1881

January–March

 * January 1–January 24 – Siege of Geok Tepe: Russian troops under General Mikhail Skobelev defeat the Turkomans.
 * January 13 War of the Pacific:The Chilean army defeat Peru in the Battle of San Juan and Chorrillos
 * January 15 Battle of Miraflores: The Chileans take Lima, capital of Peru, after defeating its second line of defense in Miraflores.
 * January 24 – William Edward Forster, the chief secretary for Ireland, introduces his Coercion Bill, which temporarily suspended habeas corpus so that those people suspected of committing an offence could be detained without trial; it goes through a long debate before it is accepted February 2.
 * January 25 – Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell form the Oriental Telephone Company.
 * February 4 The Linngton Manor was burned to the ground. Only William Linnington remained unharmed.
 * February 13 – The first issue of the feminist newspaper La Citoyenne is published by Hubertine Auclert.
 * February 16 – The Canadian Pacific Railway is incorporated.
 * February 19 – Kansas becomes the first U.S. state to prohibit all alcoholic beverages.
 * February 25 – Phoenix, Arizona is incorporated.
 * March 1 – The Cunard Line's SS Servia, the first steel transatlantic liner, is launched at Clydebank in Scotland.
 * March 4 – James A. Garfield is sworn in as President of the United States.
 * March 12 – Andrew Watson makes his Scotland debut as the world's first black international football player.
 * March 13 – Alexander II of Russia is killed near his palace when a bomb is thrown at him, an act falsely blamed upon Russian Jews. He is succeeded by his son, Alexander III.
 * March 23 – First Boer War comes to an end.

April–June

 * April 11 – Spelman College is established.
 * April 14 – The Four Dead in Five Seconds Gunfight erupts in El Paso, Texas.
 * April 15 – Temuco, Chile is founded.
 * April 15 – Anti-Semitic pogroms in Southern Russia start.
 * April 21 – The University of Connecticut is founded as the Storrs Agricultural School.
 * April 25 – Caulfield Grammar School is founded in Melbourne, Australia.
 * April 28 – Billy the Kid escapes from his 2 jailers at the Lincoln County Jail in Mesilla, New Mexico, killing James Bell and Robert Ollinger before stealing a horse and riding out of town.
 * May 10 – Romania is proclaimed a kingdom; Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen is crowned King of Romania.
 * May 12 – In North Africa, Tunisia becomes a French protectorate by the Treaty of Bardo.
 * May 13 – The Pacific island of Rotuma cedes to Great Britain, becoming a dependency of the Colony of Fiji.
 * May 16 – The world's first regular electric tram service is started in Berlin by Siemens & Halske.
 * May 21
 * The American Red Cross is established by Clara Barton.
 * The United States Tennis Association is established by a small group of tennis club members; the first U.S. Tennis Championships are played this year.
 * June 12 – The USS Jeannette is crushed in an Arctic Ocean ice pack.
 * June 18 – The League of the Three Emperors is resurrected.
 * June 20 – The current Cincinnati Reds baseball team plays its first game.
 * June 26 War of the Pacific:Indecisive Battle of Sangrar in central Andes.

July–September

 * July 1 – General Order 70, the culmination of the Cardwell–Childers reforms of the British Army's organization, comes into effect.
 * July 2 – Assassination of James A. Garfield: United States President James A. Garfield is shot by lawyer Charles J. Guiteau in Washington, D.C. The wound becomes infected; killing Garfield on September 19.
 * July 4 – In Alabama, the Tuskegee Institute opens.
 * July 7 – First episode of Carlo Collodi's The Adventures of Pinocchio published in Italy.
 * July 14 – Billy the Kid is shot and killed by Pat Garrett outside Fort Sumner.
 * July 20 – American Indian Wars: Sioux chief Sitting Bull leads the last of his fugitive people in surrender to United States troops at Fort Buford in Montana.
 * July 23 – The Boundary Treaty of 1881 between Chile and Argentina is signed in Buenos Aires.
 * August 3 – The Pretoria Convention peace treaty is signed, officially ending the war between the Boers and Britain.
 * August 27 – The fifth hurricane of the Atlantic season hits Florida and the Carolinas, killing about 700.
 * September 5 – The Thumb Fire in the U.S. state] of Michigan destroys over a million acres (4,000 km²) and kills 282 people.
 * September 12 – Francis Howell High School (Howell Institute) in St. Charles, Missouri, and Stephen F. Austin High School in Austin, Texas open on the same day, putting them in a tie for the title of the oldest public high school west of the Mississippi River.
 * September 19 – President James A. Garfield dies eleven weeks after being shot. Vice President Chester A. Arthur becomes President of the United States.
 * September 20 – President Chester A. Arthur is sworn in.
 * September 26 – Godalming in England becomes the first town to have its streets illuminated by electric light (hydroelectrically generated).

October–December

 * October 5–December 31 – International Cotton Exposition in Atlanta
 * October 10 – Richard D'Oyly Carte's Savoy Theatre opens in London, the world's first public building to be fully lit by electricity, using Joseph Swan's incandescent light bulbs. The stage is first lit electrically on December 28.
 * October 13 – Determined to bring about the revival of the Hebrew language as a way of unifying Jews, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda had what is believed to be the first modern conversation in Hebrew while living in Paris.
 * October 25 – Spanish artist Pablo Picasso is born in Málaga.
 * October 26 – The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral occurs in Tombstone, Cochise County, Arizona, USA.
 * October 29 – Judge (U.S. magazine) is first published.
 * November – The Newcastle United F.C. is founded as the Stanley F.C., with a further name change to Newcastle East End F.C. the following year.
 * November 3 – The Mapuche uprising of 1881 begins with an attack on Quillem.
 * November 9 – The première of Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2 in Budapest.
 * November 11 – The Clarkson Memorial in Wisbech is completed and unveiled to the public.
 * November 19 – A meteorite strikes earth near the village of Großliebenthal, a few kilometers southwest of Odessa, Ukraine.
 * December 8 – Ringtheaterbrand: At least 380 die in a fire at the Vienna Ringtheater.
 * December 25-December 27 – Warsaw pogrom, Vistula Land, Russian Empire.
 * December 28 – Virgil Earp is ambushed in Tombstone and loses the use of his left arm.

Date unknown

 * Kinshasa (the capital of the modern-day Democratic Republic of the Congo) is founded by Henry Morton Stanley as a trading outpost called Léopoldville.
 * Edward Rudolf founds the 'Church of England Central Society for Providing Homes for Waifs and Strays' (modern-day The Children's Society).
 * The Pali Text Society is founded by British scholar Thomas William Rhys Davids for the study of Pali (Ceylonese) texts.
 * Some Vatican archives are opened to scholars for the first time.
 * Abilene, Texas, is founded.
 * Minto, North Dakota, is founded.
 * Rafaela, Argentina, is formed.
 * New York City's oldest independent school for girls, the Convent of the Sacred Heart New York (91st Street), is founded.
 * Culford School, a public school in Suffolk, England, is founded as the East Anglian School for Boys.
 * Leyton Orient F.C. is founded in London.

January–March

 * January 1 – Vajiravudh, King of Thailand (d. 1925)
 * January 9
 * Lascelles Abercrombie, English poet and critic (d. 1938)
 * Giovanni Papini, Italian essayist, poet, and novelist (d. 1956)
 * January 13 – Essington Lewis, Australian industrialist (d. 1961)
 * January 15 – John Rodgers, American naval officer and naval aviation pioneer (d. 1926)
 * January 17 – Antoni Łomnicki, Polish mathematician (d. 1941)
 * January 21 – Arch McCarthy, American baseball player (d. unknown)
 * January 23 – Luisa Casati, Italian heiress, artistic muse, and patron of the arts (d. 1957)
 * January 31 – Irving Langmuir, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1957)
 * February 1 – Dimitrana Ivanova, Bulgarian reform pedagogue, suffragist and women's rights activist (d. 1960)
 * February 11 – Carlo Carrà, Italian painter (d. 1966)
 * February 12 – Anna Pavlova, Russian ballerina (d. 1931)
 * February 13 – Eleanor Farjeon, English author of children's literature (died 1965)
 * February 17 – Bess Streeter Aldrich, American writer (d. 1954)
 * February 28 – Otto Dowling, United States Navy Captain, and the 25th Governor of American Samoa (d. 1946)
 * March 4
 * Maude Fealy, American stage and film actor (d. 1971)
 * Thomas Sigismund Stribling, American writer (d. 1965)
 * Richard C. Tolman, American mathematical physicist (d. 1948)
 * March 9 – Ernest Bevin, British labour leader, politician, and statesman (d. 1951)
 * March 10 – Thomas Quinlan (impresario) (d. 1951)
 * March 17 – Walter Rudolf Hess, Swiss physiologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1973)
 * March 20 – Fritz Pfleumer, German-Austrian engineer and inventor (d. 1945)
 * March 22 – Hans Wilsdorf, German-Swiss watchmaker and founder of Rolex, (d. 1960)
 * March 23
 * Roger Martin du Gard, French writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1958)
 * Hermann Staudinger, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1965)
 * March 25
 * Béla Bartók, Hungarian composer (d. 1945)
 * Mary Webb, English writer (d. 1927)
 * March 26
 * Guccio Gucci founder of Gucci (d. 1953)

April–June

 * April 3 – Alcide De Gasperi, Italian statesman and politician (d. 1954)
 * April 14 – Husain Salaahuddin, Famous Mahl writer (d. 1948)
 * April 16 – E. F. L. Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax, British politician (d. 1959)
 * May 1 – Mary MacLane, Canadian writer (d. 1929)
 * May 4 - Alexander Kerensky, Russian politician (d. 1970)
 * May 13 – Lima Barreto, Brazilian writer (d.1922)
 * May 14 – G. Murray Hulbert, American politician (d. 1950)
 * May 19 – Official birthday of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder and first President of Turkey (d. 1938)
 * May 20 – Władysław Sikorski, Polish general and politician (d. 1943)
 * May 30 – Georg von Küchler, German field marshal (d. 1968)
 * June 9 – Marion Leonard, early American film actress (d. 1956)
 * June 17 – Tommy Burns, Canadian-born boxer (d. 1955)
 * June 26 – Ya'akov Cohen, Israeli poet (d. 1960)

July–September

 * July 2 – Royal H. Weller, American politician (d. 1929)
 * July 4 – Ulysses S. Grant III, American soldier and planner (d. 1968)
 * July 22 – Kenneth Whiting, United States Navy officer and submarine and naval aviation pioneer (d. 1943)
 * July 27 – Hans Fischer, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1945)
 * July 28 – Günther Quandt, German industrialist who founded an industrial empire that today includes BMW and Altana (d. 1954)
 * July 30 – Smedley Butler, United States Marine Corps general (d. 1940)
 * August 3 – Nathan Post, 7th and 10th Governor of American Samoa (d. 1938)
 * August 6 – Sir Alexander Fleming, Scottish researcher, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1955)
 * August 7 – François Darlan, French admiral (d. 1942)
 * August 8 – Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist, German field marshal (b. 1954)
 * August 12 – Cecil B. DeMille, American film director and producer (d. 1959)
 * August 19 – George Enescu, Romanian composer (d. 1955)
 * August 20 – Edgar Guest, English poet (d. 1959)
 * September 5
 * Otto Bauer, Austrian Social Democratic politician (d. 1938)
 * Henry Maitland Wilson, British field marshal (d. 1964)
 * September 8 – Harry Hillman, American athlete (d. 1945)
 * September 11 – Asta Nielsen, Danish silent film star (d. 1972)
 * September 12 – Daniel Jones, British phonetician (d. 1967)
 * September 15 – Ettore Bugatti, Italian Car Designer, Founder of Bugatti Automobiles (d. 1947)
 * September 16 – Clive Bell, English art critic (d. 1964)
 * September 17
 * Alfred Francis Blakeney Carpenter, British admiral (d. 1955)
 * Aubrey Faulkner, South African cricketer (d. 1930)
 * September 26 – Hiram Wesley Evans, Ku Klux Klan Imperial Wizard (d. 1966)
 * September 29 – Ludwig von Mises, Austrian economist (d. 1973)

October–December

 * October 1 – William Boeing, American engineer and airplane manufacturer (d. 1956)
 * October 4 – Walther von Brauchitsch, German field marshal (d. 1948)
 * October 11 – Hans Kelsen, Austrian legal theorist (d. 1973)
 * October 15
 * William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1944)
 * P. G. Wodehouse, English-born writer (d. 1975)
 * October 22 – Clinton Davisson, American physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1958)
 * October 25 – Pablo Picasso, Spanish painter (d. 1973)
 * October 26 – Margaret Wycherly, English stage and film actress (d. 1956)
 * October 28 – Vin Coutie, Australian footballer (d. 1951)
 * November 4 – Gaby Deslys, French dancer & actress (d. 1920)
 * November 5 – George A. Malcolm, American jurist & educator (d. 1961)
 * November 8 – Robert Esnault-Pelterie, French aircraft designer and pioneer rocket theorist (d. 1957)
 * November 12 – Maximilian von Weichs, German field marshal (d. 1954)
 * November 14 – Nicholas Schenck, Russian-born film studio executive (d. 1969)
 * November 15 – Franklin Pierce Adams, American Poet, columnist (d. 1960)
 * November 24 – Al Christie, Canadian-born director and producer (d. 1951)
 * November 25
 * Jacob Fichman, Romanian-born Israeli poet and essayist (d. 1958)
 * Pope John XXIII (d. 1963)
 * November 28 – Stefan Zweig, Austrian writer (d. 1942)
 * December 2 – Heinrich Barkhausen, German physicist (d. 1956)
 * December 5 – René Cresté, French actor and director (d. 1922)
 * December 3 – Henry Fillmore, American composer (d. 1956)
 * December 12 – Doris Keane, American stage actress (d. 1945)
 * December 16 – Henri Dentz, French general (d. 1945)
 * December 24 – Juan Ramón Jiménez, Spanish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1958)

January–June

 * January 3 – Anna McNeill Whistler, James Whistler's mother and subject of his painting (b. 1804)
 * January 21 – Wilhelm Matthias Naeff, member of the Swiss Federal Council (b. 1802)
 * January 24 – Frances Stackhouse Acton, British botanist, archaeologist, writer and artist (b. 1794)
 * February 5 – Thomas Carlyle, Scottish writer and historian (b. 1795)
 * February 9 – Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Russian novelist (b. 1821)
 * February 14 – Fernando Wood, New York City mayor (b. 1812)
 * February 23 – Robert F. R. Lewis, American naval officer (b. 1826)
 * March 13 – Emperor Alexander II of Russia (assassinated) (b. 1818)
 * March 28 – Modest Mussorgsky, Russian composer (b. 1839)
 * April 19 – Benjamin Disraeli, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1804)
 * April 26 – Ludwig Freiherr von und zu der Tann-Rathsamhausen, Bavarian general (b. 1815)
 * April 27 – Ludwig von Benedek, Austrian general (b. 1804)
 * May 24 – Samuel Palmer, English artist (b. 1805)
 * May 25 – Giuseppe Maria Giulietti, Italian explorer (b. 1847)
 * June 6 – Henri Vieuxtemps, Belgian composer (b. 1820)

July–December
date unknown
 * July 14 – Billy the Kid, American gunslinger (b. 1859)
 * July 17 – Jim Bridger, American explorer and trapper (b. 1804)
 * September 7 – Sidney Lanier, American writer (b. 1842)
 * September 8 – Prince Frederick of the Netherlands, Dutch noble and general (b. 1797)
 * September 13 – Ambrose Burnside, American Civil War general, inventor, politician from Rhode Island (b. 1824)
 * September 19 – James A. Garfield, 20th President of the United States (assassinated) (b. 1831)
 * September 22 – Solomon L. Spink, U.S. Congressman from Illinois (b. 1831)
 * October 3 – Orson Pratt, American religious leader (b. 1811)
 * October 31 – George DeLong, American naval officer and explorer (starvation) (b. 1844)
 * December 18 – George Edmund Street, British architect (b. 1824)
 * Baron Jules Dupotet de Sennevoy, French writer (b. 1798)