July–September edit

• July 17 – The Klondike Gold Rush begins when the first successful prospectors arrive in Seattle. On July 25 Jack London sails to join the Rush.
• July 31 – Mount Saint Elias, the second highest peak in the United States and Canada, is first ascended.
• August 21 – Oldsmobile is founded in Lansing, Michigan by Ransom E. Olds.
• August 31 – Thomas Edison is granted a patent for the Kinetoscope, a precursor of the movie projector.
• September 1 – The Boston subway opens, becoming the first underground metro in North America.
• September 10 – Lattimer Massacre: A sheriff's posse kills more than 19 unarmed immigrant miners in Pennsylvania.
• September 21 – In response to a letter written by 8-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon, The Sun (New York City) publishes an (anonymous) editorial by Francis Pharcellus Church stating, "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus".

October–December edit

• October 4 – Columbia University opens its new campus in New York City.^[3]
• October 12 – The USS Baltimore (Cruiser # 3, later CM-1) is recommissioned, since 1890, for several months of duty in the Hawaiian Islands.
• October 23 – The Kappa Delta sorority is founded at State Female Normal School, later Longwood University, in Farmville, Virginia.
• November 1 – The Library of Congress Building in Washington, D.C., designed by Paul J. Pelz, is opened.

Undated edit

• Elbridge Ayer Burbank begins painting portraits of Native Americans in the United States from life.
• Women photographers Zaida Ben-Yusuf and Gertrude Käsebier open portrait studios in New York City.
• Florist's Review trade magazine is founded.
• The Auburn University Marching Band is created at Auburn University (known at this date as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama) in Auburn, Alabama.

Ongoing edit

• Gay Nineties (1890–1899)
• Progressive Era (1890s–1920s)
• Lochner era (c. 1897–c. 1937)

• January 3 – Marion Davies, film actress (died 1961)
• February 27 – Marian Anderson, African American contralto (died 1993)
• March 2 – Minor Hall, jazz drummer (died 1959)
• March 4 – Lefty O'Doul, baseball player and restaurateur (died 1969)
• March 8 – Charles W. Brooks, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1940 to 1949 (died 1957)
• March 11 – Henry Cowell, composer (died 1965)
• March 24 – Theodora Kroeber, writer and anthropologist (died 1979)
• April 26 – Eddie Eagan, Olympic gold medal boxer and bobsledder (died 1967)
• May 6 – William A. Purtell, U.S. Senator from Connecticut in 1952 and from 1953 to 1959 (died 1978)
• May 14 – Sidney Bechet, African American jazz saxophonist (died 1959 in France)
• June 6 – Homer E. Capehart, U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1945 to 1963 (died 1979)
• July 9 – Albert C. Wedemeyer, U.S. Army general (died 1989)
• July 10 – John Gilbert, silent film actor (died 1936)
• July 24 – Amelia Earhart, aviation pioneer and author^[4]
• September 24 – Lee Fenner, American footballer (died 1964)
• September 25 – William Faulkner, novelist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949 (died 1962)
• October 22 – Marjorie Flack, children's author (died 1958)^[5]
• November 2 – Richard Russell, Jr., U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1933 to 1971 (died 1971)
• November 8 – Dorothy Day, journalist and social activist (died 1980)

• June 14 1897 Juan Domingo Montoya civil war combat veteran. Mosquero canyon, New Mexico. Valverde, glorieta pass
• April 10 – Daniel W. Voorhees, U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1877 to 1897 (born 1827)
• April 23 – John Henry Raap, Chicago entrepreneur and retailer (born 1840)
• August 14 – James Z. George, U.S. Senator from Mississippi from 1881 to 1897 (born 1826)
• October 3 – Samuel J. R. McMillan, U.S. Senator from Minnesota from 1875 to 1887 (born 1826)
• October 11 – Charles W. Jones, Ireland-born U.S. Senator from Florida from 1875 to 1887 (born 1834)
• October 29 –
  • Henry George, writer, politician and political economist (born 1839)
  • William J. Babcock, Medal of Honor recipient (born 1841 in the United States)
• October 31 – Richard Von Albade Gammon, University of Georgia football fullback (died from in-game injury) (born 1879)
• November 3 – Thomas Lanier Clingman, North Carolina congressman, senator and confederate general (born 1812)

• List of American films of the 1890s
• Timeline of United States history (1860–1899)

•   Media related to 1897 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons