The world in 1881

General

  • Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell form the Oriental Telephone Company.
  • The Savoy Theatre opens
  • Alexander Fleming born
  • The secret Vatican archives, containing (it is thought) about 150,000 items, were first opened on a limited basis to scholars in 1881 by Pope Leo XIII.

Census

  • The 1881 census was taken on the night of 3 April 1881 and gave the total population as 29,707,207.

The Arts

  • P.G. Wodehouse is born
  • Henry James – The Portrait of a Lady is published
  • Composer Bela Bartok born
  • Painter Pablo Picasso born
  • Writer Fyodor Dostoevsky dies
  • Composer Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky dies

Political and Military

  • Benjamin Disraeli dies
  • William Gladstone is Prime Minister
  • The First Boer War is ended by the signing of the Pretoria Convention
  • Charles Stewart Parnell imprisoned
  • The British army and navy abolished flogging.
  • The year started with Rutherford B. Hayes, and James Garfield was inaugurated in March (following the election of 1880.) Garfield was assassinated in September of the same year, and was replaced by his vice president, Chester Alan Arthur. Grover Cleveland succeeded Arthur in 1885.
  • Garfield was in office for 6 months and 15 days, which was the second shortest term in the first 43 presidents. The shortest was William Henry Harrison with 31 days in 1841. Garfield was also the first left-handed president.
  • In Russia Alexander II is assassinated.

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