1880 was a leap year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar).

Events

January - April

• January 1 - Construction of the Panama Canal begins
• February 1 - First edition of The Stage published
• February 2 - The first electric streetlight is installed in Wabash, Indiana
• February 13 - Thomas Edison becomes the second person to observe the Edison Effect.
• February 17 - Bomb explodes in Winter Palace dining room but the tzar Alexander II survives because he was late for dinner
• March 10 - Members of the Salvation Army land in the United States and begin operations.
• April 22 ? Benjamin Disraeli resigns.

May - August

• May 13 - In Menlo Park, New Jersey, Thomas Edison performs the first test of his electric railway.
• June 29 - France annexes Tahiti
• 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.

September - December

• 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
• November 11 - Australian bushranger and bank robber Ned Kelly is hung in Melbourne.
• November 22 - Vaudeville actress Lillian Russell makes her debut at Tony Pastor's Theatre in New York City.
• December 30 - The Transvaal becomes a republic and Paul Kruger becomes its first president.

Unknown date

• Discovery of piezoelectricity by Pierre Curie and Jacques Curie .
• Completion of Cologne cathedral.
• Founding of Science by Thomas Edison.
• Cocaine isolated
• The British recognise Abdur Rahman Khan as amir of Afghanistan

Births

• January 6 - Tom Mix, actor (d. 1940)
• January 17 - Mack Sennett, director, producer (d. 1960)
• January 26 - Douglas MacArthur, general (d. 1964)
• January 28 - Herbert Strudwick, English cricketer (d. 1970).
• January 29 - W.C. Fields, English actor (d. 1946)
• February 5 - Gabriel Voisin, French aviation pioneer (d. 1973)
• February 8 - Franz Marc, artist, co-founder: Blauer Reiter (d. 1916)
• February 12 - John L. Lewis, labor union leader (d. 1969)
• February 21 - Waldemar Bonsels, writer (d. 1952)
• February 22 - Frigyes Riesz, mathematician (d. 1956)
• March 1 - Giles Lytton Strachey British writer and biographer (d. 1932)
• March 10 - Bronco Billy Anderson, actor (d. 1971)
• March 13 - Frank Thieß , writer (d. 1977)
• March 30 - Sean O'Casey, Irish writer (d. 1964)
• April 13 - Charles Christie, pioneer film studio owner (d. 1955)
• April 18 - Sam Crawford, Baseball Hall of Famer (d. 1968)
• May 6 - Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, painter (d. 1938)
• May 14 - B.C. Forbes, financial publisher (d. 1954)
• May 25 - Jean Alexandre Barré, neurologist (d. 1967)
• May 29 - Oswald Spengler, philosopher (d. 1936)
• June 27 - Helen Keller, spokeswoman for the deaf and blind (d. 1968)
• July 5 - Jan Kubelík, violinist (d. 1940)
• July 24 - Ernest Bloch, Swiss composer (d. 1959)
• August 6 - Hans Moser, Austrian actor (d. 1964)
• August 8 - Earle Page, eleventh Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1961)
• August 10 - Robert L. Thornton, Dallas, Texas businessman, philanthropist and mayor (d. 1964)
• August 22 - George Herriman, cartoonist (d. 1944)
• August 26 - Guillaume Apollinaire, French poet (d. 1918)
• August 31 - Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands (d. 1962)
• September 14 - Archie Hahn, American athlete (d. 1955)
• September 22 - Christabel Pankhurst, suffragette (d. 1958)
• November 6 - Robert Musil, Austrian novelist (d. 1942)
• December 11 - - Frank Tarrant, Australian cricketer (d. 1951).
• December 31 - George C. Marshall, American general (d.1959)
• Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt, American equestrian (d. 1925)
• Joseph Trumpeldor, Zionist (d. 1920)
• Abd al-Aziz IV , sultan of Morocco
• Gar Wood, motorboat racer

Deaths

• January 8 - Joshua A. Norton, self-anointed Emperor Norton I of the United States of America (b. 1811)
• March 31 - Henryk Wieniawski, composer (b. 1835)
• May 4 - Edward Clark, governor of Texas (b. 1815)
• May 8 - Gustave Flaubert, novelist (b. 1821)
• July 7 - Lydia Child, novelist and abolitionist (b. 1802)
• August 17 - Ole Bull, Norwegian Violinist (b. 1810)
• November 11 - Bushranger Ned Kelly hanged
• October 4 - Jacques Offenbach, composer (b. 1819)