1881

Year '1881' ('MDCCCLXXXI') was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar).

Contents

Events of 1881

January - March

April - June

July - September

October - December

Undated

Births

January - June

July - December

Deaths

January - June

July - December

Events of 1881

January - March

★ 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 occurs.

★ 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 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 - June

★ 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 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 - September

★ July 1 - General Order 70, the culmination of the Cardwell-Childers reforms of the British Army's organization, 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.

★ August 3 - 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 5 - The Thumb Fire in the U.S. state of Michigan destroys over a million acres (4,000 km²) and kills 282 people.

★ September 12 - Francis Howell High School (Howell Institute) opens making it the oldest public high school west of the Mississippi River.

★ September 19 - US President James A. Garfield dies. Vice President Chester Arthur becomes the 21st President of the United States.

October - December

★ October 3 - Mormon apostle, scientist and mathematician Orson Pratt dies in Utah.

★ October 26 - Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Cochise County, Arizona, USA.

★ October 29 - ''The Judge'' (US magazine) is 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 3 - Henry Fillmore, famous concert march composer, was born.

★ December 5 - The 47th US Congress (1881-83) convenes.

★ December 8 - At least 620 die in fire at the Ring Theatre, Vienna.

Undated

★ New York City's oldest independent school for girls, the Convent of the Sacred Heart New York (91st Street), is founded.

★ Edward Rudolf founded the 'Church of England Central Society for Providing Homes for Waifs and Strays' (now The Children's Society).

★ The Pali Text Society is founded.

★ 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 Euiolb.kws'' begins publication.

★ Some Vatican archives opened to scholars for the first time.

★ Abilene, Texas is founded.

★ Newcastle United F.C. is founded as Stanley F.C., with a further name change to Newcastle East End F.C. a few months later.

★ Leyton Orient F.C. is founded.

★ Minto, North Dakota is founded.

★ Rafaela, Argentina is formed.

★ Culford School a public school in Suffolk, United Kingdom is founded.

Births

January - June

★ January 1 - Vajiravudh, King of Thailand (d. 1925)

★ January 9

★
★ Lascelles Abercrombie, English poet and critic (d. 1938)

★
★ Giovanni Papini, Italian essayist, poet, and novelist (d. 1956)

★ January 17 - Antoni Lomnicki, 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

★
★ Maude Fealy, American stage and film actor (d. 1971)

★
★ Thomas Sigismund Stribling, American writer (d. 1965)

★
★ Richard C. Tolman, American mathematical physicist (d. 1948)

★ March 9 - Ernest Bevin, British labour leader, politician, and statesman (d. 1951)

★ 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)

★
★ Hermann Staudinger, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1965)

★ March 25

★
★ Béla Bartók, Hungarian composer (d. 1945)

★
★ Mary Webb, English writer (d. 1927)

★ May 14 - G. Murray Hulbert, American politician (d. 1950)

★ May 19 - Official birthday of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder and the first President of Turkey (d. 1938)

★ May 20 - Władysław Sikorski, Polish general and politician (d. 1943)

★ June 17 - Tommy Burns, Canadian-born boxer (d. 1955)

July - December

★ July 2 - Royal H. Weller, American politician (d. 1929)

★ 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 5 - Otto Bauer, Austrian Social Democratic politician (d. 1938)

★ 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

★
★ William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1944)

★
★ 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)Begun to paint on 1900. All works before that year belongs to his father, José Ruiz Blasco. Case in Central Trial Court.

★ 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)

★ November 28 - Stefan Zweig, Austrian writer (d. 1942)

★ December 24 - Juan Ramón Jiménez, Spanish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1958)

★ ''date unknown'' - Hiram Wesley Evans, American leader of KKK and prohibitionist (d. 1966)
: ''See also .''

Deaths

January - June

★ 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)

★ February 14 - Fernando Wood, New York City Mayor (b. 1812)

★ 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)

★ May 25 - Giuseppe Maria Giulietti, Italian explorer (b. 1847)

★ June 6 - Henri Vieuxtemps, Belgian composer (b. 1820)

July - December

★ July 14 - Billy the Kid, American gunslinger (b. 1859)

★ July 17 - Jim Bridger, American explorer and trapper (b. 1804)

★ September 7 - Sidney Lanier, American writer (b. 1842)

★ September 8 - Prince Frederik of the Netherlands, Dutch noble and general (b. 1797)

★ 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)
: ''See also .''