1881
1881 (
MDCCCLXXXI) was a
common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar).
January - April
*
January 16-
January 24 -
Siege of Geok Tepe - Russian troops under general
Skobeleff defeat
Turkomans*
January 24 -
William Edward Forster, the chief secretary for
Ireland, introduces his
Coercion Bill - it goes through a long debate before it is accepted
February 2*
January 25 -
Thomas Edison and
Alexander Graham Bell form the
Oriental Telephone Company*
February 2 -
Parkfield Earthquake*
February 5 -
Phoenix, Arizona is incorporated.
*
February 13 - First issue of the feminist newspaper
La Citoyenne is published by
Hubertine Auclert.
*
February 19 -
Kansas became the first
U.S. state to prohibit all
alcoholic beverages.
*
March 4 -
Rutherford Birchard Hayes is succeeded as
President of the United States by
James Abram Garfield.
*
March 12 -
Andrew Watson makes his
Scotland debut as the world's first black international football player and captain.
*
March 13 -
Alexander II of Russia is killed near his palace when a bomb is thrown at him. He is succeeded by his son,
Alexander III.
*
April 14 -
Four Dead in Five Seconds Gunfight erupted in
El Paso,
Texas*
April 21 - The
University of Connecticut is founded as the Storrs Agricultural School.
*
April 25 -
Caulfield Grammar School is founded in
Melbourne,
Australia.
*
April 28 -
Billy the Kid escapes from
New Mexico jail.
May - August
*
May 12 - In
North Africa,
Tunisia becomes a
French protectorate.
*
May 21 - The
American Red Cross is established by
Clara Barton.
*
May 21 - The
United States Tennis Association is established by a small group of tennis club members.
*
June 12 - The
USS Jeannette is crushed in an
Arctic Ocean ice pack.
*
July 1 -
General Order 70, the culmination of the
Cardwell-Childers reforms of the
British Army's organisation, came into effect.
*
July 2 -
James Abram Garfield,
President of the United States is shot by
lawyer Charles Julius Guiteau. He survives the assassination attempt but he suffers from
infection of his wound.
*
July 4 - In
Alabama, the
Tuskegee Institute opens.
*
July 20 -
Indian Wars:
Sioux chief
Sitting Bull leads the last of his fugitive people in surrender to
United States troops at
Fort Buford in
Montana.
*
3 August -
Pretoria Convention peace treaty signed, officially ending the war between the
Boers and
Britain *
August 27 - A
hurricane hits Florida and Carolinas; about 700 die
September - December
*
September 5 - The
Thumb Fire in the
U.S. state of
Michigan destroys over a million acres (4,000 km²) and kills 282 people.
*
September 19 - US President
James A. Garfield dies. Vice President
Chester Arthur becomes the 21st President of the United States.
*
October 26 -
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in
Tombstone,
Cochise County,
Arizona,
USA.
*
October 29 -
The Judge (US magazine) first published.
*
November 11 - The
Clarkson Memorial in
Wisbech was completed and unveiled to the public.
*
November 19 - A
meteorite struck earth near the village of Großliebenthal, a few kilometers southwest of
Odessa,
Ukraine.
*
December 5 - The 47th
US Congress (1881-83) convenes
*
December 8 - At least 620 die in fire at
Ring Theatre,
ViennaUnknown date
*Founding of the
Pali Text Society*
University College Dublin is established in
Ireland*The United States National Lawn Tennis Association (USNLTA) is founded, and the first U.S.
Tennis Championships are played.
*Founding of the
League of the Three Emperors*
London Evening News begins publication
* Some
Vatican archives opened to scholars for the first time
*
Abilene, Texas is founded.
*
Leyton Orient F.C. is Founded.
*
Minto, North Dakota is Founded.
*
Rafaela,
Argentina is Formed.
*
January 1 -
Vajiravudh,
King of Thailand (d.
1925)
*
January 9 -
Lascelles Abercrombie, English poet and critic (d.
1938)
*
January 9 -
Giovanni Papini, Italian essayist, poet, and novelist (d.
1956)
*
January 17 -
Antoni Łomnicki, Polish mathematician (d.
1941)
*
January 31 -
Irving Langmuir, American chemist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1957)
*
February 12 -
Anna Pavlova, Russian ballerina (d.
1931)
*
March 4 -
Richard C. Tolman, American mathematical physicist (d.
1948)
*
March 4 -
Maude Fealy, American stage and film actor (d.
1971)
*
March 17 -
Walter Rudolf Hess, Swiss physiologist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1973)
*
March 23 -
Roger Martin du Gard, French writer,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1958)
*
March 23 -
Hermann Staudinger, German chemist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1965)
*
March 25 -
Béla Bartók, Hungarian composer (d.
1945)
*
March 25 -
Mary Gladys Webb, English writer (d.
1927)
*
May 19 - Official birthday of
Kemal Atatürk First Turkish President (d.
1938)
*
June 17 -
Tommy Burns, Canadian-born boxer (d.
1955)
*
July 4 -
Ulysses S. Grant III, American soldier and planner (d.
1968)
*
July 27 -
Hans Fischer, German chemist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1945)
*
July 30 -
Smedley Butler, U.S. general (d.
1940)
*
August 6 - Sir
Alexander Fleming, Scottish researcher, recipient of the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d.
1955)
*
August 19 -
Georges Enescu, Romanian composer (d.
1955)
*
August 20 -
Edgar Guest, English poet (d.
1959)
*
September 8 -
Harry Hillman, American athlete (d.
1945)
*
September 16 -
Clive Bell, English art critic (d.
1964)
*
September 17 -
Alfred Francis Blakeney Carpenter, English soldier (d.
1955)
*
October 1 -
William Boeing, American engineer and airplane manufacturer (d.
1956)
*
October 11 -
Hans Kelsen, Austrian legal theorist (d.
1973)
*
October 15 -
P. G. Wodehouse, English-born writer (d.
1975)
*
October 22 -
Clinton Davisson, American physicist,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1958)
*
October 25 -
Pablo Picasso, Spanish painter (d.
1973)
*
November 14 -
Nicholas Schenck, Russian-born film studio executive (d.
1969)
*
November 24 -
Al Christie, Canadian-born director and producer (d.
1951)
*
November 25 -
Pope John XXIII (d.
1963)
*
December 24 -
Juan Ramón Jiménez, Spanish writer,
Nobel Prize laureate (d.
1958)
Unknown
*
Kemal Atatürk, founder and the first
President of Turkey (d.
1938)
*
Antoni Józef Śmieszek, Polish Egyptologist and linguist (d.
1943)
*
William Temple,
Archbishop of Canterbury (d.
1944)
*
Hiram Wesley Evans, American leader of KKK and prohibitionist (d.
1966)
*
January 3 -
Anna McNeill Whistler, Whistler's mother (b.
1804)
*
January 21 -
Wilhelm Matthias Naeff,
member of the Swiss Federal Council (b.
1802)
*
February 5 -
Thomas Carlyle, Scottish writer and historian (b.
1795)
*
February 9 -
Fyodor Dostoevsky, Russian novelist (b.
1821)
*
March 13 - Czar
Alexander II of Russia (b.
1818)
*
March 28 -
Modest Mussorgsky, Russian composer (b.
1839)
*
April 19 -
Benjamin Disraeli,
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b.
1804)
*
May 24 -
Samuel Palmer, English artist (b.
1805)
*
June 6 -
Henri Vieuxtemps, Belgian composer (b.
1820)
*
July 17 -
Jim Bridger, American explorer and trapper (b.
1804)
*
July 18 -
Billy the Kid, American gunslinger (b.
1859)
*
September 7 -
Sidney Lanier, American writer (b.
1842)
*
September 19 -
James A. Garfield, 20th
President of the United States (assassinated) (b.
1831)
*
September 22 -
Solomon L. Spink, U.S. Congressman from Illinois (b.
1831)
*
October 3 -
Orson Pratt, American religious leader (b.
1811)
*
October 31 -
George DeLong, American naval officer and explorer (starvation) (b.
1844)
