25th January » Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell form the Oriental Telephone Company.
13th February » The feminist newspaper 'La Citoyenne' is first published in Paris by the activist Hubertine Auclert.
16th February » The Canadian Pacific Railway is incorporated by Act of Parliament at Ottawa (44th Vic., c.1).
24th February » China and Russia sign the Sino-Russian Ili Treaty.
27th February » First Boer War: The Battle of Majuba Hill takes place.
13th March » Alexander II of Russia is killed near his palace when a bomb is thrown at him. (Gregorian date: it was March 1 in the Julian calendar then in use in Russia.)
26th March » Thessaly is freed and becomes part of Greece again.
27th March » Rioting takes place in Basingstoke in protest against the daily vociferous promotion of Teetotalism by the Salvation Army.
11th April » Spelman College is founded in Atlanta or Atlanta, Georgia as the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary, an institute of higher education for African-American women.
14th April » The Four Dead in Five Seconds Gunfight is fought in El Paso, Texas.
16th April » In Dodge City, Kansas, Bat Masterson fights his last gun battle.
18th April » Billy the Kid escapes from the Lincoln County, New Mexico or Lincoln County jail in Mesilla, New Mexico.
12th May » In North Africa, Ottoman Tunisia known as Tunisia becomes a French Protectorate of Tunisia e.g French protectorate.
21st May » The American Red Cross is established by Clara Barton in Washington, D.C.
13th June » The USS Jeannette (1878) e.g USS 'Jeannette' is crushed in an Arctic Ocean ice pack.
28th June » Secret treaty between Austria and Serbia.
29th June » In Sudan, Muhammad Ahmad declares himself to be the Mahdi, the messianic redeemer of Islam.
1st July » General Order 70, the culmination of the Cardwell Reforms or Cardwell and Childers Reforms called Childers reforms of the British Army, comes into effect.
2nd July » Charles J. Guiteau shoots and fatally wounds President of the United States e.g U.S. President James Garfield, who eventually dies from an infection on September 19.
4th July » In Alabama, the Tuskegee Institute opens.
14th July » Billy the Kid is shot and killed by Pat Garrett outside Fort Sumner.
23rd July » The Boundary treaty of 1881 between Chile and Argentina is signed in Buenos Aires.
19th September » U.S. President James A. Garfield dies of wounds suffered in a July 2 shooting.
20th September » Chester A. Arthur is inaugurated as the 21st President of the United States following the assassination of James Garfield.
13th October » Revival of the Hebrew language First Aliyah called First known conversation in modern Hebrew by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and friends.
26th October » The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral takes place at Tombstone, Arizona.
19th November » A meteorite lands near the village of Grossliebenthal, southwest of Odessa, Ukraine.
4th December » The first edition of the 'Los Angeles Times' is published.