1880


Events:

   * January 1 - Construction of the Panama Canal begins
   * February 2 - The first electric streetlight is installed in Wabash,
     Indiana
   * February 13 - Thomas Edison becomes the first person to observe the
     Edison Effect.
   * March 10 - Members of the Salvation Army land in the United States and
     begin operations.
   * May 13 - In Menlo Park, New Jersey, Thomas Edison performs the first
     test of his electric railway.
   * July 1 - First performance of O Canada, the song that would become the
     national anthem of Canada.
   * July 16 - First woman licensed to practice medicine in Canada - Dr.
     Emily Howard Stowe.
   * October - terrible winter storm in North America, the "Blizzard of
     1880".
   * October 15 - Mexican soldiers kill Victorio, one of the greatest Apache
     military strategists.
   * November - James Garfield defeats Winfield S. Hancock in the U.S.
     presidential election
   * December 30 - The Transvaal becomes a republic and Paul Kruger becomes
     its first president.
   * Discovery of piezoelectricity by Pierre Curie and Jacques Curie.
   * Completion of Cologne cathedral.

Arts, Sciences, Literature and Philosophy

   * 1880 in literature:

Births:

   * January 6 - Tom Mix, actor (+ 1940)
   * January 17 - Mack Sennett, director, producer (+ 1960)
   * January 26 - Douglas MacArthur, general (+ 1964)
   * January 29 - W.C. Fields, actor (+ 1946)
   * January 30 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt, President of the United States
     (+ 1945)
   * February 8 - Franz Marc, painter/graphic artist, co-founder: Blauer
     Reiter (+ 1916)
   * February 12 - John L. Lewis, labor union leader (+ 1969)
   * February 21 - Waldemar Bonsels, writer (+ 1952)
   * February 22 - Frigyes Riesz, mathematician
   * March 10 - Broncho Billy Anderson, actor (+ 1971)
   * March 13 - Frank Thie§, writer (+ 1977)
   * March 30 - Sean O'Casey, dramatist (+ 1964)
   * April 13 - Charles Christie, pioneer film studio owner in Hollywood (+
     1955)
   * May 6 - Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, painter (+ 1938)
   * May 25 - Jean Alexandre BarrŽ, neurologist (+ 1967)
   * May 29 - Oswald Spengler, philosopher, Decline of the West (+ 1936)
   * August 22 - George Herriman, cartoonist (Krazy Kat)
   * August 31 - Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands
   * November 6 - Robert Musil, Austrian novelist (The Man Without
     Qualities)
   * June 27 - Helen Keller, socialist, pacifist, spokeswoman for the deaf
     and blind

Deaths:

   * January 8 - Joshua A. Norton, Emperor Norton I of the United States of
     America.
   * May 8 - Gustave Flaubert, novelist
   * November 11 - Bushranger Ned Kelly hanged
   * October 4 - Jacques Offenbach, composer