Explore 1132 historical events from 1880–1889.
Edward FitzGerald or Fitzgerald was an English poet and writer. His most famous poem is the first and best-known English translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, which has kept…
Edward FitzGerald, English poet and author (born 1809)
Sir Edward Sabine was an Irish physicist, geodesist,astronomer, geophysicist, ornithologist, polar explorer, soldier, and the 30th president of the Royal Society.
Edward Sabine, Irish-English astronomer, geophysicist, and ornithologist (born 1788)
Charles Sherwood Stratton, better known by his stage name "General Tom Thumb", was an American with dwarfism who achieved great fame as a performer under circus pioneer P. T. Barnu…
General Tom Thumb, American circus performer (born 1838)
Tự Đức was the fourth emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty of Vietnam, and the country's last pre-colonial monarch. Ruling for about 36 years from 1847 to 1883, this made him the longest …
Tự Đức, Vietnamese emperor (born 1829)
Montgomery Blair was an American politician and lawyer from Maryland. He served in the Lincoln administration cabinet as Postmaster-General from 1861 to 1864, during the Civil War.…
Montgomery Blair, American lieutenant and politician, 20th United States Postmaster General (born 1813)
Jeremiah Sullivan Black was an American statesman and lawyer. He served as a justice on the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania (1851–1857) and as the Court's Chief Justice (1851–1854). …
Jeremiah S. Black, American lawyer and politician, 24th United States Attorney General (born 1810)
Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev (1818–1883) was a Russian novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright, translator and popularizer of Russian literature in the West.
Ivan Turgenev, Russian author and playwright (born 1818)
Joseph Antoine Ferdinand Plateau was a Belgian physicist and mathematician. He was one of the first people to demonstrate the illusion of a moving image. To do this, he used counte…
Joseph Plateau, Belgian physicist and academic (born 1801)
Stephen Grover Cleveland was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States, serving from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. He was the first U.S. president to serve nonconsecut…
New York governor Grover Cleveland signed legislation that led to the creation of Niagara Falls State Park, the United S
The Brooklyn Bridge is a cable-stayed suspension bridge in New York City, spanning the East River between the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Opened on May 24, 1883, the Brookl…
New York City's Brooklyn Bridge opened as the longest suspension bridge in the world at the time
The Victoria Hall disaster occurred on 16 June 1883 at the Victoria Hall in Sunderland, England, when the distribution of free toys caused a crowd crush resulting in 183 children t…
In the Victoria Hall disaster, 183 children were crushed to death when they ran down the stairs to collect gifts after a
The quagga is an extinct subspecies of the plains zebra which was endemic to South Africa until it was hunted to extinction in the late 19th century. It was long thought to be a di…
The last known quagga (example pictured), a subspecies of the plains zebra, died at Natura Artis Magistra, a zoo in…
Between 19 May and 21 October 1883, the volcanic island of Krakatoa began erupting, lasting more than five months. On 27 August, the island had its most significant eruption, which…
A massive eruption (pictured) destroyed the island of Krakatoa, Indonesia, ejecting so much volcanic ash that average…
Thomas Henry Burke was an Irish civil servant who served as Permanent Under Secretary at the Irish Office for many years before being assassinated during the Phoenix Park Murders o…
Thomas Henry Burke and Lord Frederick Cavendish are stabbed to death by Fenian assassins in Phoenix Park, Dublin
The United States Congress is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a bicameral legislature, including a lower body, the U.S. House of Repres…
The United States Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act
Shewa, formerly romanized as Shua, Shoa, Showa, Shuwa, is a historical region of Ethiopia which was formerly an autonomous kingdom within the Ethiopian Empire. The modern Ethiopian…
The Shewan forces of Menelik II of Ethiopia defeat the Gojjame army in the Battle of Embabo
The ʻUrabi revolt, also known as the ʻUrabi Revolution, was a nationalist uprising in the Khedivate of Egypt from 1879 to 1882. It was led by and named for Colonel Ahmed Urabi and …
Nationalist riots break out in Alexandria directed against foreign domination
The Republic of Stellaland was, from 1882 to 1883, a Boer republic located in an area of British Bechuanaland, west of the Transvaal. After unification with the neighbouring State …
The Republic of Stellaland is founded in Southern Africa.
The French Third Republic was the system of government adopted in France from 4 September 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed during the Franco-Prussian War, until 10 Jul…
French and Vietnamese troops clashed in Tonkin, when Commandant Henri Rivière seized the citadel of Hanoi with a small f
The Triple Alliance was a defensive military alliance between Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy. It was formed on 20 May 1882 and renewed periodically until it expired in 1915 du…
The Triple Alliance between the German Empire, Austria-Hungary and the Kingdom of Italy is formed
The Anglo-French Convention of 1882 was signed on 28 June 1882 between Great Britain and France. It confirmed the territorial boundaries between Guinea and Sierra Leone around Cona…
The Anglo-French Convention of 1882 marks the territorial boundaries between Guinea and Sierra Leone
Charles Julius Guiteau was an American office seeker who assassinated 20th United States president James A. Garfield in 1881. A failed lawyer suffering from mental illness, Guiteau…
Charles J
Labor Day is a federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday of September to honor and recognize the American labor movement and the works and contributions o…
The first United States Labor Day parade is held in New York City.
The British conquest of Egypt, also known as the 2nd Anglo-Egyptian War, occurred in 1882 between mostly Egyptian and Sudanese forces under Ahmed ‘Urabi and the United Kingdom.
Anglo-Egyptian War: The Battle of Tel el-Kebir is fought.