- February 22
- In Yokohama, Japan, a magnitude 5.8 earthquake occurs. [53]
- February 29
- Gotthard railway tunnel between Switzerland and Italy opens. [1]
- March 4
- New York Daily Graphic publishes first half-tone engraving, by S H Horgan. [1]
- March 10
- General Wolseley opens new legislative council in Pretoria. [1]
- Salvation Army of England sets up US welfare and religious activity. [1]
- March 20
- Peru government decree specified new gold coin as monetary unit, to be called "inca", 0.900 fine gold, 1.162 grams, in denominations 1, 2, 5 incas, plus silver peseta and real coins and copper coins. (The gold and copper coins are never minted.) [1041.583]
- March 23
- Flour rolling mill patented by John Stevens of Wisconsin, USA. [1]
- March 31
- Wabash, Indiana, USA is first town completely illuminated by electric lighting. [1]
- April 24
- Amateur Athletic Association, governing body for men's athletics in England and Wales, is founded in Oxford, England. [1]
- A bomb explodes in the Monte Carlo casino; many are wounded by glass, but no serious theft is carried out. [187.304] [811.185]
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- May 10
- General Wolseley opens new legislative council in Pretoria. [1]
- July 7
- The French national lottery completes funding for the Statue of Liberty. [418.44]
- July 21
- Compressed air accident kills 20 workers on Hudson River tunnel, New York, USA. [1]
- July 23
- First commercial hydroelectric power plant begins, Grand Rapids, Mich. [1]
- July 27
- Battle of Maiwand in Afghanistan. The British force of 2476 men lose 969 dead and 177 wounded. Afghans lose about 3000 out of about 25,000. The British are forced to retreat to Kabul. [992.102]
- August 14
- Construction of Cologne Cathedral is completed. [1]
- September 7
- Geo Ligowsky patents device to throw clay pigeons for trapshooters. [1]
- September 30
- Henry Draper takes first photograph of the Orion Nebula. [1]
- October 1
- The first electric lamp factory is opened by Thomas Edison, in the USA. [5]
- October 15
- Köln cathedral is completed, 633 years after construction started. [1]
- November 2
- James A Garfield (Republican) is elected President of the USA. [1]
- December 8
- 5,000 armed Boers gather in Paardekraal, South Africa. [1]
- December 16
- Republic of South Africa forms. [1]
- December 20
- Battle at Bronker's Spruit, Transvaal: Farmers beat Britten. [1]
1881
- January 17
- Chilean army enters Lima, Peru. [1041.647]
- January 25
- Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell form the first telephone company. [5]
- January 28
- Battle at Laing's Neck, Natal: Boers beat superior-powered British. [1]
- February 7
- Battle at Ingogo, Transvaal: Boers beat superior British forces. [1]
- February 14
- The Casa de Moneda (Mint) opens in Argentina. [477.74] [782.50]
- February 24
- De Lesseps' Company begins work on Panamá Canal. [1]
- February 26
- In Natal, British troops under General-Major Colley occupy Majuba Hill. [1]
- SS Ceylon begins first round-the-world cruise from Liverpool. [1]
- February 27
- Battle at Amajuba, South Africa: Boers versus British army under General Colley. [1]
- George Colley, British governor of Natal/General, dies in battle at age 46. [1]
- March 4
- James Garfield is inaugurated as 20th President of the USA. [1] [718.50]
- South African President Kruger accepts ceasefire. [1]
- March 13
- Sophia Perovskaya detonates a bomb, killing Tsar Aleksandr II of Russia, at age 62. [1] [1265.110]
- March 18
- [PT] Barnum and [James A] Bailey's Greatest Show on Earth opens (Madison Square Garden, New York, USA). [1]
- March 23
- Boers and Britain sign peace accord, ending first Boer war. [1]
- Gas lamp sets fire to Nice, France, opera house; 70 die. [1]
- March 27
- In Basingstoke, England, troops clear streets of rioting local brewery workers, following an anti-alcohol campaign by the Salvation Army. [1396.18]
- April 1
- Anti-Jewish riots in Jerusalem. [1]
- Kingdom post office in Netherlands opens. [1]
- April 5
- Transvaal regains independence under British suzerainty. [1]
- April 25
- 250,000 Germans petition to bar foreign Jews from entering Germany. [1]
- French troops occupy Algeria and Tunisia. [1]
- April 27
- Pogroms against Russian Jews start in Elisabethgrad. [1]
- April 28
- Robert W Ollinger, US warden/last victim of Billy the Kid, dies. [1]
- May 5
- Anti-Jewish rioting in Kiev, Ukraine. [1]
- May 8
- Henry Morton Stanley signs contract with Congolian monarch. [1]
- May 12
- Treaty of Bardo, Tunisia becomes a French protectorate. [1]
- May 16
- World's first electric tram goes into service in Lichterfelder (near Berlin, Germany). [1]
- May 21
- In Washington, D.C., humanitarians Clara Barton and Adolphus Solomons found the American National Red Cross. [1] [5] [129] [407.60]
- June 3
- Japanese giant salamander dies in Dutch zoo at age 55; oldest amphibian. [1]
- June 14
- Player piano is patented in USA by John McTammany, Junior, Cambridge, Massachusetts. [1]
- June 24
- 200 drown as train runs off bridge near Cuautla, Mexico. [1]
- June 30
- Henry Highland Garnet is named US minister to Liberia. [1]
- July 1
- The world's first international telephone call takes place between Saint Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada, and Calais, Maine, United States. [1] [5]
- July 2
- At a railroad station in Washington, D.C., US President James Garfield is shot twice from behind by Charles Guiteau. [718.54] [1265.109] [1566.66]
- July 15
- Sherriff Patrick F. Garrett of Lincoln County, New Mexico, shoots to death outlaw William H. Bonney "Billy the Kid" at the home of Peter Maxwell. [1] [645.46]
- August 4
- In Seville, Spain, a European record hot temperature of 122 degrees F (50 degrees C) is recorded. [1] [54]
- September 11
- Triple landslides bury Elm, Switzerland. [1]
- September 19
- Death of James Garfield in Long Branch, New Jersey, USA from a gunshot wound two months previous; 20th President of the USA. [718.50] [1265.109] [1566.66]
- Chester A Arthur is sworn in as 21st US President. [825.52]
- October 1
- The first electric power-station providing current for both public and domestic use begins operation. The hydro-electric Central Power Station operates on the River Wey at Godalming, Surrey, England. [55.56]
- October 26
- In Tombstone, Arizona, USA, the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday face off against the Clanton-McLaury gang in a shootout at the OK Corral. The Earp brothers consist of bank security guard Wyatt, town marshal Virgil, and Morgan. The Clantons (Ike, Billy) and McLaurys (Tom, Frank) and Billy Claiborne are cowboys, cattle rustlers, thieves, and murderers. The 30-second shootout ends with Billy Clanton and the McLaury brothers dead, and Virgil and Morgan Earp and Doc Holliday wounded. (The three are arrested by the county sheriff and charged with murder, but found not guilty a month later.) [1] [187.265] [129]
- December 8
- Vienna's Ring Theater destroyed by fire, kills between 640-850. [1]
1882
- January 25
- Bilu, a Russian Zionist organization, forms. [1]
- January 26
- France government of Gambetta falls. [1]
- February 2
- Knights of Columbus forms in New Haven, Connecticut, USA. [1]
- February 12
- Social-Democratic Union forms in Amsterdam. [1]
- February 15
- First cargo of frozen meat leaves New Zealand for Britain, on SS Dunedin. [1]
- March 4
- Britain's first electric trams run in East London. [5]
- March 6
- Monarch Milan Obrenovic of Serbia crowns himself king. [1]
- March 24
- German scientist Robert Koch discovers bacillus cause of tiberculosis. [1]
- March 29
- Knights of Columbus is chartered for Catholic men. [1]
- April 3
- Jesse James, outlaw, shot dead at age 34, in Saint Joseph, Missouri by Robert Ford. [1] [5]
- April 10
- Matson founds his shipping company (San Francisco and Hawaii). [1]
- April 13
- Anti-Semitic League forms in Prussia. [1]
- April 29
- The "Elektromote" - a forerunner of the trolleybus - is given its first trial run by Ernst Werner von Siemens in Berlin, Germany. [5]
- May 6
- Chinese Exclusion Act: US Congress ceases Chinese immigration. [1]
- Epping Forest, England, is dedicated by Queen Victoria. [1]
- Lord Frederick Cavendish is assassinated by Fenian Invincibles, in Dublin, Ireland. [1]
- Thomas Henry Burke is assassinated by Fenian Invincibles, in Dublin, Ireland. [1]
- May 13
- Toba-Indians kill 20 members of French expedition. [1]
- May 15
- May Laws-Czar Alexander III bans Jews from living in rural Romania. [1]
- June 6
- Cyclone in Arabian Sea (Bombay India) drowns 100,000. [1]
- Electric iron patented in USA by Henry W. Seely of New York City. [1]
- June 11
- A violent anti-European disturbance in Alexandria, Egypt, results in about 60 deaths. The disturbance was due to British and French gunboats outside Alexandria. [1207.4]
- June 16
- 17-inch diameter hailstones weighing 1.75 pounds fall in Dubuque, Iowa, USA. [1]
- June 17
- Tornado kills 130 in Iowa, USA. [1]
- July 10
- British fleet bombards earthworks at Alexandria harbor, Egypt. After about 10 hours, 1000 sailors put ashore and occupy Alexandria. [1207.4]
- July 13
- 200 die as train derails near Tcherny, Russia. [1]
- August 3
- US Congress passes first law restricting immigration. [1]
- August 5
- Standard Oil of New Jersey is established. [5]
- August 7
- Hatfields of south West Virginia and McCoys of east Kentucky feud, 100 wounded or die. [1]
- August 15
- Sir Garnet Wolseley lands British expedition at Alexandria, Egypt. [1207.4]
- August 20
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture debuts in Moscow, Russia. [5]
- September 5
- The first United States Labor Day parade (10,000 workers) is held in New York City. [1] [5]
- September 10
- First international conference to promote anti-semitism meets in Dresden, Germany (Congress for Safeguarding of Non-Jewish Interests). [1]
- September 13
- At 5:00AM, a British expedition surprise attacks Egyptian army of Colonel Ahmed Arabi at Tel-el-Kebir on road from Ismailia to Cairo, Egypt. They quickly succeed. [1] [1207.5]
- September 14
- Cairo, Egypt, with 10,000 garrison capitulates to 1500 British heavy cavalry. [1207.6]
- September 18
- Pacific Stock Exchange opens (as the Local Security Board). [1]
- October 22
- In Southeast Oklahoma, USA, a magnitude 4.9 earthquake occurs. [53]
- November 7
- Near Denver, Colorado, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake occurs. [53]
- December 22
- First string of Christmas tree lights created by Thomas Edison. [1]
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