1880s
| Centuries: | 18th century - 19th century - 20th century |
| Decades: | 1850s 1860s 1870s - 1880s - 1890s 1900s 1910s |
| Years: | 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889 |
Contents |
Events and Trends**
Technology
- Development and commercial production of electric lighting
- Development and commercial production of gasoline-powered automobile by Karl Benz, Gottlieb Daimler and Maybach
- First commercial production and sales of phonographs and phonograph recordings.
- First steel frame construction "sky-scrapers"
- American Society of Mechanical Engineers founded 16 February 1880, New York, N.Y.
- Construction begins on the Panama Canal by the French. This is the first attempt to build the Canal.
Science
- Heinrich Hertz discovers the photoelectric effect
- Michelson-Morley experiment, showing that the speed of light is invariant
- James-Lange theory of emotion
War, peace and politics
- First Boer War
- The New Imperialism
Literature and Arts
- Mark Twain publishes The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
- Feodor Dostoevsky writes The Brothers Karamazov.
- Robert Louis Stevenson publishes Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde
- First edition of Oxford English Dictionary published.
- Arthur Conan Doyle publishes his first Sherlock Holmes tale.
Other
- Krakatoa, a volcano in Indonesia, erupts cataclysmically; 36,000 people are killed, the majority by the resulting tsunami
- About 300,000 Swedes emigrate to the United States
People
The last surviving person born in the 1880s, María Capovilla, died on August 27, 2006.
World Leaders
- Emperor Franz Josef (Austria-Hungary)
- Prime Min Sir John A. Macdonald (Canada)
- Guangxu Emperor (China)
- Emperor Wilhelm I (German Empire)
- Emperor Wilhelm II (German Empire)
- Chancellor Otto von Bismarck (German Empire)
- King Umberto I (Italy)
- Pope Leo XIII
- Emperor Meiji (Japan)
- General Porfirio Díaz (Mexico)
- Czar Alexander II (Russia)
- King Alfonso XII (Spain)
- Queen - Empress Victoria (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland)
- Prime Min William Ewart Gladstone (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland)
- Prime Min Robert Arthur Talbot Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland)
- President Rutherford B. Hayes (United States)
- President Chester A. Arthur (United States)
- President Grover Cleveland (United States)
- Nasser-al-Din Shah of Qajar dynasty (Persia)
- King Booker
Categories
1880s