1880

Year 1880 (MDCCCLXXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Tuesday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar).

Events of 1880

January - March

February 2 - The first electric streetlight is installed in Wabash, Indiana.

April - June

April 18 - William Ewart Gladstone defeats Benjamin Disraeli in the United Kingdom general election to become Prime Minister for the second time.[1]
May 13 - In Menlo Park, New Jersey, Thomas Edison performs the first test of his electric railway.
June 29 - France annexes Tahiti.

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 - James Garfield defeats Winfield S. Hancock in the U.S. presidential election.
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 - Action at Bronkhorstspruit, the first major action of the First Boer War.
December 30 - The Transvaal becomes a republic and Paul Kruger becomes its first president.

Undated

Discovery of piezoelectricity by Pierre Curie and Jacques Curie.
Completion of Cologne cathedral.
Founding of Science by Thomas Edison.
Cocaine isolated.
Capuchin catacombs of Palermo are officially closed (there will be some burials afterwards).
Department of Scientific Temperance Instruction of the Women's Christian Temperance Union established.

Ongoing

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

Births

January - June

January 6 - Tom Mix, American actor (d. 1940)
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 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, pioneered horror films (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 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 meteoroligist (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)