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| 1880s |
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| A similar process of invasion separated Mexican Americans from their titles to land in the Southwest. At the same time, as irrigation projects transformed the west into fertile lands, Mexican Americans and their immigrant counterparts provided the essential labor supply. | 1 |
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| 1881, March 4 |
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| JAMES A. GARFIELD, 20th president, was shot by a disappointed office seeker on July 2 and died on Sept. 19, 1881. He was succeeded by Chester A. Arthur (1829–86), his vice president. | 2 |
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| May 21 |
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| The American Red Cross Society was organized, with Clara Barton (1821–1912) as president. | 3 |
| William Dean Howells (1837–1920) resigned from his job as editor of the Atlantic Monthly and became editor of Harper's Monthly. Howells protested against what came to be called the “genteel tradition” in American literary and cultural life. He soon published a series of novels that helped to set the tone for a new realism in American literature. At the same time, other novelists and writers of short stories had turned to a strong emphasis on local color: Francis Bret Harte (1836–1902), Joel Chandler Harris (1848–1908), and Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain) (1835–1910). In music, John Knowles Paine (1839–1906) emerged as one of the first American symphonic composers. | 4 |
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