1880

Events from the year **1880 in the United States**.

Governors
* Governor of Alabama: Rufus W. Cobb (Democratic)
* Governor of Arkansas: William Read Miller (Democratic)
* Governor of California: William Irwin (Democratic) (until January 8), George Clement Perkins (Republican) (starting January 8)
* Governor of Colorado: Frederick Walker Pitkin (Republican)
* Governor of Connecticut: Charles B. Andrews (Republican)
* Governor of Delaware: John W. Hall (Democratic)
* Governor of Florida: George Franklin Drew (Democratic)
* Governor of Georgia: Alfred H. Colquitt (Democratic)
* Governor of Illinois: Shelby Moore Cullom (Republican)
* Governor of Indiana: James D. Williams (Democratic) (until November 20), Isaac P. Gray (Democratic) (starting November 20)
* 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: Francis T. Nicholls (Democratic)(until January 14), Louis A. Wiltz (Democratic) (starting January 14)
* Governor of Maine: Alonzo Garcelon (Democratic) (until January 17), Daniel F. Davis (Republican) (starting January 17)
* Governor of Maryland: John Lee Carroll (Democratic) (until January 14), William T. Hamilton (Democratic) (starting January 14)
* Governor of Massachusetts: Thomas Talbot (Republican) (until January 8), John Davis Long (Republican) (starting January 8)
* Governor of Michigan: Charles Croswell (Republican)
* Governor of Minnesota: John S. Pillsbury (Republican)
* Governor of Mississippi: John M. Stone (Democratic)
* Governor of Missouri: John Smith Phelps (Democratic)
* Governor of Nebraska: Albinus Nance (Republican)
* Governor of Nevada: John H. Kinkead (Republican)
* Governor of New Hampshire: Natt Head (Republican)
* Governor of New Jersey: George B. McClellan (Democratic)
* Governor of New York: Alonzo B. Cornell (Republican)
* Governor of North Carolina: Thomas Jordan Jarvis (Democratic)
* Governor of Ohio: Richard M. Bishop (Democratic) (until January 12), Charles Foster (Republican) (starting January 12)
* Governor of Oregon: W. W. Thayer (Democratic)
* Governor of Pennsylvania: Henry M. Hoyt (Republican)
* Governor of Rhode Island: Charles C. Van Zandt (Republican) (until May 25), Alfred H. Littlefield (Republican) (starting May 25)
* Governor of South Carolina:
	+ until September 1: William Dunlap Simpson (Democratic)
	+ September 1-November 30: Thomas Bothwell Jeter (Democratic)
	+ starting November 30: Johnson Hagood (Democratic)
* Governor of Tennessee: Albert S. Marks (Democratic)
* Governor of Texas: Oran M. Roberts (Democratic)
* Governor of Vermont: Redfield Proctor (Republican) (until October 7), Roswell Farnham (Republican) (starting October 7)
* Governor of Virginia: Frederick W. M. Holliday (Democratic)
* Governor of West Virginia: Henry M. Mathews (Democratic)
* Governor of Wisconsin: William E. Smith (Republican)

Lieutenant Governors
* Lieutenant Governor of California: James A. Johnson (Democratic) (until January 8), John Mansfield (Republican) (starting January 8)
* Lieutenant Governor of Colorado: Horace Austin Warner Tabor (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut: David Gallup (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Florida: vacant
* Lieutenant Governor of Illinois: Andrew Shuman (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Indiana:
	+ until November 2: Isaac P. Gray (Democratic)
	+ November 2-November 20: vacant
	+ starting November 20: Fredrick Vieche (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Iowa: Frank T. Campbell (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kansas: Lyman U. Humphrey (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky: James E. Cantrill (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Louisiana: Louis A. Wiltz (Democratic) (until January 14), Samuel D. McEnery (Democratic) (starting January 14)
* Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts: John D. Long (Republican) (until January 8), Byron Weston (Republican) (starting January 8)
* Lieutenant Governor of Michigan: Alonzo Sessions (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota: James Wakefield (Republican) (until January 10), Charles A. Gilman (Republican) (starting January 10)
* Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi: William H. Sims (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Missouri: Henry Clay Brockmeyer (Democratic)
* 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: Jabez W. Fitch (Democratic) (until January 12), Andrew Hickenlooper (Republican) (starting January 12)
* Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania: Charles Warren Stone (Republican)
* Lieutenant Governor of Rhode Island: Albert Howard (political party unknown) (until May 25), Henry Fay (political party unknown) (starting May 25)
* Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina: vacant (until November 30), John D. Kennedy (Democratic) (starting November 30)
* Lieutenant Governor of Tennessee: John R. Neal (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Texas: Joseph Draper Sayers (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: Eben Pomeroy Colton (Republican) (until October 7), John L. Barstow (Republican) (starting October 7)
* Lieutenant Governor of Virginia: James A. Walker (Democratic)
* Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin: James M. Bingham (Republican)

## Events

* February 1 – The journal *Science* is first published, with financial backing from Thomas Edison.
* February 2 – The first electric streetlight is installed in Wabash, Indiana.
* March 31 – Wabash, Indiana becomes the first electrically lighted city in the world.
* May 11 – Mussel Slough Tragedy: A land dispute between the Southern Pacific Railroad and settlers in Hanford, California, turns deadly when a gun battle breaks out, leaving 7 dead.
* May 13 – In Menlo Park, New Jersey, Thomas Edison performs the first test of his electric railway.
* May 30 – League of American Wheelmen is founded in Newport, Rhode Island.
* June 1 – United States Census is 50,155,783.
* September 30 – Amateur astronomer Henry Draper takes the first ever photograph of the Orion Nebula.
* October 6 – The University of Southern California opens its doors to 53 students and 10 faculty.
* October 15 – The first blizzard mentioned in Laura Ingalls Wilder's *The Long Winter* sweeps over the prairie in Dakota Territory.
* November 2 – U.S. presidential election, 1880: James A. Garfield defeats Winfield Scott Hancock.
* November 4 – The first cash register is patented by James and John Ritty of Dayton, Ohio.
* November 22 – Vaudeville actress Lillian Russell makes her debut at Tony Pastor's Theatre in New York City.

## Sport

* September 15 – The Chicago White Stockings clinch their Second National League pennant with a 5–2 win over the Cincinnati Reds.

## Memoriam

* January 1 – Morris Ketchum, financier (aged 83; New York City, NY, USA)
* January 8 – "Emperor Norton", eccentric (aged 61; San Francisco, CA, USA)
* January 12 – Nell Arthur, wife of future President Chester A. Arthur (aged 42; New York City, NY, USA)
* January 19 – James Westcott, U.S. Senator from Florida from 1845 to 1849 (aged 77; Montreal, QC, Canada)
* February 14 – Samuel G. Arnold, U.S. Senator from Rhode Island from 1862 to 1863 (aged 58; Providence, RI, USA)
* February 17 – James Lenox, bibliophile (aged 79; New York City, NY, USA)
* May 4 – Edward Clark, Confederate Governor of Texas (aged 65; Marshall, TX, USA)
* May 8 – Jones Very, Transcendentalist essayist, poet, clergyman and mystic (aged 66; Salem, MA, USA)
* May 14 – Sanford E. Church, lawyer and politician (aged 65; Albion, NY, USA)
* June 12 – Albert G. Brown, U.S. Senator from Mississippi from 1854 to 1861 (aged 67; Terry, MS, USA)
* June 13 – James A. Bayard Jr., U.S. Senator from Delaware from 1851 to 1864 (aged 80; Wilmington, DE, USA)
* June 17 – James B. Howell, U.S. Senator from Iowa from 1870 to 1871 (aged 63; Keokuk, IA, USA)
* June 28 – Texas Jack Omohundro, frontier scout, actor and cowboy (aged 33; Leadville, CO, USA)
* July 7 – Lydia Maria Child, novelist and abolitionist (aged 78; Wayland, MA, USA)
* July 21 – Hiram Walden, politician (aged 79; Wright, NY, USA)
* August 6 – William Orlando Butler, U.S. political figure and U.S. Army major general (aged 89; Carrollton, KY, USA)
* August 9 – William Bigler, U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania from 1856 to 1861 (aged 66; Clearfield, PA, USA)
* August 16 – Herschel Vespasian Johnson, U.S. Senator from Georgia from 1863 to 1865 (aged 67; Louisville, GA, USA)
* August 19 – James Seddon, 4th Confederate States Secretary of War (aged 65; Goochland County, VA, USA)
* August 24 – Ouray, Ute leader (aged 46; Ignacio, CO, USA)
* September 19 – Lafayette S. Foster, U.S. Senator from Connecticut from 1855 to 1867 (aged 73; Norwich, CT, USA)
* October 14 – Victorio, Chiricahua Apache chief (aged 55; Tres Castillos, Mexico)
* November 3 - Solon Robinson, founder of Crown Point, Indiana (aged 77; Jacksonville, FL, USA)
* November 9 – Edwin Drake, first American to successfully drill for oil (aged 61; Bethlehem, PA, USA)
* November 11 – Lucretia Mott, abolitionist and women's rights activist (aged 87; La Mott, PA, USA)
* December 20 – Gaspar Tochman, lawyer and Confederate colonel (aged 83; Spotsylvania County, VA, USA)
* December 30 – Epes Sargent, editor, poet and playwright (aged 67; Boston, MA, USA)