1869 in the United States explained
Events from the year 1869 in the United States.
Incumbents
Andrew Johnson (D-Tennessee) (until March 4)
Ulysses S. Grant (R-Illinois) (starting March 4)
vacant (until March 4)
Schuyler Colfax (R-Indiana) (starting March 4)
Schuyler Colfax (R-Indiana) (until March 3)
Theodore Medad Pomeroy (R-New York) (March 3–4)
James G. Blaine (R-Maine) (starting March 4)
Events
January–March
April–June
July–September
October–December
Undated
Ongoing
- Reconstruction era (1865–1877)
- Gilded Age (1869–c. 1896)
Sport
Births
- January 4 - Tommy Corcoran, baseball player (died 1960)
- January 10 - Rachel Davis Harris, African American librarian (died 1969)
- February 2 - Smith W. Brookhart, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1922 to 1926 (died 1944)
- February 19 - Frederic C. Walcott, U.S. Senator from Connecticut from 1929 to 1935 (died 1949)
- February 29 - Thomas Walter Bickett, governor of North Carolina (died 1921)
- March 13 - Fairfax Harrison, lawyer and businessman (died 1938)
- April 2 - Hughie Jennings, baseball player (died 1928)
- April 4 - Mary Colter, architect (died 1958)
- April 6 - John W. Brady, Texas judge and murderer (died 1943)
- April 8 - Harvey Cushing, neurosurgeon (died 1939)
- April 9 - James Thomas Heflin, U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1920 to 1931 (died 1951)
- May 3 - Warren Terhune, U.S. Navy Commander and 13th Governor of American Samoa (died 1920)
- May 23 - Olivia Ward Bush-Banks, poet and journalist (died 1944)
- June 10 - William Kenyon, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1909 to 1922 (died 1933)
- July 14 - Bruno Albert Forsterer, Marine Sergeant, Medal of Honor recipient (died 1957)
- July 17 - Mariette Rheiner Garner, wife of John Nance Garner, Second Lady of the United States (died 1948)
- July 20 - Howard Thurston, stage magician (died 1936)
- August 5 - J. C. W. Beckham, U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1915 to 1921 (died 1940)
- August 9 - Annie Malone, née Turnbo, African American millionaire businesswoman, inventor and philanthropist (died 1957)
- September 11 - Charles Kilpatrick, one-legged trick cyclist (died 1927)
- November 20 - Alma Webster Hall Powell, opera singer, suffragist, and inventor (died 1930)
- December 16 - Bertha Lamme, electrical engineer (died 1943)
- December 22
Deaths
- January 1 - Martin W. Bates, U.S. Senator from Delaware from 1857 to 1859 (born 1786)
- January 11 - Sophia Dallas, wife of George M. Dallas, Second Lady of the United States (born 1798)
- February 18 - Walker Brooke, U.S. Senator from Mississippi from 1852 to 1853 (born 1813)
- March 13 - James Guthrie, U.S. Senator from Kentucky from 1865 to 1868 (born 1792)
- April 13 - Isaiah Rogers, architect (born 1800)
- May 23 - Alexander O. Anderson, U.S. Senator from Tennessee from 1840 to 1841 (born 1794)
- July 18 - Laurent Clerc, advocate for the deaf (born 1785)
- July 22 - John A. Roebling, bridge engineer (born 1806 in Prussia)
- July 30 - Isaac Toucey, U.S. Senator from Connecticut from 1851 to 1857 (born 1792)
- August 6 - David J. Baker, U.S. Senator from Illinois in 1830 (born 1792)
- September 10 - John Bell, U.S. Senator from Tennessee from 1847 to 1859 (born 1796)
- October 8 - Franklin Pierce, 14th president of the United States from 1853 to 1857 (born 1804)
- October 15 - William Hamlin, engraver (born 1772 in Rhode Island)
- November 11 - Hiram Bingham I, missionary to Hawaii (born 1789)
- November 21 - Benjamin Fitzpatrick, U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1848 to 1849 and 1853 to 1861 (born 1802)
- December 18 - Louis Moreau Gottschalk, composer and pianist (born 1829)
- December 24 - Edwin Stanton, 27th United States Secretary of War (born 1814)
- Sandy Cornish, freed slave and farmer (born 1793)
See also