1880

From ArticleWorld


1880 is the year in which two major breakthroughs were done by Thomas Edison and testing done in Russia.

Important events

  • February 2 – Wabasha, Indiana is the setting of the first ever streetlight systems being built.
  • May 13 – Thomas Edison performed the first tests of his electric railway system in Menlo Park, New Jersey. On September 5 the first electric tram system was successfully tested in St. Petersburg, Russia.
  • June 29 – Tahiti is annexed by France.
  • The month of November saw James Garfield becoming US president after the 1880 elections. He beat Winfield S. Hancock.
  • December 20 – The Action of Bronkhorstspruit takes place. It was the first major action of the First Boer War.
  • December 30 – Transvaal establishes itself as a republic with Paul Kruger as the first president.

Dates of Birth

  • January 6 – American actor Tom Mix, died in 1940. Another famous actor, W.C. Fields, was born on the 29th of January and died in 1946. Bronco Billy Anderson, born on the 10th of March was to die in 1971
  • January 26 – American general Douglas MacArthur, died in 1964
  • February 21 – German writer Waldemar Bonsels, died in 1952
  • April 15 - Max Wertheimer. He is nominated with the term “Father of Gestalt Theory” and died in 1943
  • May 6 – German painter Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, died in 1938. Another German, philosopher Oswald Spengler, was born on the 29th of May and died in 1936
  • August 8 – The eleventh Prime Minister of Australia, Earle Page, died in 1961
  • Two recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize were also born in 1880: Scottish John Boyd Orr (September 23) and American George Marshall (December 31), which was to become United States Secretary of State.