Editorial: January 30, 2026

We all know the Westminster Kennel Club is celebrating its 150th anniversary. Founded in 1876, the second oldest continuous sporting event in America, second only to the Kentucky Derby. We want to know what else was taking place here in the United States and the rest of the World during that calendar year. 
1876 was a leap year.  Our president was Ulysses S. Grant. 1876 was the centennial year celebration of the United States. A Centennial Exposition was held in Philadelphia. The same year we welcomed Colorado as the 38th state of the union. The National League of baseball was founded at a meeting that took place in Chicago. It replaced the National Association of Professional Baseball Players. It also was the year Johns Hopkins University was founded in Baltimore, Maryland. Pharmaceutical company Eli Lily was founded. The Royal Titles Act of 1876 by the United Kingdom Parliament gave the title Empress of India to Queen Victoria. Librarian Melvin Dewey published the first Dewey Decimal Classification. Not to be outdone, Alexander Graham Bell was granted a patent for his invention the telephone and then makes the first successful telephone call. Thomas Edison was granted a patent for the mimeograph. Wild Bill Hickok is killed while playing poker in Deadwood, Dakota. In Northfield, Minnesota, Jesse James and the James Younger Gang are nearly wiped out in an attempted bank robbery. Friends Academy was founded in Locust Valley, Long Island. The transcontinental  Express arrived in San Francisco via the first transcontinental railroad, taking 83 hours and 39 minutes from New York City. Serbia and Montenegro declared war on the Ottoman Empire. The first cremation in the United States took place in crematory built by Francis Julius LeMoyne in North Franklin Township, Pennsylvania. The first American edition of Mark Twain’s The adventures of Tom Sawyer was published. The start of the Northern Chinese Famine of 1876 ending 1879 claimed 30 million lives. In California, the Star Oil Company (Chevron Energy) was founded. Emile Berliner invented an improved microphone that will be used in Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone. Heinz tomato ketchup is introduced to the United States and Adolphus Busch’s brewery  Anheuser Busch first markets Budweiser, a pale lager as a nationally sold beer. 1876 was an interesting and pivotal year in our history and it is great that Westminster is still a part of our Nation’s history and this weekend we celebrate their 150th anniversary. So tonight, lift your glass of Budweiser and toast your hosts, the ancestors, and current members of the Westminster Kennel Club.