1881

Years: 1878 1879 1880 - 1881 - 1882 1883 1884

Decades: 1850s 1860s 1870s - 1880s - 1890s 1900s 1910s

Centuries: 18th century - 19th century - 20th century 1881 in art 1881 in literature 1881 in music 1881 in science 1881 in sports 1881 in Canada List of state leaders in 1881 List of religious leaders in 1881

Events

• January 16-24 ? Siege of Geok Tepe ? Russian troops under general Skobeleff defeat Turkomans
• January 25 - Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell form the Oriental Telephone Company
• February 5 - Phoenix, Arizona is incorporated.
• 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 13 - Alexander II of Russia is killed near his palace when a bomb is thrown at him.
• March 16 - Fenian dynamiters hit Mansion House in London
• May 12 - In North Africa, Tunisia becomes a French protectorate.
• May 21 - The American Red Cross is established by Clara Barton.
• June 12 - The USS Jeannette is crushed in an Arctic Ocean ice pack.
• 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.
• September 19 - James Abram Garfield, President of the United States dies due to an infected wound and is succeeded by Vice President Chester Alan Arthur.
• October 26 - Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Cochise County, Arizona, USA.
• December 8 - At least 620 die in fire at Ring Theatre, Vienna

• 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 Three Emperor's League
• London Evening News begins publication
• Some Vatican archives opened to scholars for the first time

Births

• January 6 - Sam Rayburn, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (d. 1961)
• January 16 - Sir Arthur Percy Morris Fleming, radio pioneer
• February 12 - Anna Pavlova, ballerina (d. 1931)
• March 12 - Kemal Atatürk, founder and first president of the Turkish Republic (d. 1938)
• March 25 - Béla Bartók, Hungarian composer.
• March 25 - Mary Gladys Webb, writer (d. 1927)
• May 1 - Mary MacLane (d. 1929), feminist and bisexual writer
• June 17 - Tommy Burns, World Heavyweight Boxing Champion
• August 6 - Sir Alexander Fleming, British discoverer of penicillin.
• September 8 - Harry Hillman, American athlete
• October 15 - P. G. Wodehouse, British-American writer
• October 25 - Pablo Picasso, painter
• November 14 - Nicholas Schenck motion-picture empresario (d. 1969)
• November 24 - Al Christie, early Hollywood director/producer (d. 1951)
• November 25 - Pope John XXIII (d. 1963)

Deaths

• January 21 - Wilhelm Matthias Näff, member of the Swiss Federal Council (b. 1802)
• March 13 - Czar Alexander II of Russia
• April 19 - Benjamin Disraeli, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
• September 22 - Solomon L. Spink, U.S. Congressman from Illinois (b. 1831)
• October 31 - George Washington DeLong, American naval officer and ill-fated explorer