In the year 1880, Wabash, Indiana becomes the first electrically lighted city in the world (Mar 31), in Menlo Park, New Jersey, Thomas Edison performs the first test of his electric railway (May 13), France annexes Tahiti (Jun 29), The University of Southern California opens its doors (Oct 6), the first cash register is patented in Ohio (Nov 4) - and all these fine people were born:
1880-0101 Ernst Gennat* director of the Berlin criminal police/coined the term “Serienmörder” (serial killer) - Plötzensee, German Empire (1939/59)
1880-0110 Grock* (b Charles Adrien Wettach) Swiss clown/ composer/ musician - Loveresse, Canton of Bern, Swiss Confederation (1959/79)
1880-0112 Melchior Lengyel* (b Menyhért Lebovics) Hungarian writer/ dramatist/film screenwriter - Balmazújváros, Austria-Hungary (1974/94)
1880-0114 Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt* millionaire equestrian - Staten Island, NY USA (1925/45)
1880-0122 Frigyes Riesz* Hungarian mathematician - Györ, Austria-Hungary (1956/76)
1880-0126 Douglas MacArthur* General - Little Rock, AR USA (1964/84)
1880-0129 W.C. Fields* actor - Philadelphia, PA USA (1946/66)
1880-0201
1880-0210
1880-0211 Frank Elliott* actor - Cheshire, England (1970/90)
1880-0211 Giovanni Poggi* historian/museum curator/recovered the stolen Mona Lisa - Florence, Italy (1961/81)
1880-0220
1880-0222 Ada María Elflein* poet/columnist/feminist - Buenos Aires, Argentina (1919/39)
1880-0222 Eric Lemming* athlete/javelin/OG - Gothenburg, Sweden (1930/50)
1880-0228
1880-0301
1880-0302 Ivar Kreuger* industrialist/entrepreneur/the “Match King” - Kalmar, Sweden (1932/52)
1880-0310
1880-0319 Ernestine Rose* librarian - Bridgehampton, NY USA (1961/81)
1880-0320
1880-0331
1880-0401
1880-0409 Maria Jotuni* (b Haggrén) author/ playwright - Kuopio, GD of Finland (1943/63)
1880-0413 Charles Christie* motion picture studio owner - London, ON Canada (1955/75)
1880-0415 Max Wertheimer* Austro-Hungarian psychologist/one of the three founders of Gestalt psychology - Prague, Austria-Hungary (1943/63)
1880-0430 Charles Exeter Devereux Crombie* editorial cartoonist - Dumfries, Scotland (1967/87)
1880-0506 Edmund Ironside* senior officer of the British Army - Edinburgh, Scotland (1959/79)
1880-0506 Ernst Ludwig Kirchner* painter/ printmaker - Aschaffenburg, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Empire (1938/58)
1880-0506 William J. Simmons* preacher/ founder and leader of the second Ku Klux Klan - Harpersville, AL USA (1945/65)
1880-0514 B. C. Forbes* Scottish-American financial journalist/founder of Forbes magazine/to U.S. at age 24 - New Deer, Aberdeenshire, Scotland (1954/73)
1880-0525 Jean Alexandre Barré* neurologist - Nantes, French Third Republic (1967/86)
1880-0530 Thure Hellström* architect (railway stations) - Koivisto, GD of Finland (1946/66)
1880-0601 Joseph E. Bernard* actor - New Orleans, LA USA (1958/78)
1880-0606 Ada Paterson* school doctor/child health administrator/ community worker - Dunedin, New Zealand (1937/57)
1880-0610
1880-0611 Jeannette Rankin* politician/women’s rights advocate/the first woman to hold federal office in the United States - Missoula County, MT USA (1973/92)
1880-0620
1880-0627 Helen Keller* deafblind activist/author - Tuscumbia, AL USA (1968/87)
1880-0630
1880-0707 Otto Frederick Rohwedder* engineer/inventor - Davenport, IA USA (1960/80)
1880-0711 Gustaf Axel Hallström* archaeologist/photographer - Stockholm, Sweden (1962/82)
1880-0901
1880-0908 Cornelius Wessels* Dutch Jesuit/known for his historical works (Early Jesuit travellers in Central Asia) - Helmond, Netherlands (1964/83)
1880-0910
1880-0918 Helene Scheu-Riesz* Austrian women’s rights activist/children’s writer/translator - Olmütz, Austria-Hungary (1970/89)
1880-0920
1880-0923 John Boyd Orr* doctor/biologist/N - Kilmaurs, East Ayshire, Scotland (1971/90)
1880-0930
1880-1015 Marie Stopes* women rights activist - Edinburgh, Scotland (1958/77)
1880-1030 Oscar Wirkkala* Finnish-American logger/inventor/to U.S. at 18 - Kaustinen, GD of Finland (1959/78)
1880-1101 Alfred Wegener* polar researcher/ geophysicist/meteorologist - Berlin, German Empire (1930/50)
1880-1111 Alexander Behm* physicist (ocean echo sounder) - Sternberg, German Empire (1952/71)
1880-1111 Birger Homén* colonel/municipal councellor - Helsinki, GD of Finland (1947/66)
1880-1111 Xu Shuzheng* warlord - Xiao County, Jiangsu, China (1925/45)
1880-1118 Naum Torbov* Bulgarian architect - Gopesh, Ottoman Empire (1952/71)
1880-1125 Elsie J. Oxenham* (b Dunkerley) children’s novelist (Abbey Girls) - Southport, Lancashire, England (1960/79)
1880-1128 Alexander Blok* lyrical poet/playwright/literary critic - Saint Petersburg, Russian Empire (1921/40)
1880-1130
1880-1201
1880-1210
1880-1215 Jim Driscoll* boxer/British featherweight champion - Cardiff, Wales (1925/44)
1880-1216 Abraham Louis Levin* physician/ inventor of the Levin Tube/to U.S at age 21 - Suwalki, Poland (1940/59)
1880-1220
1880-1229 William S. Harley* mechanical engineer/businessman - Milwaukee, WI USA (1943/62)
1880-1230 Alfred Einstein* German-American musicologist/music editor (the Köchel catalogue)/to the U.S. at age 58 - Munich, German Empire (1952/71)
1880-1231 George Marshall* military leader/politician - Uniontown, PA USA (1959/78)
1880-0
1880-0
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Updated 2025-0415 Helsinki
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