Lewis Henry Morgan ( 1818 – 1881 ), a lawyer from Rochester, New York, became an advocate for and ethnological scholar of the Iroquois.

* Albert Austin ( 1881 – 1953 ), British / American actor

* 1881 – Karl Staaf, Swedish athlete ( d. 1953 )

* 1881 – Leo Carrillo, American actor ( d. 1961 )

* 1881 – Alexander Fleming, Scottish scientist, Nobel Prize laureate ( d. 1955 )

* 1881 – Louella Parsons, American columnist ( d. 1972 )

In Australia, the grounds currently used are The Gabba in Brisbane ( first staged an England – Australia Test in the 1932 – 33 season ), Adelaide Oval ( 1884 – 85 ), The WACA, Perth ( 1970 – 71 ) the Melbourne Cricket Ground ( MCG ) ( 1876 – 77 ) and the Sydney Cricket Ground ( SCG ) ( 1881 – 82 ).

Julius's wife, Alan's mother, was Ethel Sara ( née Stoney ; 1881 – 1976 ), daughter of Edward Waller Stoney, chief engineer of the Madras Railways.

* 1881 – Otto Toeplitz, German mathematician ( d. 1940 )

* Haliotis pourtalesii Dall, 1881 – the Pourtale ’ s abalone

* 1881 – Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist, German field marshal ( d. 1954 )

* 1881 – In Dodge City, Kansas, Bat Masterson fights his last gun battle.

* 1881 – Francis Ford, American actor ( d. 1953 )

* 1881 – Edward Siegler, American gymnast ( d. 1942 )

* 1881 – Alfred Wagenknecht, German-American activist ( d. 1956 )

* 1881 – Cecil B. DeMille, American director ( d. 1959 )

* 1881 – George Enescu, Romanian composer ( d. 1955 )

Aga Khan I (; or, less commonly but more correctly (; ), was the title accorded to Hasan Ali Shah (; ; 1804 in Kohak, Iran – 1881 in Bombay, India ), the governor of Kirman, 46th Imam of the Nizari Ismaili Muslims, and prominent Muslim leader in Iran and later in the Indian Subcontinent.

* Alexander II of Russia ( 1818 – 1881 ), emperor of Russia

* Alexander II of Russia ( 1818 – 1881 ), Emperor of Russia

In 1881 John Evans recognizing that the use of copper often preceded the use of bronze distinguished between a transitional Copper Age and the Bronze Age proper.

" Shipping on the Clyde ", by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1881.

* John Lorenzo Young ( 1826 – 1881 ), Australian goldminer, school principal and schoolteacher

* John Alf Brown ( 1881 – 1936 ), Welsh international rugby player

John Stephens was a prosperous real estate developer after the Civil War and one of the founders of the Gate City Street Railroad ( 1881 ), a mule-drawn Atlanta trolley system.

* 1881 – Pope John XXIII ( d. 1963 )

* 1804 – John Gould, English ornithologist ( d. 1881 )

The Oneida Community, founded by John Humphrey Noyes in Oneida, New York, was a utopian religious commune that lasted from 1848 to 1881.

Aided by Matheson's nephew, Alexander Matheson ( 1805 – 1881 ) and MP John Abel Smith, Jardine met several times with Palmerston to argue the necessity for a war plan.

* August 27 – John Rodgers, American naval officer and naval aviation pioneer ( b. 1881 )

** Pope John XXIII ( b. 1881 )

* 1881 – 1883: John Philip Holland of Liscannor, County Clare, Ireland builts the Fenian Ram submarine for the Fenian Brotherhood.

** John Gould, English ornithologist ( d. 1881 )

They had three children together: John Philip, Jr. ( April 1, 1881 – May 18, 1937 ), Jane Priscilla ( August 7, 1882 – October 28, 1958 ), and Helen ( January 21, 1887 – October 14, 1975 ).

They first chose Garfield, but on his election to the Presidency, selected John Sherman to succeed Thurman beginning in 1881.

* John Amory Lowell ( 1798 – 1881 ), businessman and philanthropist

In 1881, Alger informally adopted Charlie Davis, a street boy, and another, John Downie, in 1883 ; they lived in Alger's apartment.

John Clum, publisher of The Tombstone Epitaph, had helped organize the " Committee of Safety " ( a vigilance committee ) in Tombstone in late September 1881, and was elected as the city's first mayor under the new city charter of 1881.

In 1881, the submarine Fenian Ram, designed by John Philip Holland for use against the British, was launched by the Delamater Iron Company in New York.

* Curt John Ducasse-( 1881 – 1969 ) philosopher

As a result, Parnell and other leaders, including John Dillon and William O ' Brien, were imprisoned in Kilmainham Gaol on 13 October 1881.

In 1881, Charles B. Eddy came to the area, and with his brother, John, and partner Amos Bissell, developed the Eddy-Bissell Cattle Company.

Under Cunard's new chairman, John Burns ( 1839 – 1900 ), son of one of the firm's original founders, Cunard commissioned four steel-hulled express liners beginning with Servia of 1881, the first passenger liner with electric lighting throughout.