1880

Events of 1880

January - March

• February 2 - The first electric streetlight is installed in Wabash, Indiana.
• March 31 - Wabash, Indiana becomes the first electrically lit city in the world.

April - July

• April 18 - William Ewart Gladstone defeats Benjamin Disraeli in the United Kingdom general election to become Prime Minister for the second time.
• May 13 - In Menlo Park, New Jersey, Thomas Edison performs the first test of his electric railway.
• June 29 - France annexes Tahiti.
• July 22 - Abdur Rahman Khan becomes Emir of Afghanistan.

October - December

• October - The "Blizzard of 1880" begins in North America.
• October 6 - The University of Southern California opens its doors to 53 students and 10 faculty.
• October 15 - Mexican soldiers kill Victorio, one of the greatest Apache military strategists.
• October 28 - The first stone is laid for the Clarkson Memorial in Wisbech.
• November - U.S. presidential election, 1880: James Garfield defeats Winfield S. Hancock.
• November 4 - The first cash register is patented by James and John Ritty of Dayton, Ohio.
• November 11 - Australian bushranger and bank robber Ned Kelly is hanged in Melbourne.
• November 22 - Vaudeville actress Lillian Russell makes her debut at Tony Pastor's Theatre in New York City.
• December 20 - First Boer War: The Action at Bronkhorstspruit results in a Boer victory over the British.
• December 30 - The Transvaal becomes a republic and Paul Kruger becomes its first president.

Undated

• Piezoelectricity is discovered by Pierre Curie and Jacques Curie.
• Cologne Cathedral is completed.
• The journal Science is founded by Thomas Edison.
• Cocaine is isolated.
• The Capuchin catacombs of Palermo are officially closed (there will be some burials afterwards).
• The Department of Scientific Temperance Instruction of the Women's Christian Temperance Union is established.
• 4 million Jews of Europe's 7 million live in the Russian Empire.
• Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza signs a treaty of protection with the chief on the large Teke tribe and begins to establish a French protectorate on the north bank of the Congo River.
• More than 100,000 Chinese men and 3,000 Chinese women are living in the western USA.

Ongoing

• Aceh War (1873-1904)
• War of the Pacific (1879-1884)

Births

January - June

• January 6 - Tom Mix, American actor (d. 1940)
• January 11 - Rudolph Palm, Curaçao born composer (d. 1950)
• January 17 - Mack Sennett, Canadian director and producer (d. 1960)
• January 26 - Douglas MacArthur, American general (d. 1964)
• January 28 - Herbert Strudwick, English cricketer (d. 1970)
• January 29 - W.C. Fields, American actor (d. 1946)
• February 5 - Gabriel Voisin, French aviation pioneer (d. 1973)
• February 8 - Franz Marc, German artist (d. 1916)
• February 12
• George Preca, 1st Maltese saint (d. 1962)
• John L. Lewis, American labor union leader (d. 1969)
• February 16 - Frank Burke, American baseball player (d. 1946)
• February 21 - Waldemar Bonsels, German writer (d. 1952)
• February 22 - Frigyes Riesz, Hungarian mathematician (d. 1956)
• March 1 - Giles Lytton Strachey, British writer and biographer (d. 1932)
• March 4 - Channing Pollock (writer), American playwright and critic (d. 1946)
• March 10 - Bronco Billy Anderson, American actor (d. 1971)
• March 11 - Harry H. Laughlin, American eugenicist (d. 1943)
• March 22 - Kuniaki Koiso, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1950)
• March 23 - Heikki Ritavuori, Finnish Minister of the Interior (d. 1922)
• March 30 - Sean O'Casey, Irish writer (d. 1964)
• April 13 - Charles Christie, Canadian-born film studio owner (d. 1955)
• April 15 - Max Wertheimer, father of Gestalt Theory (d. 1943)
• April 18 - Sam Crawford, Baseball Hall of Famer (d. 1968)
• May 6 - Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, German painter (d. 1938)
• May 14 - B.C. Forbes, Scottish-born financial publisher (d. 1954)
• May 21 - Tudor Arghezi, Romanian writer (d. 1967)
• May 25
• Jean Alexandre Barré, French neurologist (d. 1967)
• Alf Common, English footballer (d. 1946)
• May 29 - Oswald Spengler, German philosopher (d. 1936)
• June 3 - Didier Bonvitesse, Belgian painter and sculptor (d. 1945)
• June 6 - W. T. Cosgrave, Irish politician (d. 1965)
• June 17 - Carl Van Vechten, American writer and photographer (d. 1964)
• June 21 - Josiah Stamp, 1st Baron Stamp, British civil servant, industrialist and economist (d. 1941)
• June 27 - Helen Keller, American spokeswoman for the deaf and blind (d. 1968)

July - December

• July 5 - Jan Kubelík, Czech violinist (d. 1940)
• July 12 - Tod Browning, American motion picture director, horror film pioneer (d. 1962)
• July 21 - Milan Rastislav Štefánik, Slovak General, politician, and astronomer (d. 1919).
• July 24
• Ernest Bloch, Swiss-born composer (d. 1959)
• Kristian Hellström, Swedish athlete (d. 1946)
• August 6 - Hans Moser, Austrian actor (d. 1964)
• August 8 - Earle Page, eleventh Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1961)
• August 10 - Robert L. Thornton, American businessman, philanthropist, and mayor of Dallas, Texas (d. 1964)
• August 22 - George Herriman, American cartoonist (d. 1944)
• August 23 - Wyndham Standing, British actor of stage & film (d. 1963)
• August 26 - Guillaume Apollinaire, French poet (d. 1918)
• August 29 - Marie-Louise Meilleur, verified as longest-lived Canadian ever (d. 1998)
• August 30 - Nikolai Astrup, Norwegian painter (d. 1928)
• August 31 - Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands (d. 1962)
• September 12 - H. L. Mencken, American journalist (d. 1956)
• September 14
• Metropolitan Benjamin (Fedchenkov), Orthodox missionary and writer, Exarch of Russian Church in North America (d. 1961)
• Archie Hahn, American athlete (d. 1955)
• September 16 - Alfred Noyes, English poet (d. 1958)
• September 22 - Christabel Pankhurst, English suffragette (d. 1958)
• September 23 - John Boyd Orr, Scottish physician and biologist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1971)
• September 24 - Sarah Knauss, verified as longest-lived American ever (d. 1999)
• October 23 - Una O'Connor, Irish actress (d. 1959)
• November 1
• Grantland Rice, American sportswriter (d. 1954)
• Alfred Wegener, German scientist and meteorolog$2 (d. 1930)
• November 2 - John Foulds, British classical music composer (d. 1939)
• November 5 - Richard Oswald, Austrian film director (d. 1963)
• November 6 - Robert Musil, Austrian novelist (d. 1942)
• November 10 - Jacob Epstein, American-born sculptor (d. 1959)
• November 25 - Elsie J. Oxenham, British children's novelist (d. 1960)
• December 1 - Joseph Trumpeldor, Russian Zionist (d. 1920)
• December 4 - Garfield Wood, American motorboat racer (d. 1971)
• December 10 - Jessie Aspinall, Australian doctor, first female junior medical resident at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital (d. 1953)
• December 11 - Frank Tarrant, Australian cricketer (d. 1951)
• December 24 - Johnny Gruelle, American cartoonist and children's book author (d. 1938)
• December 31 - George Marshall, United States Secretary of State, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1959)
• date unknown
• William J. Simmons, founder of the second Ku Klux Klan (d. 1945)
• Reginald Farrer, English botanist (d. 1920)
• Li Shutong, Chinese artist and art teacher (d. 1942)

Deaths

January - June

• January 4
• Anselm Feuerbach, German painter (b. 1829)
• Marthe Camille Bachasson, Count of Montalivet, French statesman (b. 1801)
• January 8 - Joshua A. Norton, self-anointed Emperor Norton I of the United States of America (b. 1811)
• January 14 - Frederick VIII, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein (b. 1829)
• January 12 - Ida, Countess von Hahn-Hahn, author (b. 1805)
• January 20 - Captain Moonlite, Australian bushranger (b. 1842) (hanged)
• January 31 - Adolphe Granier de Cassagnac, French politician (b. 1806)
• April 23 - Raden Saleh, Indonesian painter (b. 1807)
• March 14 - Pagan Min, King of Ava (b. 1811)
• March 31 - Henryk Wieniawski, Polish composer (b. 1835)
• May 4 - Edward Clark, Confederate Governor of Texas (b. 1815)
• May 8 - Gustave Flaubert, French novelist (b. 1821)
• May 20 - Károly Alexy, Hungarian sculptor (b. 1816)
• June 8 - Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse), Empress Consort of Czar Alexander II of Russia (b. 1824)
• June 28 - Texas Jack Omohundro, American frontier scout, actor, and cowboy (b. 1846)

July - December

• July 7 - Lydia Maria Child, American novelist and abolitionist (b. 1802)
• July 17 - Tomasz Chołodecki, Polish political activist (b. 1813)
• July 21 - Hiram Walden, American politician (b. 1800)
• August 15 - Adelaide Neilson, English actress (b. 1848)
• August 17 - Ole Bull, Norwegian violinist (b. 1810)
• August 24 - Chief Ouray, Native American leader (b. c. 1833)
• October - Victorio, Apache chief
• October 4 - Jacques Offenbach, German-born composer (b. 1819)
• November 11 - Ned Kelly, Australian bush ranger (hanged) (b. c. 1855)
• November 28 - Aires de Ornelas e Vasconcelos, (Portuguese) Archbishop of Goa (b. 1837)
• December 22 - George Eliot, English writer (b. 1819)