Year 1888 Fun Facts, Trivia, and Historical Events

This quick read presents a collection of fun facts, trivia, and historical events from the year 1888. Discover the year’s top news stories, most influential people, sports facts, noteworthy inventions, historic firsts, entertainment news, and much more.

Take a journey through history in just minutes.

1. President of the United States: Grover Cleveland (D-New York)
2. Vice President: Vacant
3. In 1888, the 50th U.S. Congress was in session.
4. Unemployment rate: Around five percent (Just so you know, during the 1880s, no state or federal agencies compiled “accurate tallies” of America’s unemployed. Only “rough estimates” of the U.S. jobless rate were available.)
5. Inflation rate: Zero percent
6. $100.00 in 1888 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $3,500.00 today. In other words, the U.S. dollar has lost around 97 percent of its purchasing power since 1888.
7. Average cost of a new home: $1,000.00 to $5,000.00 in urban neighborhoods and $200.00 to $1,000.00 in rural areas
8. Average monthly rent: In New York City, the rent for a two- or three-room apartment in a tenement building was between $10.00 and $13.00 per month.
9. Cost of a first-class stamp: Two cents
10. American companies and brands established in 1888 included Abbott Laboratories, ASARCO, Belk (department store chain), Core-Mark, Eastman Kodak, Gristedes (supermarket chain), Hunt’s tomato products, McGraw Hill Education, Synovus (financial services company), Taylor Provisions, and WearEver Cookware, which later became ALCOA (the Aluminum Company of America).
11. Consumer products launched during the year included the ballpoint pen, Bromo-Seltzer, candy corn, the drinking straw, Four Roses whiskey, Mum deodorant, and the time clock.
12. In 1888, the average life expectancy at birth in the U.S. was 38 to 45 years because of a high infant mortality rate. Americans who survived childhood often lived into their 50s, 60s, and even 70s.
13. On January 3, Marvin C. Stone of Washington, DC, received a patent for wax-coated drinking straws.
14. On January 13, the National Geographic Society was incorporated in Washington, DC.
15. On February 22, John Reid, the “Father of American Golf,” demonstrated the game to friends on a Yonkers, New York, cow pasture.
16. From March 11 to 14, the most famous snowstorm in American history, the Great White Hurricane, “paralyzed the East Coast from the Chesapeake Bay to Maine” with “massive snowfalls and hurricane-force winds.” According to InfoPlease.com, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington were isolated for days. “Two hundred ships were grounded, and at least one hundred seamen died. Fire stations were immobilized, and property loss from fire alone was estimated at $25 million. Overall, more than 400 deaths were reported.”
17. On April 11, industrialist Henry Ford married Clara Jane Bryant.
18. On May 1, Congress created the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in north-central Montana.
19. On May 5, the International Association of Machinists was founded in Atlanta, Georgia.
20. On May 13, DeWolf Hopper, an American actor and singer, first recited the famous baseball poem Casey at the Bat.
21. On May 14, George Covington, aboard the horse Macbeth II, won the 14th Kentucky Derby.
22. On June 3, the San Francisco Examiner published the famous baseball poem Casey at the Bat.
23. On June 9, Jim McLaughlin, aboard the horse Sir Dixon, won the 22nd Belmont Stakes.
24. On June 13, Congress established the U.S. Department of Labor.
25. On July 4, the first organized rodeo competition took place in Prescott, Arizona.
26. On August 21, William Seward Burroughs of St. Louis, Missouri, received the first U.S. patent for an adding machine.
27. On September 4, George Eastman of Rochester, New York, received a U.S. patent for a roll-film camera.
28. On September 27, Edward T. Davis and Margaret Buckley were married in front of 40,000 people at the Rhode Island State Fair.
29. On October 1, National Geographic magazine began publishing.
30. On October 9, the Washington Monument opened to the public.
31. On October 31, Scottish inventor John Boyd Dunlop received a patent for a pneumatic bicycle tire.
32. On November 6, in the 1888 presidential election, Republican Benjamin Harrison defeated incumbent Democratic President Grover Cleveland. Although Cleveland won the popular vote, Harrison secured enough electoral votes to win the presidency.
33. On November 20, Willard Bundy of Auburn, New York, received a U.S. patent for a time clock.
34. On November 29, the American Thanksgiving holiday and the first night of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah coincided. (For the record, Thanksgiving and Hanukkah did not converge again until 2013.)
35. On December 23, Vincent van Gogh, the renowned Dutch painter, cut off part of his left ear with a razor after getting into an argument with Paul Gauguin, a fellow painter.
36. On December 25, the first indoor baseball game was played in Philadelphia. The game was played between the Downtowners and the Uptowners in a large building on the Pennsylvania state fairgrounds to an estimated 2,000 spectators. The Uptowners won the game, 6-1.
37. What was the typical American diet like in 1888? LiveStrong.com states that in the 1880s, “the United States was vastly agricultural, and many families lived off the land, cultivating their vegetable and herb gardens and raising their livestock and poultry. Hunting and fishing provided wild game and other meat alternatives.” Americans also consumed apples, beets, bread, butter, cake, carrots, cheese, cherries, coffee, corn, hominy, jams, jellies, lettuce, melons, milk, pears, plums, potatoes, relishes, tomatoes, and turnips.
38. In 1888, Oliver B. Shallenberger of Rochester, Pennsylvania, received a U.S. patent for an electric meter that measures the amount of electricity used.
39. Thomas Adams of New York City manufactured the first chewing gum to be sold in a vending machine.
40. Rabbi Dov Behr Manischewitz of Cincinnati, Ohio, created the Manischewitz brand of traditional Jewish foods. He started out by making Passover matzo for his family and is credited with inventing the world’s first square matzo.
41. Theophilus Van Kannel of Philadelphia received a U.S. patent for the revolving door.
42. The Hotel del Coronado in San Diego, California, opened for business. At the time, the 399-room hotel “was the largest resort hotel in the world and today is the second-largest wooden structure in the U.S.”
43. Brothers Morris and Hyman Iceland founded the world-famous Katz’s Delicatessen in New York City. (Just so you know, Katz’s serves 15,000 pounds of pastrami and 8,000 pounds of corned beef to their customers every week.)
44. Joseph V. Horn and Frank Hardart opened Horn & Hardart, a 15-stool lunchroom, at 39 South 13th Street in Center City Philadelphia. (In 1902, Horn & Hardart moved to a bigger location at 818 Chestnut Street in Center City.)
45. Refrigerated boxcars made the first long-distance shipments of meat and produce across the U.S.
46. Key literary works published during 1888: Henry James’ The Aspern Papers, James De Mille’s A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder, Oscar Wilde’s The Happy Prince and Other Tales, Rudyard Kipling’s The Man Who Would Be King, and Thomas Hardy’s Wessex Tales
47. America’s most beloved songs included Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill, Over the Waves, Mary Had a Little Lamb, Semper Fidelis, and Where Did You Get That Hat?.
48. Famous people born during 1888 included Alexander Friedmann (mathematician), Dale Carnegie (entrepreneur), Eugene O’Neill (playwright), Harpo Marx (movie actor), Irving Berlin (songwriter), Jim Thorpe (football player), Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. (entrepreneur), Maurice Chevalier (pop singer), Richard Byrd (explorer), Robert Moses (engineer), and T. S. Eliot (poet).
49. Notable people who died in 1888 included Amos Bronson Alcott (teacher), Asa Gray (botanist), Henri Herz (pianist), John Pemberton (entrepreneur), Louis Rose (explorer), Louisa May Alcott (novelist), Matthew Arnold (poet), Morrison Waite (Supreme Court Justice), Nathaniel Currier (entrepreneur), and Philip Sheridan (Civil War hero).
50. In 1888 as well, the words “antitrust,” “auto-suggest,” “arts and crafts,” “buyer’s market,” “club steak,” “contact lens,” “employment agency,” “credit line,” “kid-glove,” “makeover,” “mason jar,” “pot holder,” “shock absorber,” “Smithfield ham,” and “telephone booth” all appeared in print for the first time.

References:

1. https://www.famousbirthdays.com/year/1888.html
2. https://www.famousbirthdays.com/deceased/1888.html
3. https://www.onthisday.com/sport/events/date/1888
4. https://www.merriam-webster.com/time-traveler/1888
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1888_in_the_United_States
6. https://www.infoplease.com/great-white-hurricane
7. https://www.foodreference.com/html/html/food-history-1885.html
8. https://www.onthisday.com/events/date/1888

Disclaimer: In the process of writing and editing this article, Gregory DeVictor has made every effort to ensure historical accuracy and not to mislead his audience. In addition, the contents of this article, including text, graphics, and captions, are for general informational purposes only.

© 2026 Gregory DeVictor