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).
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 .''
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