What Happened in 1881 — Events, Births & Deaths

The sentences of the trial of the warlocks of Chiloé are imparted.

The Canadian Pacific Railway is incorporated by Act of Parliament at Ottawa (44th Vic., c.1).

Cleopatra's Needle, a 3,500-year-old Ancient Egyptian obelisk is erected in Central Park, New York.

China and Russia sign the Sino-Russian Ili Treaty.

First Boer War: The Battle of Majuba Hill takes place.

The Four Dead in Five Seconds Gunfight occurs in El Paso, Texas.

In Dodge City, Kansas, Bat Masterson fights his last gun battle.

Billy the Kid escapes from the Lincoln County jail in Mesilla, New Mexico.

Carol I is crowned the King of the Romanian Kingdom.

In North Africa, Tunisia becomes a French protectorate.

The Austro–Serbian Alliance of 1881 is secretly signed.

In Sudan, Muhammad Ahmad declares himself to be the Mahdi, the messianic redeemer of Islam.

Charles J. Guiteau shoots and fatally wounds U.S. President James A. Garfield (who will die of complications from his wounds on September 19).

American outlaw Billy the Kid is shot and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett in the Maxwell House at Fort Sumner, New Mexico.

The Georgia hurricane makes landfall near Savannah, Georgia, resulting in an estimated 700 deaths.

U.S. President Chester A. Arthur is sworn in upon the death of James A. Garfield the previous day.

First known conversation in modern Hebrew by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and friends.

Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday participate in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona.

In New Zealand, 1600 armed volunteers and constabulary field forces led by Minister of Native Affairs John Bryce march on the pacifist Māori settlement at Parihaka, evicting upwards of 2000 residents, and destroying the settlement in the context of the New Zealand land confiscations.