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 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 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.
• 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 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 caused by an assasins bullet 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
• May 24 - Samuel Palmer, English artist (b. 1805)
• July 18 - Billy the Kid
• September 22 - Solomon L. Spink, U.S. Congressman from Illinois (b. 1831)
• October 31 - George Washington DeLong, American naval officer and ill-fated explorer

af:1881 be:1881 bg:1881 ca:1881 cy:1881 da:1881 de:1881 es:1881 eo:1881 fr:1881 hu:1881 it:1881 nl:1881 pl:1881 ro:1881 sl:1881 sr:1881 fi:1881 sv:1881