| 1845–1958 | Germany [earth sciences] | German naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt lays the basis of modern geography with the publication of Kosmos/Cosmos, in which he arranges geographic knowledge in a systematic fashion. |
| 1881 | France [fiction] | The unfinished novel Bouvard et Pécuchet/Bouvard and Pécuchet, by the French writer Gustave Flaubert, is published posthumously. |
| 1881 | Japan [law and government] | Political parties are founded in Japan following an imperial decree that an assembly will be convened in 1890. |
| 1881 | Cuba [medicine] | Cuban physician Carlos Juan Finlay discovers that the mosquito Aëdes aegypti is the carrier of yellow fever. His results are published in 1886 but his experiments are ignored until 1900. |
| 1881 | France [opera] | The opera Les Contes d'Hoffmann/The Tales of Hoffmann, by the German-born French composer Jacques Offenbach, is first performed, in Paris, France. |
| 1881 | France [painting] | The French artist Edouard Manet paints Bar at the Folies-Bergères. |
| 1881 | Turkey, Greece [births and deaths] | (Mustafa) Kemal Atatürk, Turkish soldier, statesman, and reformer, founder and first president of the Republic of Turkey 1923–38, born in Greece (–1938). |
| 1881 | Russia [political events] | Violent pogroms against Jews begin in Russia and eastern Europe, forcing many Jews to emigrate westwards in succeeding years. |
| 1881 | USA [astronomy] | German-born US physicist Albert Michelson develops an interferometer to measure distances between stars. |
| 1881 | USA [songs] | Joel Chandler Harris publishes Uncle Remus: His Songs and Sayings, an anthology of traditional Southern black American slave stories and songs. |
| 1881 | USA, Germany, France, Italy, UK [statistics and demography] | Population in the USA stands at 53 million, in Germany, 45.2 million, in France, 37.6 million, in Italy, 28.4 million, in Britain, 29.7 million, and in Ireland, 5.1 million. |
| 1881 | UK, France, USA, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Japan, Russian Empire, Belgium [statistics and demography] | Populations of the chief European and North American cities stand at 3.3 million in London, England, 2.2 million in Paris, France, 1.2 million in New York City, 1.1 million in Berlin, Germany, 1 million in Vienna, Austria, 0.8 million in Tokyo, Japan, 0.6 million in St Petersburg, Russia, and 0.1 million in Brussels, Belgium. |
| 1881–1890 | USA, UK [statistics and demography] | Emigration to the USA is 807,357 from Britain and 655,482 from Ireland. |
| 1881 | Austria [surgery] | Austrian surgeon Theodor Christian Albert Billroth initiates modern abdominal surgery by removing the cancerous lower part of a patient's stomach. |
| 1881 | UK [technology] | British inventor Percival Everitt patents the first practical vending machine, which supplies goods when a coin is inserted into it. |
| 9 February 1881 | Russia [births and deaths] | Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky, Russian novelist best known for Crime and Punishment (1866) and The Brothers Karamazov (1879–80), dies in St Petersburg, Russia (59). |
| 13 March 1881 | Russia [births and deaths] | Alexander II, tsar of Russia 1855–81 who was responsible for emancipating the Russian serfs, is assassinated in St Petersburg, Russia, after calling an assembly of Russian nobles (62). |
| 13 March 1881 | Russian Empire [political events] | Following the assassination of Tsar Alexander II of Russia by terrorists, he is succeeded by Alexander III. |
| 5 April 1881 | Transvaal, UK [treaties] | Britain and the Boers sign the Treaty of Pretoria, ending the First Anglo-Boer War and recognizing the independence of the South African Republic of Transvaal. |
| 19 April 1881 | England [births and deaths] | Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield, British prime minister 1868 and 1874–80, a Conservative, dies in London, England (76). |
| 4 May 1881 | Russia [births and deaths] | Alexander Kerensky, Russian revolutionary and head of the Russian provisional government July–October 1917, born in Simbirsk, Russia (–1970). |
| 5 May 1881 | France [biology] | French microbiologist Louis Pasteur vaccinates sheep against anthrax. It is the first infectious disease to be treated effectively with an antibacterial vaccine, and his success lays the foundations of immunology. |
| 2 July 1881 | USA [political events] | A disgruntled campaign worker, Charles J Guiteau, shoots US president James A Garfield, who is to die from his wounds on 19 September. He is succeeded by Chester Alan Arthur. |
| 6 August 1881 | Scotland [births and deaths] | Alexander Fleming, Scottish bacteriologist who discovers penicillin, born in Lochfield, Ayr, Scotland (–1955). |
| 12 August 1881 | USA [births and deaths] | Cecil B de Mille, US motion picture director and producer known for his spectacular films, born in Ashfield, Massachusetts (–1959). |
| 11 October 1881 | USA [photography] | US inventor David Henderson Houston patents a camera that takes roll film. |
| 15 October 1881 | England [births and deaths] | P(elham) G(renville) Wodehouse, English novelist, short-story writer, playwright, and lyricist, creator of Jeeves, the archetypal gentleman's gentleman, born in Guildford, Surrey, England (–1975). |
| 25 October 1881 | Spain [births and deaths] | Pablo Picasso, Spanish painter and sculptor who, along with Georges Braque, founds cubism, born in Málaga, Spain (–1973). |
