1880

January–March

 * January 22
 * Toowong State School is founded in Queensland, Australia.
 * February – The journal Science is first published in the United States with financial backing from Thomas Edison.
 * February 2
 * The first electric streetlight is installed in Wabash, Indiana.
 * The first successful shipment of frozen mutton from Australia arrives in London aboard the SS Strathleven.
 * February 4
 * The Black Donnelly Massacre took the lives of five members of one family in Biddulph Township, Middlesex County, Ontario, Canada
 * February 24
 * The SS Columbia, which will be the first outside usage of Thomas Edison's incandescent light bulb, is launched at the Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works of John Roach & Sons in Chester, Pennsylvania.
 * March 31 – Wabash, Indiana becomes the first electrically lit city in the world.

April–June

 * April – The government of Cape Colony sets a deadline for the surrender of weapons by the Basuto people. Non-compliance leads to the Basuto Gun War.
 * April 18 – William Ewart Gladstone defeats Benjamin Disraeli in the United Kingdom general election to become Prime Minister for the second time.
 * April 19 – The Prime Minister of Sweden, Louis De Geer, resigns over the defeat of a defense reform bill in the country's Riksdag; he is succeeded by Count Arvid Posse (1880–1883).
 * April 27 – Charter founding the Royal University of Ireland, allowing the Catholic University of Ireland to re-form as University College Dublin.
 * May 2 – After having her lights installed by Edison's personnel, the SS Columbia is lit up for the first time at the foot of Wall Street in New York City.
 * May 13 – In Menlo Park, New Jersey, Thomas Edison performs the first test of his electric railway.
 * June – The SS Columbia sets off on her maiden voyage around Cape Horn to Portland, Oregon, carrying 13 locomotives and 200 railcars.
 * June 1 – Tinius Olsen awarded a United States Patent for the Little Giant Testing Machine.
 * June 28 – Australian police capture bank robber Ned Kelly after a gun battle at Glenrowan, Victoria.
 * June 29 – France annexes Tahiti.

July–September

 * July 14 – Dorchester Penitentiary opens in Canada.
 * July 22 – Abdur Rahman Khan becomes Emir of Afghanistan.
 * July 27 – Battle of Maiwand
 * August 14 – Cologne Cathedral is completed, after construction began in 1248, 632 years earlier.
 * August 24 – The SS Columbia completes her maiden voyage, arriving without incident in Portland, Oregon after a stopover in San Francisco.
 * August 26 — Competing circus owners P. T. Barnum and James A. Bailey sign a contract in Bridgeport, Connecticut to create the Barnum & Bailey Circus. In 1907, the circus will merge forces with another competitor, the Ringling Brothers Circus.
 * September 1 — Second Anglo-Afghan War: General Frederick Roberts, commanding British forces, defeats the Afghan troops of Mohammad Ayub Khan in the Battle of Kandahar, bringing an end to the war.

October–December

 * October – The "Blizzard of 1880" begins in North America.
 * October 1 – German company Munich Re is founded in Munich.
 * October 6 – The University of Southern California opens its doors to 53 students and 10 faculty.
 * October 15 – Mexican soldiers kill Victorio, one of the greatest Apache military strategists.
 * October 28 – The first stone is laid for the Clarkson Memorial in Wisbech.
 * November 2 – U.S. presidential election, 1880: James Garfield defeats Winfield S. Hancock.
 * November 4 – The first cash register is patented by James and John Ritty of Dayton, Ohio.
 * November 9 – A major earthquake strikes Zagreb and destroys many buildings including Zagreb Cathedral.
 * November 11 – Australian bushranger and bank robber Ned Kelly is hanged in Melbourne.
 * November 22 – Vaudeville actress Lillian Russell makes her debut at Tony Pastor's Theatre in New York City.
 * December 20 – First Boer War: The Battle of Bronkhorstspruit results in a Boer victory over the British.
 * December 30 – The Transvaal becomes a republic and Paul Kruger becomes its first president.

Date unknown

 * Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza signs a treaty of protection with the chief on the large Teke tribe and begins to establish a French protectorate on the north bank of the Congo River.
 * Piezoelectricity is discovered by Pierre Curie and Jacques Curie.
 * The Capuchin catacombs of Palermo are officially closed (there will be some burials afterwards).
 * The Department of Scientific Temperance Instruction of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union is established in the United States.

January–March

 * January 2 – Louis Charles Breguet, French aircraft designer and builder and early aviation pioneer (d. 1955)
 * January 6 – Tom Mix, American actor (d. 1940)
 * January 11 – Rudolph Palm, Curaçao born composer (d. 1950)
 * January 17 – Mack Sennett, Canadian director and producer (d. 1960)
 * January 18 – Paul Ehrenfest, Austrian-Dutch physicist (d. 1933)
 * January 26
 * Sylvia Ashton, American actress (d. 1940)
 * Douglas MacArthur, American general (d. 1964)
 * January 28
 * Herbert Strudwick, English cricketer (d. 1970)
 * Dorothy Donnelly, American actress, lyricist (d. 1928)
 * January 29 – W. C. Fields, American actor and comedian (d. 1946)
 * February 5 – Gabriel Voisin, French aviation pioneer (d. 1973)
 * February 8 – Franz Marc, German artist (d. 1916)
 * February 12
 * John L. Lewis, American labor union leader (d. 1969)
 * George Preca, Maltese saint (d. 1962)
 * February 14 – Frederick J. Horne, American four star Admiral (d. 1959)
 * February 16 – Frank Burke, American baseball player (d. 1946)
 * February 17 – Reginald Farrer, English botanist (d. 1920)
 * February 21 – Waldemar Bonsels, German writer (d. 1952)
 * February 22 – Frigyes Riesz, Hungarian mathematician (d. 1956)
 * February 27 – Olivia Nordgren, Swedish politician (d. 1969)
 * March 1 – Lytton Strachey, English writer and biographer (d. 1932)
 * March 4 – Channing Pollock, American playwright and critic (d. 1946)
 * March 10 – Broncho Billy Anderson, American actor (d. 1971)
 * March 11 – Harry H. Laughlin, American eugenicist (d. 1943)
 * March 22 – Kuniaki Koiso, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1950)
 * March 23 – Heikki Ritavuori, Finnish Minister of the Interior (d. 1922)
 * March 28 – Louis Wolheim, American character actor (d. 1931)
 * March 30 – Seán O'Casey, Irish writer (d. 1964)

April–June

 * April 13 – Charles Christie, Canadian-born film studio owner (d. 1955)
 * April 15 – Max Wertheimer, father of Gestalt Theory (d. 1943)
 * April 18 – Sam Crawford, Baseball Hall of Famer (d. 1968)
 * April 30 – Charles Exeter Devereux Crombie, Scottish-born cartoonist (d. 1967)
 * May 6
 * Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, German painter (d. 1938)
 * William J. Simmons, American founder of the second Ku Klux Klan (d. 1945)
 * May 14 – B. C. Forbes, Scottish-born financial publisher (d. 1954)
 * May 21 – Tudor Arghezi, Romanian writer (d. 1967)
 * May 25
 * Jean Alexandre Barré, French neurologist (d. 1967)
 * Alf Common, English footballer (d. 1946)
 * May 29 – Oswald Spengler, German philosopher (d. 1936)
 * June 4 – Clara Blandick, American actress (d. 1962)
 * June 6 – W. T. Cosgrave, Irish politician (d. 1965)
 * June 9 – William S. Pye, American admiral (d. 1959)
 * June 17 – Carl Van Vechten, American writer and photographer (d. 1964)
 * June 21 – Josiah Stamp, 1st Baron Stamp, British civil servant, industrialist and economist (d. 1941)
 * June 27 – Helen Keller, American spokeswoman for the deaf and blind (d. 1968)
 * June 29 – Ludwig Beck, German general and Chief of the German General Staff (d. 1944)
 * June 30 – Elisabeth Tamm, Swedish politician (d. 1958)

July–September

 * July 5 – Jan Kubelík, Czech violinist (d. 1940)
 * July 11 – Friedrich Lahrs, German architect (d. 1964)
 * July 12 – Tod Browning, American motion picture director, horror film pioneer (d. 1962)
 * July 15 – Alessandro Guidoni, Italian air force general (d. 1928)
 * July 21 – Milan Rastislav Štefánik, Slovak General, politician and astronomer (d. 1919).
 * July 24
 * Ernest Bloch, Swiss-born composer (d. 1959)
 * Kristian Hellström, Swedish athlete (d. 1946)
 * August 4 – Werner von Fritsch, German general (d. 1939)
 * August 6 – Hans Moser, Austrian actor (d. 1964)
 * August 8 – Earle Page, eleventh Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1961)
 * August 10 – Robert L. Thornton, American businessman, philanthropist and mayor of Dallas, Texas (d. 1964)
 * August 12 – Christy Mathewson, American baseball player (d.1925)
 * August 15 – Anna Rüling, German journalist, "the first known lesbian activist" (d. 1953)
 * August 19 – Jean Patou, French fashion designer (d. 1936)
 * August 22 – George Herriman, American cartoonist (d. 1944)
 * August 23 – Wyndham Standing, English stage and film actor (d. 1963)
 * August 26 – Guillaume Apollinaire, French poet (d. 1918)
 * August 29 – Marie-Louise Meilleur, verified as the longest-lived Canadian ever (d. 1998)
 * August 30 – Nikolai Astrup, Norwegian painter (d. 1928)
 * August 31 – Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands (d. 1962)
 * September 12 – H. L. Mencken, American journalist (d. 1956)
 * September 14
 * Metropolitan Benjamin (Fedchenkov), Eastern Orthodox missionary and writer, Exarch of Russian Church in North America (d. 1961)
 * Archie Hahn, American athlete (d. 1955)
 * September 15 – Chujiro Hayashi, Japanese Reiki Master (d. 1940)
 * September 16 – Alfred Noyes, English poet (d. 1958)
 * September 20 – Ugo Cavallero, Italian field marshal (d. 1943)
 * September 22 – Christabel Pankhurst, English suffragette (d. 1958)
 * September 23 – John Boyd Orr, Scottish physician and biologist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1971)
 * September 24 – Sarah Knauss, verified as longest-lived American ever (d. 1999)
 * September 27 – Pier Ruggero Piccio, Italian World War I fighter ace and air force general (d. 1965)

October–December

 * October 4 – Damon Runyon, American writer (d. 1946)
 * October 7 – Paul Hausser, German general (d. 1972)
 * October 12 – Marcel-Bruno Gensoul, French admiral (d. 1973)
 * October 23 – Una O'Connor, Irish actress (d. 1959)
 * November 1
 * Grantland Rice, American sportswriter (d. 1954)
 * Alfred Wegener, German scientist and meteorologist (d. 1930)
 * November 2 – John Foulds, English classical music composer (d. 1939)
 * November 5 – Richard Oswald, Austrian film director (d. 1963)
 * November 6 – Robert Musil, Austrian novelist (d. 1942)
 * November 9 – Giles Gilbert Scott, British architect (d. 1960)
 * November 10 – Jacob Epstein, American-born sculptor (d. 1959)
 * November 12 – Harold Rainsford Stark, American admiral (d. 1972)
 * November 18 – Naum Torbov, Bulgarian architect (d. 1952)
 * November 25
 * Elsie J. Oxenham, born Elsie J. Dunkerley, English children's novelist (d. 1960)
 * John Flynn (minister), Australian medical services pioneer (d. 1951)
 * December 1 – Joseph Trumpeldor, Russian Zionist (d. 1920)
 * December 3 – Fedor von Bock, German field marshal (d. 1945)
 * December 4 – Garfield Wood, American motorboat racer (d. 1971)
 * December 10 – Jessie Aspinall, Australian doctor, first female junior medical resident at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital (d. 1953)
 * December 11 – Frank Tarrant, Australian cricketer (d. 1951)
 * December 24 – Johnny Gruelle, American cartoonist and children's book author (d. 1938)
 * December 31 – George Marshall, United States Secretary of State, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1959)

Date unknown

 * Hong Yi ,born Li Shutong, Chinese Buddhist artist and art teacher (d. 1942)

January–June

 * January 4
 * Anselm Feuerbach, German painter (b. 1829)
 * Marthe Camille Bachasson, Count of Montalivet, French statesman (b. 1801)
 * January 8 – Joshua A. Norton, self-anointed Emperor Norton I of the United States of America (b. 1811)
 * January 12
 * Ellen Lewis Herndon Arthur, wife of Chester A. Arthur (b. 1837)
 * Ida, Countess von Hahn-Hahn, author (b. 1805)
 * January 14 – Frederick VIII, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein (b. 1829)
 * January 20 – Captain Moonlite, Australian bushranger (b. 1842) (hanged)
 * January 31 – Adolphe Granier de Cassagnac, French politician (b. 1806)
 * February 29 – Sir James Milne Wilson, Premier of Tasmania (b. 1812)
 * April 23 – Raden Saleh, Indonesian painter (b. 1807)
 * March 14 – Pagan Min, King of Ava (b. 1811)
 * March 31 – Henryk Wieniawski, Polish composer (b. 1835)
 * May 2 – Tom Wills, Australian cricketer and pioneer of Australian rules football (b. 1835)
 * May 4 – Edward Clark, Confederate Governor of Texas (b. 1815)
 * May 8 – Gustave Flaubert, French novelist (b. 1821)
 * May 20
 * Károly Alexy, Hungarian sculptor (b. 1816)
 * Ana Néri, Brazilian nurse (b. 1814)
 * June 8 – Maria Alexandrovna (Marie of Hesse), Empress Consort of Czar Alexander II of Russia (b. 1824)
 * June 28 – Texas Jack Omohundro, American frontier scout, actor, and cowboy (b. 1846)

July–December

 * July 7 – Lydia Maria Child, American novelist and abolitionist (b. 1802)
 * July 17 – Tomasz Chołodecki, Polish political activist (b. 1813)
 * July 21 – Hiram Walden, American politician (b. 1800)
 * August 15 – Adelaide Neilson, English actress (b. 1848)
 * August 17 – Ole Bull, Norwegian violinist (b. 1810)
 * August 24 – Chief Ouray, Native American leader (b. c. 1833)
 * October – Victorio, Chiricahua Apache chief
 * October 5 – Jacques Offenbach, German-born composer (b. 1819)
 * October 22 – Alphonse Pénaud, French aviation pioneer (b. 1850)
 * October 23 – Bettino Ricasoli, Italian statesman (b. 1809)
 * November 11 – Ned Kelly, Australian bush ranger (hanged) (b. c. 1855)
 * November 28 – Aires de Ornelas e Vasconcelos, (Portuguese) Archbishop of Goa (b. 1837)
 * December 20 – Gaspar Tochman, Polish-American soldier (b. 1797)
 * December 22 – George Eliot, English writer (b. 1819)