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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).

Contents

Events of 1880

January - March

April - June

July - September

October - December

Undated

Births

January - June

July - December

Deaths

January - June

July - December

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.

★ May 13 - In Menlo Park, New Jersey, Thomas Edison performs the first test of his electric railway.

★ June 29 - France annexes Tahiti.

July - September

★ July 1 - First performance of ''O Canada'', the song that would become the national anthem of Canada.

★ July 16 - First woman licensed to practise medicine in Canada - Dr. Emily Howard Stowe.

★ July 22 - The British recognise Abdur Rahman Khan as emir of Afghanistan.

★ August 30 - First complete railroad trip made from Houston to New Orleans on the Texas and New Orleans Railroad.

★ September 5 - First successful test of an electric Tram in the world takes place in St. Petersburg, Russia.

★ September 16 - Black Bart robbed the stage from Roseburg to Yreka, California. This took place in Jackson County, Oregon. It was the farthest north Bart is known to have robbed.

October - December

★ October - Terrible winter storm in North America, the "Blizzard of 1880".

★ 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 was 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 was patented by James and John Ritty of Dayton, Ohio.

★ November 11 - Australian bushranger and bank robber Ned Kelly is hung 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.

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)

★ February 12 - John L. Lewis, American labor union leader (d. 1969)

★ 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, Bt, GCB, GBE, FBA, a British civil servant, industrialist, economist, statistician and banker (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 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 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 - 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, American woman, notable for living 119 years (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

★ 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)

★ December 1 - Joseph Trumpeldor, Russian Zionist (d. 1920)

★ December 4 - Garfield Wood, American motorboat racer (d. 1971)

★ 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)

★
★ D. Leigh Colvin, American temperance movement leader and Prohibition Party candidate for presidency in 1936 (d. ?)

★
★ Reginald John Farrer, English botanist (d. 1920)

★
★ Li Shutong, Chinese artist and art teacher (d. 1942)
: ''See also .''

Deaths

January - June

★ January 8 - Joshua A. Norton, self-anointed Emperor Norton I of the United States of America (b. 1811)

★ January 12 - Ida, Countess von Hahn-Hahn, author (b. 1805)

★ April 23 - Raden Saleh, Indonesian painter (b. 1807)

★ 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)

★ June 8 - Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse), Empress Consort of Czar Alexander II of Russia (b. 1824)

July - December

★ July 7 - Lydia 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. 1847)

★ August 17 - Ole Bull, Norwegian violinist (b. 1810)

★ October - Victorio, Apache chief

★ October 4 - Jacques Offenbach, German-born composer (b. 1819)

★ November 11 - Ned Kelly, Australian bush ranger (hanged)

★ November 28 - Aires de Ornelas e Vasconcelos, (Portuguese) Archbishop of Goa (b. 1837)

★ December 22 - George Eliot, English writer (b. 1819)

★ unknown - Károly Alexy, a sculptor.
: ''See also .''