1881

Events from the year **1881 in the United States**. For the second time in history (after past 40 years).

## Incumbents

### Federal Government

* President:
	+ until March 4: Rutherford B. Hayes (R-OH)
	+ March 4–September 19: James A. Garfield (R-OH)
	+ starting September 19: Chester A. Arthur (R-NY)
* Vice President:
	+ until March 4: William A. Wheeler (R-NY)
	+ March 4–September 19: Chester A. Arthur (R-NY)
	+ starting September 19: *vacant*
* Chief Justice: Morrison Waite (originally from CT; lived in U.S. state of OH)
* Speaker of the House of Representatives: Samuel J. Randall (D-PA) (until March 4), J. Warren Keifer (R-OH) (starting December 5)
* Congress: 46th (until March 4), 47th (starting March 4)

Governors
* Governor of Alabama: Rufus W. Cobb (Democratic)
* Governor of Arkansas: William Read Miller (Democratic) (until January 11), Thomas James Churchill (Democratic) (starting January 11)
* Governor of California: George Clement Perkins (Republican)
* Governor of Colorado: Frederick Walker Pitkin (Republican)
* Governor of Connecticut: Charles B. Andrews (Republican) (until January 5), Hobart B. Bigelow (Republican) (starting January 5)
* Governor of Delaware: John W. Hall (Democratic)
* Governor of Florida: George Franklin Drew (Democratic) (until January 4), William D. Bloxham (Democratic) (starting January 4)
* Governor of Georgia: Alfred H. Colquitt (Democratic)
* Governor of Illinois: Shelby Moore Cullom (Republican)
* Governor of Indiana: Isaac P. Gray (Democratic) (until January 10), Albert G. Porter (Republican) (starting January 10)
* Governor of Iowa: John H. Gear (Republican)
* Governor of Kansas: John P. St. John (Republican)
* Governor of Kentucky: Luke P. Blackburn (Democratic)
* Governor of Louisiana: Louis A. Wiltz (Democratic) (until October 16), Samuel D. McEnery (Democratic) (starting October 16)
* Governor of Maine: Daniel F. Davis (Republican) (until January 13), Harris M. Plaisted (Democratic)
* Governor of Maryland: William T. Hamilton (Democratic)
* Governor of Massachusetts: John Davis Long (Republican)
* Governor of Michigan: Charles Croswell (Republican) (until January 1), David Jerome (Republican) (starting January 1)
* Governor of Minnesota: John S. Pillsbury (Republican)
* Governor of Mississippi: John M. Stone (Democratic)
* Governor of Missouri: John Smith Phelps (Democratic) (until January 10), Thomas Theodore Crittenden (Democratic) (starting January 10)
* Governor of Nebraska: Albinus Nance (Republican)
* Governor of Nevada: John H. Kinkead (Republican)
* Governor of New Hampshire: Natt Head (Republican) (until June 2), Charles H. Bell (Republican) (starting June 2)
* Governor of New Jersey: George B. McClellan (Democratic) (until January 18), George C. Ludlow (Democratic) (starting January 18)
* Governor of New York: Alonzo B. Cornell (Republican)
* Governor of North Carolina: Thomas Jordan Jarvis (Democratic)
* Governor of Ohio: Charles Foster (Republican)
* Governor of Oregon: W. W. Thayer (Democratic)
* Governor of Pennsylvania: Henry M. Hoyt (Republican)
* Governor of Rhode Island: Alfred H. Littlefield (Republican)
* Governor of South Carolina: Johnson Hagood (Democratic)
* Governor of Tennessee: Albert S. Marks (Democratic) (until January 17), Alvin Hawkins (Republican) (starting January 17)
* Governor of Texas: Oran M. Roberts (Democratic)
* Governor of Vermont: Roswell Farnham (Republican)
* Governor of Virginia: Frederick W. M. Holliday (Democratic)
* Governor of West Virginia: Henry M. Mathews (Democratic) (until March 4), Jacob B. Jackson (Democratic) (starting March 4)
* Governor of Wisconsin: William E. Smith (Republican)

Lieutenant Governors
* Lieutenant Governor of California: John Mansfield (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Colorado: Horace Austin Warner Tabor (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: David Gallup (Republican) (until January 5), William H. Bulkeley (Republican) (starting January 5)
* Lieutenant Governor of Florida: vacant (until month and day unknown), Livingston W. Bethel (no political party) (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: Andrew Shuman (Republican) (until January 10), John Marshall Hamilton (Republican) (starting January 10)
* Lieutenant Governor of Indiana:
	+ until January 8: Fredrick Vieche (Democratic)
	+ January 8-January 10: vacant
	+ starting January 10: Thomas Hanna (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Iowa: Frank T. Campbell (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kansas: Lyman U. Humphrey (Republican) (until month and day unknown), David Wesley Finney (Republican) (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: James E. Cantrill (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana:
	+ until October 16: Samuel D. McEnery (Democratic)
	+ October 16-December 24: William A. Robertson (Democratic)
	+ starting December 24: George L. Walton (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: Byron Weston (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: Alonzo Sessions (Republican) (until month and day unknown), Moreau S. Crosby (Republican) (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota: Charles A. Gilman (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi: William H. Sims (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: Henry Clay Brockmeyer (Democratic) (until January 10), Robert Alexander Campbell (Democratic) (starting January 10)
* Lieutenant Governor of Nebraska: Edmund C. Carns (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Nevada: Jewett W. Adams (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of New York: George Gilbert Hoskins (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina: vacant
* Lieutenant Governor of Ohio: Andrew Hickenlooper (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania: Charles Warren Stone (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Henry Fay (political party unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: John D. Kennedy (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee: John R. Neal (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), George H. Morgan (Democratic) (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Texas: Joseph Draper Sayers (Democratic) (until month and day unknown), Leonidas J. Storey (Democratic) (starting month and day unknown)
* Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: John L. Barstow (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Virginia: James A. Walker (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin: James M. Bingham (Republican)

## Events

### January - March

* January 25 – Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell form the Oriental Telephone Company.
* February 2 – The 5.6 Mla Parkfield earthquake affects central California with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VII (*Very strong*). Some damage occurred near Imusdale northwest of Parkfield, including cracks in the roads, fallen chimneys, and partially collapsed buildings.
* February 5 – Phoenix, Arizona, is incorporated.
* February 14 – Pine City, Minnesota is incorporated.
* February 19 – Kansas becomes the first U.S. state to prohibit all alcoholic beverages.
* February 22 – Cleopatra's Needle is erected in Central Park, New York City.
* March 1 – Barnum & Bailey's "Greatest Show on Earth" opens in Madison Square Garden.
* March 4 – James A. Garfield is sworn in as the 20th President of the United States, and Chester A. Arthur is sworn in as Vice President of the United States.
* March 15 – First plots of Abilene, Texas, are auctioned; the town is incorporated later in the year.

### April - June

* April 11 – Spelman College is established.
* April 14 – The Four Dead in Five Seconds Gunfight erupts in El Paso, Texas.
* April 16 – Bat Masterson fights his last gun battle in Dodge City, Kansas.
* April 21 – The University of Connecticut is founded as the Storrs Agricultural School.
* April 28 – Billy the Kid escapes from his two 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 21
	+ The American Red Cross is established by Clara Barton.
	+ The United States Tennis Association (USNLTA) 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.

### July - September

* July 2 – Assassination of James A. Garfield: James A. Garfield, President of the United States, is shot by lawyer Charles J. Guiteau at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington, D.C. He survives the shooting but suffers from infection of his wound, dying on September 19.
* July 4 – The Tuskegee Institute opens in Alabama.
* July 14 – Billy the Kid is shot and killed by Pat Garrett outside Fort Sumner.
* July 20 – Indian Wars: Sioux chief Sitting Bull leads the last of his fugitive people in surrender to United States troops at Fort Buford in Montana.
* August 1 – First ever summer camp held, on Chocorua Island in Grafton County, New Hampshire.
* August 27 – The fifth hurricane of the 1881 Atlantic hurricane 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 weeks after being shot. Vice President Chester A. Arthur becomes the 21st President of the United States.

### October - December

* October 5 – International Cotton Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia begins.
* October 18 – Yorktown Centennial is observed in Virginia, Yorktown Victory Monument cornerstone laid.
* October 22 – Boston Symphony Orchestra gives its inaugural concert.
* October 26 – The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral occurs in Tombstone, Cochise County, Arizona.
* October 29 – *Judge* magazine is first published.
* November 17 – The trial of Charles J. Guiteau begins in Washington, D.C.
* December 4 – The first edition of the Los Angeles Times is published.
* December 28 – Virgil Earp is ambushed in Tombstone and loses the use of his left arm.
* December 31 – International Cotton Exposition in Atlanta, Georgia ends.

## Sport

* September 16 – The Chicago White Stockings win their Second straight (Third Overall) pennant with a 4–0 win over the Boston Red Caps.

## Memoriam

* January 3 – Anna McNeill Whistler, James Whistler's mother and subject of his painting (aged 76; Hastings, England, UK)
* February 14 – Fernando Wood, New York City mayor (aged 68; Hot Springs, AR, USA)
* February 23 – Robert F. R. Lewis, naval officer (aged 55; Martinique, France)
* April 19 – Joseph Lane, U.S. Senator from Oregon from 1859 to 1861 (aged 79; Roseburg, OR, USA)
* April 24 – James T. Fields, publisher (aged 63; Boston, MA, USA)
* May 21 – Thomas A. Scott, industrialist (aged 57; Darby, PA, USA)
* June 18 – Henry Smith Lane, U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1836 to 1837 and from 1854 to 1858 (aged 70; Crawfordsville, IN, USA)
* July 14 – Billy the Kid, Old West gunfighter (killed) (aged 21; Fort Sumner, NM Territory, USA)
* July 17 – Jim Bridger, explorer and trapper (aged 77; Kansas City, MO, USA)
* August 10 – Orville Hickman Browning, U.S. Senator from Illinois from 1866 to 1869 (aged 75; Quincy, IL, USA)
* September 7 – Sidney Lanier, musician and dialect poet (aged 39; Lynn, NC, USA)
* September 13 – Ambrose Burnside, Union Army general, railroad executive, inventor, industrialist and Rhode Island Senator (aged 57; Bristol, RI, USA)
* September 15 – Susan May Williams, railroad heiress, wife of Jérôme Napoléon Bonaparte (aged 69; Baltimore, MD, USA)
* September 19 – James A. Garfield, 20th President of the U.S. from March to September 1881 (assassinated) (aged 49; Elberon, NJ, USA)
* September 22 – Solomon L. Spink, U.S. Congressman from Illinois (aged 50; Yankton, Dakota Territory (Now SD), USA)
* October 3 – Orson Pratt, religious leader (aged 70; Salt Lake City, UT Territory, USA)
* October 8 – Joseph Carter Abbott, U.S. Senator from North Carolina from 1868 to 1871 (aged 56; Wilmington, NC, USA)
* October 12 – Josiah Gilbert Holland, novelist and poet (aged 62; New York City, NY, USA)
* October 26
	+ Billy Clanton, outlaw and brother of Ike Clanton (aged 19; Tombstone, AZ Territory, USA)
	+ Frank McLaury, Old West gunman and brother of Tom McLaury (aged 32; Tombstone, AZ Territory, USA)
	+ Tom McLaury, pioneer and Old West gunman (aged 28; Tombstone, AZ Territory, USA)
* October 31 – George W. De Long, naval officer and Arctic explorer (starvation) (aged 37; Yakutia, Russia)
* November 18 – George Law, financier (aged 75; New York City, NY, USA)
* November 23 – Abijah Gilbert, U.S. Senator from Florida from 1869 to 1875 (aged 75; Gilbertsville, NY, USA)
* December 4 – Wood Hite, outlaw and cousin of Jesse and Frank James (shot) (aged 31; Ray County, MO, USA)
* December 13 – John Quidor, painter (aged 80; Jersey City, NJ, USA)