1881

Society

1881. Russia's Aleksandr II is assassinated, carried out by Sophia Perovskaya, who heads a band of Nihilist terrorists of a populist fringe group. The assassination precipitates a wave of repression and persecution.

1881. President Garfield is mortally wounded July 2 by a disappointed office seeker, Charles J. Guiteau, who shoots the president at a Washington, DC., railway station. He is succeeded by his vice president Chester Alan Arthur.

1881. A Century of Dishonor by U.S. author Heln Hunt Jackson records government wrongs in dealing with Indian tribes.

1881. A second "Jim Crow" law passed by the Tennessee legislature segregates black passengers on railroads and establishes a precedent that will be followed by similar laws throughout the South.

1881. Russia's new czar Aleksandr III makes Jews the scapegoats for the assassination of his father. He also persecutes Roman Catholics but vows to kill one-third of the country's Jews, drive out another third, and convert the rest, beginning a series of pogroms (massacres) that will spur emigration of millions of Jews in the next 30 years.

1881. A paper by Cuban physician Carlos Juan Finlay suggests that mosquitoes may spread yellow fever.

1881. The American Association of the Red Cross is founded by Clara Barton.

1881. Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute is founded at Tuskegee, Ala., where local blacks have invited Booker Washington to start the pioneer school for blacks.

1881. "The Story of a Great Monopoly," published in the Atlantic Monthly, is an attack on John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Co. trust by Chicago Tribune financial editor Henry Demarest Lloyd.

1881. A shootout at the O.K. Corral outside Tombstone in Arizona Territory, October 26, breaks up a gang headed by Ike Clanton. Town marshal Virgil Earp has deputized his brothers Wyatt and Morgan. They are joined by alcoholic gambler "Doc" Holliday.

1881. Construction of a model factory town for Pullman Palace Car employees begins on a 4,000-acre tract at Pulllman, Ill., outside Chicago.

1881. Drought strikes the eastern United States. New York City runs out of water and people in many cities die of heat exhaustion.

Literature

Ghosts. Henrik Ibsen. Norwegian. 1881. Play. "Dead" conventions, beliefs lead woman to be responsible for her husband's dissoluteness, and her son's insanity.

The Portrait of a Lady. Henry James. American/British. 1881. Novel. American woman inherits fortune; visiting relatives in Britain, she marries impoverished dilettante. Finds out she was set up by his mistress for the sake of her money.

The Prince and the Pauper. Mark Twain. American. 1881. Novel. Edward VI and a pauper change places days after the death of Henry VIII. Edward wanders in rags. The pauper suffers the horrors of princedom.

I, Malavoglia. Giovanni Verga. Italian. 1881. Novel. Decline and fall of a Sicilian fisher family Rebellious son. Provincial town.

The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard. Anatole France. French. 1881. Novel. Kind old archaeologist kidnaps orphaned daughter of a former lover from a school which abuses her.

Tales of Hoffmann. Jacques Offenbach. German. 1881. Opera. Poet Hoffmann recalls love affairs and other adventures over wine in a Nuremberg tavern.

A Modern Instance. William Dean Howells. American. 1881. Novel. Social realism. Ethics and character in the context of marriage. Desertion and divorce.

El Gran Galeoto (Gossip). Jorge Echegaray. Spanish. 1881. Play. Suspected couple are innocent, but can't withstand the gossip. Woman's husband dies in a duel over her honor.