Events from the year 1887 in the United States.

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← 1886 1885 1884 1887 in the United States → 1888 1889 1890
Decades:	1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s
See also:	History of the United States (1865–1918) Timeline of United States history (1860–1899) List of years in the United States

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• January 20 – The United States Senate allows the Navy to lease Pearl Harbor in Hawaii as a naval base.
• January 28 – In a snowstorm at Fort Keogh, Montana, the largest snowflakes on record are reported. They are 15 inches (38 cm) wide and 8 inches (20 cm) thick.^{[citation needed]}
• February 2 – In Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, the first Groundhog Day is observed.
• February 4 – The Interstate Commerce Act, passed by Congress, is signed into law, with the intention of regulating the railroad industry.
• February 8 – The Dawes Act is signed into law by President Grover Cleveland.
• February 26 – Troy University is established as Troy State Normal School; an institution to train teachers for Alabama's schools.
• February – The Atlanta Cyclorama is first displayed in Detroit as "Logan's Great Battle".
• March 3 – Anne Sullivan begins teaching Helen Keller.
• March 7 – North Carolina State University is established as North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts.
• March 19 – Cogswell College is established as a high school by Dr. Henry D. Cogswell in San Francisco, the first technical training institution in the West (the school opens in 1888).
• April 4 – Argonia, Kansas elects Susanna M. Salter as the first female mayor in the U.S.
• May 14 – The cornerstone of the new Stanford University, in northern California, is laid (the college opens in 1891).
• June 28 – Minot, North Dakota is incorporated as a city.
• July 10 – The Grand Hotel opens in Mackinac, Michigan.
• August – The U.S. National Institutes of Health is founded at the Marine Hospital, Staten Island, New York, as the Laboratory of Hygiene.
• October 3 – Florida A&M University is founded as The State Normal College for Colored Students in Tallahassee, Florida.
• October 14 – Pomona College is founded in Claremont, California.

• September 28 – The Detroit Wolverines win the National League pennant with a 7–3 victory over the Indianapolis Hoosiers.
• November 24 – Yale wins the Consensus College Football National Championship

• January 22
  • David W. Stewart, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1926 to 1927 (died 1974)
  • Elmer Fowler Stone, first United States Coast Guard aviator (died 1936)
• February 6 – Ernest Gruening, U.S. Senator from Alaska from 1959 to 1969 (died 1974)
• February 7 – Eubie Blake, African American jazz composer-pianist (died 1983)
• February 11 – H. Kent Hewitt, admiral (died 1972)
• February 26
  • Grover Cleveland Alexander, baseball player (died 1950)
  • William Frawley, actor best known for played Fred Mertz in I Love Lucy (died 1966)
• March 4 – Violet MacMillan, Broadway theater actress (died 1953)
• March 5 – Harry Turner, American football player (died 1914)
• March 14 – Charles Reisner, silent actor and film director (died 1962)
• March 22 – Chico Marx, comedian (died 1961)
• April 9 – Florence Price, African American classical composer (died 1953)
• April 15 – Mike Brady, golfer (died 1972)
• July 16 – Shoeless Joe Jackson, baseball outfielder (died 1951)
• July 31 – Peter Bocage, jazz musician (died 1967)
• August 27 – Julia Sanderson, actress (died 1975)
• September 3 – Frank Christian, jazz musician (died 1973)
• September 8 – Jacob L. Devers, U.S. Army general (died 1979)
• September 9 – Alf Landon, Republican politician, presidential candidate (died 1987)
• September 13 – Frank Gray, physicist and researcher, known for the Gray code (died 1969)
• September 28 – Avery Brundage, 5th president of the International Olympic Committee (died 1975)
• September 29 – Annie Dove Denmark, music educator and academic administrator (died 1974)
• November 15 – Georgia O'Keeffe, painter (died 1986)
• December 19 – George R. Swift, U.S. Senator from Alabama in 1946 (died 1972)
• date unknown – White Parker, missionary and actor (died 1956)

• January 7 – Aaron Shaw, U.S. Representative from Illinois (born 1811)
• March 8 – Henry Ward Beecher, clergyman and reformer (born 1813)
• March 24 – Justin Holland, classical guitarist and civil rights activist (born 1819)
• May 14
  • Lysander Spooner, philosopher and abolitionist (born 1808)
  • William Burnham Woods, Supreme Court justice and politician (born 1824)
• May 19 – Charles E. Stuart, U.S. Senator from Michigan from 1853 to 1859 (born 1810)
• June 4 – William A. Wheeler, 19th vice president of the United States from 1877 to 1881 (born 1819)
• June 25 – James Speed, U.S. Attorney General from 1864 to 1866 under Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson (born 1812)
• July 18
  • Dorothea Dix, mental health reformer (born 1802)^[1]
  • Robert M. T. Hunter, Virginian lawyer, politician, 14th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, 2nd Confederate States Secretary of State (born 1809)
• July 25 – John Taylor, 3rd president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (born 1808)
• August 14 – Aaron A. Sargent, U.S. Senator from California from 1873 to 1879 (born 1827)
• August 18 – Orson Squire Fowler, phrenologist and leading proponent of the octagon house (born 1809)
• August 23 – Sarah Yorke Jackson, Acting First Lady of the United States (born 1803)
• November 8 – Doc Holliday, gunfighter, gambler and dentist (TB; born 1851)
• November 11 – August Spies, labor activist, newspaper editor and anarchist (executed; born 1855 in Germany)
• December 24 – Daniel Manning, businessman, journalist and politician, Secretary of the Treasury (born 1831)

• Timeline of United States history (1860–1899)