General
Population: 1.39 Billion*
- Entertainment: Writers include Disraeli, Dostoevsky (The Brothers Karamazov), JC Harris writes Uncle Remus, hilipp Spitta writes bio of Johann Sebastian Bach, Jens Jacobson,
Longfellow, Pierre Loti, Maupassant, Lew Wallace writes Ben Hur, Zola, Walter Bagehot's works published posthumousely, John Claird writes about the philosophy of religion
Music include Ragtime "Hot Blues" emerges as a pre-jazz
Art includes Cezanne (Chateau de Medan), Pissarro, Renoir, Rodin sculpts The Thinker
Theater includes Pirates of Penzance debut
- Philosophy: Revival of Scholasticism - the idea that faith precedes reason
Social Darwinism merges with branches of Christianity forming Social Justice movement by judging people as unfit and in need of being made fit
- Science: Laveran discovers malaria parasite
Pasteur discovers chicken cholera vaccine
Pavlov's esperiments with behavior
- Sports: Bingo game feveloped form Italian lotto game of Tombola
- Technology: Edison and JW Swann independently divise first practical electric lights
Canned fruits and meats first appear in stores
Winshurst created electrostatic generator
- Deaths: Composer Jacques Offenbach, George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), Writer Gustave Flaubert, Artist Anselm Feuerbach, Musician Henri Wieniawski,
Emperor Norton of San Francisco
Africa
- General: Beginning of European "Scramble for Africa" as Britain, France and Belgium battle for African colonies
Drought at horn
- Eritrea: Italy takes control
- South Africa: First Boer War - Boers under Kruger declare a republic independent fro Britain
Cape Parliament rejects echeme for S African federation
Americas
- General: Pacific War – Chile against Bolivia and Peru
- Panama: (Colombia) de Lesseps who built Suez starts attempt at Panama Canal to 1888
Asia
Europe
- General: Immigration from SE Europe commences
Schools become compulsory and free - replaces first communion as symbol of emancipation and adulthood –
Germany and England to make common language and national identity
Masters of industry cheer education, patriotism taught
- France: Total solar eclipse over south France
Cologne Cathedral completed (started 1248)
Socialist party founded
French physician Jules Cotard names Cotard Delusion where people think their dead, rotting, or have another negation delusion
- Germany: Bismarck introduces state social welfare system
- Great Britain: End of Disraeli's (Lord Beaconsfield) reign ending Victorian age as Gladstone serves
Parcel post introduced
Captain CC Boycott the land agent in Mayo Ireland is "boycotted" for refusing to accept rents fixed by his tenants
Irish insurrection
London Guildhall School of Music founded
Owens College in Manchester becomes a university
Gladstone frees serfs on Shetland
- Italy: Agricultural crisis - many Italians migrate to USA and Argentina
- Norway: Skis used in mountaineering
Viking grave ship discovered
- Serbia etc.: Croatian earthquake
- Spain: Mass Drowning at Ebro River in Spain when raft collapses 275 die
Middle East
- Afghanistan: Rebels lay siege to British at Kandahar Afghanistan – pro-British Abd-er-Rahman Khan comes to power
Pacific
- Australia: Ranger Ned Kelly hanged and becomes folk hero
World Expo in Melbourne
- Tahiti: France annexes as a colony
President:
Pres: Rutherford B. Hayes
Pres: James A. Garfield elected over Wilfield Scott Hancock
General
- Business: US Steel production exceeds 1.4 million tons
Union memberships boom
- Military: U.S. navy reduced to 100 vessels, most of which were rotting and falling apart
Daniel Ruggles uses hot-air balloon in US to lift explosive into clouds to induce downpour
- Politics: President Garfield reported to not only be ambidextrous but to write Greek with the left and Latin with the right
Greenback Party shows in election in US
Second wave of US prohibition
- Technology: Carnegie develops first large steel furnace
USA has 50,000 telephones (patented 4 years earlier)
East
- New York: One mile of Broadway in New York illuminated by electric lights
Midwest
- Missouri: 24 Marshfield tornadoes - one sucks well dry
South
- Texas: Flash flood in Marshall and Bracketville
West and Pacific
- California: Sacramento under martial law due to civil unrest
Death of Emperor Norton I of San Francisco
- New Mexico: Alma Massacre when settlers killed by Apaches
- Utah: Electric lights demonstrated
President
Pres: Quorum of Twelve led by John Taylor
Pres: John Taylor
Membership: 133,628
Temples: 1
Other
- Jubilee year of the Church - Perpetual Emigration Fund debts forgiven, at least in part
- Hayes appoints anti-Mormon as governor of Utah, Hayes visits Utah, Hayes asks for more anti-Mormon legislation
- Pearl of Great Price accepted as scripture by Church
1880 
