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The 1880s

1,937 sourced entries across 10 years, inside the 19th century. Each year below opens its own page; the lines under it are that year’s highest-ranked entries.

1880 CE165 entries

  • May – School is made compulsory for children aged 6 to 14 in New South Wales.
  • October 28 – The first stone is laid for the Clarkson Memorial in Wisbech, England.
  • The John N Gamewell, a small American brigantine, sinks off the west coast of the Cape Colony near Port Elizabeth.

1881 CE193 entries

  • February 22 – Cleopatra's Needle is erected in Central Park, New York City.
  • March 13 (March 1 Old Style) – Assassination of Alexander II of Russia: Emperor Alexander II of Russia ("the Liberator") is killed near his palace in Saint Petersburg when bombs are thrown at him, an act committed by the revolutionary socialist group Narodnaya Volya coordinated by Sophia Perovskaya but falsely blamed upon Russian Jews. He is succeeded by his son, Alexander III. The assassin Ignacy Hryniewiecki is also killed by his own bomb.
  • November 19 – A meteorite strikes the Earth near the village of Großliebenthal, a few kilometers southwest of Odesa, Ukraine.

1882 CE189 entries

  • March 22 – Polygamy is made a felony by the Edmunds Act, passed by the United States Congress.
  • July 11–13 – Anglo-Egyptian War: The British Mediterranean Fleet carries out the Bombardment of Alexandria, its forces capturing the city of Alexandria, Egypt, and securing the Suez Canal.
  • 29 August – The Australian cricket team beats England for the first time in a test match at The Oval in London. A mock obituary appears in the next day's Sporting Times, mourning "the death of English cricket", which leads to the creation of The Ashes.

1883 CE186 entries

  • March 28 – Battle of Gia Cuc: A French force defeats the Vietnamese in northern Vietnam in the run-up to the Sino-French War.
  • October 15 – The Supreme Court of the United States declares part of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 to be unconstitutional, since the Court allows private individuals and corporations to discriminate based on race.
  • October 16 – In five Civil Rights Cases the Supreme Court of the United States declares part of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 to be unconstitutional, allowing individuals and corporations to discriminate based on race.

1884 CE186 entries

  • 18 February – English Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins takes up a post as professor of Greek and Latin at University College Dublin on St Stephen's Green, where he will remain until his death in 1889 and write his "terrible sonnets".
  • March 28 – Prince Leopold, the youngest son and eighth child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, dies, aged 30 in Cannes (France) following a fall complicated by his haemophilia. His son, Charles Edward, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, is born nearly 4 months later.
  • August 10 – An earthquake measuring 5.5 Mfa affects a very large portion of the eastern United States. The shock has a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (Very strong). Chimneys are toppled in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania. Property damage is severe in Jamaica, Queens and Amityville, New York.

1885 CE189 entries

  • March 26 – First legal cremation in England: widowed painter Jeanette Pickersgill of London, "well known in literary and scientific circles", is cremated by the Cremation Society at Woking, Surrey.
  • 26 March – Prussian deportations: the Prussian government orders the expulsion of all ethnic Poles and Jews holding Russian citizenship, later extended to include Polish Austrian citizens. More than 30,000 people are forced across the border.
  • October 13 – The Georgia Institute of Technology is established in Atlanta, Georgia as the Georgia School of Technology.

1886 CE196 entries

  • February 8 – The West End Riots following a popular meeting in Trafalgar Square, London.
  • March 17 – A white mob storms a courthouse in Carroll County, Mississippi, killing 23 African Americans.
  • November 15 – The Werkstätte für Feinmechanik und Elektrotechnik (Workshop for Fine Mechanics and Electronics) is founded in Baden-Württemberg, Germany by Robert Bosch. The company will later become the home appliance and power tool brand, Robert Bosch GmbH.

1887 CE205 entries

  • February 24 – The first international telephone line in Europe is opened to the public between Brussels and Paris.
  • 28 May – Udston mining disaster in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Scotland: 73 coal miners die in a firedamp explosion at Udston Colliery.
  • July – James Blyth operates the first working wind turbine at Marykirk, Scotland.

1888 CE211 entries

  • April 13 – Kahisakan (可否茶館), the first coffee shop in Japan, opens in Tokyo.
  • May 10 – Nippon Oil Corporation, predecessor of Eneos, a petroleum and gas energy brand in Japan, is founded in Niigata Prefecture.
  • November 6 – 1888 United States presidential election: Democratic Party incumbent Grover Cleveland wins the popular vote, but loses the Electoral College vote to Republican challenger Benjamin Harrison, therefore losing the election.

1889 CE217 entries

  • 21 January – American "Professor" Baldwin makes the first balloon ascent in New Zealand at Dunedin.
  • February 22 – President Grover Cleveland signs the Enabling Act of 1889, admitting North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Washington as U.S. states.
  • May 28 – Rubber tire company Michelin is registered by Édouard and André Michelin in Clermont-Ferrand, France.