Directory

1880 CE

Australian police capture bank robber Ned Kelly, after a gun battle at Glenrowan, Victoria. Competing circus owners P. T. Barnum and James A. Bailey sign a contract in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to create the Barnum & Bailey Circus. In 1907, the circus will merge forces with another competitor, the Ringling Brothers Circus. The first stone is laid for the Clarkson Memorial in Wisbech, England.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • April 18 – 1880 United Kingdom general election: William Ewart Gladstone defeats Benjamin Disraeli, to become Prime Minister for the second time.source
  • April 19 – The Prime Minister of Sweden, Louis De Geer, resigns over the defeat of a defense reform bill in the country's Riksdag; he is succeeded by Count Arvid Posse (1880–1883).source
  • July 22 – Abdur Rahman Khan becomes Emir of Afghanistan.source
  • November 2 – 1880 United States presidential election: James Garfield defeats Winfield S. Hancock.source
  • December 1 – Manuel González Flores becomes the 31st President of Mexico.source
  • December 30 – The Transvaal becomes a republic, and Paul Kruger becomes its first president.source
  • Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza signs a treaty of protection with the chief of the large Teke tribe, and begins to establish a French protectorate on the north bank of the Congo River.source

Conflict & Security

  • February 4 – The Black Donnelly Massacre takes the lives of five members of one family in Biddulph Township, Middlesex County, Ontario, Canada.source
  • April – The government of Cape Colony sets a deadline for the Basuto people to surrender their weapons; non-compliance leads to the Basuto Gun War.source
  • June 29 – France annexes Tahiti.source
  • July 27 – Second Anglo-Afghan War – Battle of Maiwand: Afghan troops under Ayub Khan defeat British and Indian forces, under Brigadier General George Burrows.source
  • September 1 – Second Anglo-Afghan War – Battle of Kandahar: General Frederick Roberts, commanding British forces, defeats the Afghan troops of Mohammad Ayub Khan, bringing an end to the war.source
  • December 20 – First Boer War: The Battle of Bronkhorstspruit results in a Boer victory over the British.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • The Gokstad ship is found in Norway, the first Viking ship burial to be excavated.source
  • February 2 – The first successful shipment of frozen mutton from Australia arrives in London, aboard the SS Strathleven.source
  • August 24 – The SS Columbia completes her maiden voyage, arriving without incident in Portland, Oregon, after a stopover in San Francisco.source

Religion & Belief

  • September 14 – Cologne Cathedral is completed, after construction began in 1248, 632 years earlier.source
  • The Capuchin catacombs of Palermo are officially closed (there will be some burials afterwards).source

Economy & Finance

  • August 26 – Competing circus owners P. T. Barnum and James A. Bailey sign a contract in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to create the Barnum & Bailey Circus. In 1907, the circus will merge forces with another competitor, the Ringling Brothers Circus.source
  • October 1 – German company Munich Re is founded in Munich.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • January 27 – Thomas Edison is granted a patent for the incandescent light bulb. Edison filed for a US patent for an electric lamp using "a carbon filament or strip coiled and connected ... to platina contact wires." Although the patent described several ways of creating the carbon filament, including using "cotton and linen thread, wood splints, papers coiled in various ways," Edison and his team later discovered that a carbonized bamboo filament could last more than 1200 hours.source
  • February 2 – The first electric streetlight is installed in Wabash, Indiana.source
  • May 2 – After having her lights installed by Edison's personnel, the SS Columbia is lit up for the first time at the foot of Wall Street, in New York City.source
  • May 13 – In Menlo Park, New Jersey, Thomas Edison performs the first test of his electric railway.source
  • June 1 – Tinius Olsen is awarded a United States Patent, for the Little Giant Testing Machine.source
  • June – The SS Columbia sets off on her maiden voyage around Cape Horn to Portland, Oregon, carrying 13 locomotives and 200 railcars.source
  • July 14 – Dorchester Penitentiary opens in Canada.source
  • November 4 – The first cash register is patented by James and John Ritty of Dayton, Ohio.source

Science & Discovery

  • February 24 – The SS Columbia, which will be the first outside usage of Thomas Edison's incandescent light bulb, is launched at the Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works of John Roach & Sons in Chester, Pennsylvania.source
  • July – John Venn popularises Venn diagrams.source
  • Piezoelectricity is discovered by Pierre Curie and Jacques Curie.source

Crime & Justice

  • The international White slave trade affair scandal in Brussels is exposed and attracts international infamy.source
  • June 28 – Australian police capture bank robber Ned Kelly, after a gun battle at Glenrowan, Victoria.source
  • October 15 – Mexican soldiers kill Victorio, one of the greatest Apache military strategists.source
  • November 11 – Australian bushranger and bank robber Ned Kelly is hanged in Melbourne.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • March 4 – The Belgian ship Mercator founders off the coast of the Netherlands port of Vlissingen with the loss of her entire crew of more than 60 people.source

Climate & Environment

  • October 15 – A blizzard marks the start of the Hard Winter in North America.source
  • November 9 – A major earthquake strikes Zagreb and destroys many buildings, including Zagreb Cathedral.source

Culture & Society

  • March 19 – The horse Empress and its jockey, Tommy Beasley, win the 1880 Grand Nationalsource
  • March 20 – For the first and last time in its history, the annual side-by-side rowing race between the 8-member teams of University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge on the River Thames is postponed. The call comes because of a thick fog that makes visibility impossible. Two days later, Oxford wins the race by 3+3⁄4 lengths.source
  • April 27 – The Royal University of Ireland is founded by charter, allowing the Catholic University of Ireland to re-form as University College Dublin.source
  • October 6 – The University of Southern California opens its doors to 53 students and 10 faculty.source
  • October 28 – The first stone is laid for the Clarkson Memorial in Wisbech, England.source
  • November 22 – Vaudeville actress Lillian Russell makes her debut at Tony Pastor's Theatre, in New York City.source
  • The Department of Scientific Temperance Instruction, of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, is established in the United States.source

Births

  • January 10 – Manuel Azaña, 2nd President of the Spanish Second Republic, 55th Prime Minister of Spain (d. 1940)source
  • January 17 – Mack Sennett, Canadian-born comedy film director, producer (d. 1960)source
  • March 27 – Ruth Hanna McCormick, American politician, activist and publisher (d. 1944)source
  • May 5 – Adrian Carton de Wiart, Belgian-born British general (d. 1963)source
  • May 6 – Edmund Ironside, 1st Baron Ironside, British field marshal (d. 1959)source
  • May 21 – Tudor Arghezi, Romanian writer (d. 1967)source
  • June 17 – Carl Van Vechten, American writer and photographer (d. 1964)source
  • June 29 – Ludwig Beck, German general, Chief of the General Staff (d. 1944)source
  • July 12 – Tod Browning, American motion picture director, horror film pioneer (d. 1962)source
  • August 8 – Sir Earle Page, 11th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1961)source
  • September 23 – John Boyd Orr, Scottish physician and biologist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1971)source
  • October 17 – Ze'ev Jabotinsky, Russian Zionist philosopher, intellectual (d. 1940)source
  • November 1 – Alfred Wegener, German scientist, meteorologist (d. 1930)source
  • December 31 – George C. Marshall, United States Secretary of State, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1959)source

Deaths

  • January 8 – Joshua A. Norton, self-anointed Emperor Norton I of the United States of America (b. 1811)source
  • January 12 – Ellen Lewis Herndon Arthur, wife of Chester A. Arthur (b. 1837)source
  • January 20 – Captain Moonlite, Australian bushranger (hanged) (b. 1842)source
  • May 8 – Gustave Flaubert, French novelist (b. 1821)source
  • June 8 – Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse), Empress Consort of Czar Alexander II of Russia (b. 1824)source
  • June 28 – Texas Jack Omohundro, American frontier scout, actor, and cowboy (b. 1846)source
  • July 9 – Paul Broca, French physician and anthropologist (b. 1824)source
  • October 5 – Jacques Offenbach, German-born French composer (b. 1819)source
  • November 11 – Ned Kelly, Australian bush ranger (hanged) (b. c. 1855)source
  • November 11 – Lucretia Mott, American social activist (b. 1793)source
  • November 23 – Sir Redmond Barry, Australian judge, sentenced Ned Kelly to death (b. 1813)source
  • November 28 – Aires de Ornelas e Vasconcelos, (Portuguese) Archbishop of Goa (b. 1837)source
  • December 7 – Maria Giuseppa Rossello, Italian Roman Catholic religious sister and blessed (b. 1811)source
  • December 22 – George Eliot, English writer (b. 1819)source