Little was expected of Chester A. Arthur when he became the nation’s 21st President upon the assassination of James Garfield. But, during 1882, his first full year in office, Arthur gained wide respect by advocating urgently needed Civil Service reform.

1882 witnessed many intriguing events:

• Congress passed the first U.S. law restricting immigration.
• Outlaw Jesse James was killed by Robert Ford, a member of his own gang, who hoped to collect the $5,000 bounty on his head. Ford shot James in the back of the head in St. Joseph, Missouri.
• German microbiologist Robert Koch discovered that tuberculosis was caused by a bacillus.
• Circus impresario P.T. Barnum purchased Jumbo, a massive elephant, for $10,000 from the Royal Zoological Gardens in London. Barnum falsely claimed the animal was 12 feet tall and weighed 10½ tons.
• The first public performance of Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” took place in Moscow.
• Congress passed the Edmunds Act in an effort to suppress polygamy. It led to the imprisonment of 1,300 men with at least 2,600 wives.
• The Knights of Columbus was formed in New Haven, Connecticut.
• 17-inch hailstones weighing nearly two pounds apiece pelted Dubuque, Iowa, on June 16th.
• The feud between the Hatfields of southern West Virginia and the McCoys of eastern Kentucky led to a bloody gunfight in which 100 people were killed or wounded.

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