Events January–March January 22 – Toowong State School is founded in Queensland, Australia. January – The international White slave trade affair scandal in Brussels is exposed and attracts international infamy. February – The journal Science is first published in the United States, with financial backing from Thomas Edison. February 2 The first electric streetlight is installed in Wabash, Indiana. The first successful shipment of frozen mutton from Australia arrives in London, aboard the SS Strathleven. February 4 – The Black Donnelly Massacre takes the lives of five members of one family in Biddulph Township, Middlesex County, Ontario, Canada. February 24 – The SS Columbia, which will be the first outside usage of Thomas Edison's incandescent light bulb, is launched at the Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works of John Roach & Sons in Chester, Pennsylvania. March 31 – Wabash, Indiana, becomes the first electrically lit city in the world. April–June April – The government of Cape Colony sets a deadline for the Basuto people to surrender their weapons; non-compliance leads to the Basuto Gun War. April 18 – 1880 United Kingdom general election: William Ewart Gladstone defeats Benjamin Disraeli, to become Prime Minister for the second time. April 19 – The Prime Minister of Sweden, Louis De Geer, resigns over the defeat of a defense reform bill in the country's Riksdag; he is succeeded by Count Arvid Posse (1880–1883). April 27 – The Royal University of Ireland is founded by charter, allowing the Catholic University of Ireland to re-form as University College Dublin. May 2 – After having her lights installed by Edison's personnel, the SS Columbia is lit up for the first time at the foot of Wall Street, in New York City. May 13 – In Menlo Park, New Jersey, Thomas Edison performs the first test of his electric railway. June – The SS Columbia sets off on her maiden voyage around Cape Horn to Portland, Oregon, carrying 13 locomotives and 200 railcars. June 1 – Tinius Olsen is awarded a United States Patent, for the Little Giant Testing Machine. June 28 – Australian police capture bank robber Ned Kelly, after a gun battle at Glenrowan, Victoria. June 29 – France annexes Tahiti. July–September July 14 – Dorchester Penitentiary opens in Canada. July 22 – Abdur Rahman Khan becomes Emir of Afghanistan. July 27 – Second Anglo-Afghan War – Battle of Maiwand: Afghan troops under Ayub