Convention peace treaty is signed, officially ending the war between the Boers and Britain. August 27 – The fifth hurricane of the Atlantic season hits Florida and the Carolinas, killing about 700. September 5 – The Thumb Fire in the U.S. state of Michigan destroys over a million acres (4,000 km2) and kills 282 people. September 12 – Francis Howell High School (Howell Institute) in St. Charles, Missouri, and Stephen F. Austin High School in Austin, Texas, open on the same day, putting them in a tie for the title of the oldest public high school west of the Mississippi River. September 19 – President James A. Garfield dies eleven weeks after being shot. Vice President Chester A. Arthur becomes the 21st president of the United States. September 20 – President Chester A. Arthur is sworn in. September 26 – Godalming in England becomes the first town to have its streets illuminated by electric light (hydroelectrically generated). October–December October 5–December 31 – The International Cotton Exposition is held in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. October 10 – Richard D'Oyly Carte's Savoy Theatre opens in London, the world's first public building to be fully lit by electricity, using Joseph Swan's incandescent light bulbs. The stage is first lit electrically on December 28. October 13 – Determined to bring about the revival of the Hebrew language as a way of unifying Jews, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda has what is believed to be the first conversation in Modern Hebrew, with friends living in Paris. October 26 – The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral occurs in Tombstone, Cochise County, Arizona, USA. October 29 – The satirical magazine Judge is first published in the United States. November – Newcastle United F.C. is founded in the northeast of England as Stanley F.C., with a further name change to Newcastle East End F.C. the following year. November 3 – The Mapuche uprising of 1881 begins with an attack on Quillem, Chile. November 9 – Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2 premieres in Budapest. November 11 – The Clarkson Memorial to an anti-slavery campaigner in Wisbech (England) is completed and unveiled to the public. November 19 – A meteorite strikes the Earth near the village of Großliebenthal, a few kilometers southwest of Odessa, Ukraine. December 8 – Ringtheaterbrand: At least 380 die in a fire at the Vienna Ringtheater. December 25–27 – The Warsaw pogrom is carried out in Vistula Land, Russian Empire.