The year 1880 in science and technology included
many events, some of which are listed here.
== Astronomy ==
September 30 – American doctor Henry Draper
takes the first photograph of the Orion Nebula,
from Hastings-on-Hudson, New York; this year
he also photographs the spectrum of Jupiter.
== Mathematics ==
F. Landry finds the largest known Fermat prime,
65537.
John Venn popularises Venn diagrams.
== Medicine ==
Moritz Kaposi publishes Pathologie und Therapie
der Hautkrankheiten in Vorlesungen für praktische
Ärzte und Studierende ("Pathology and treatment
of diseases of the skin, for practitioners
and students"), a significant textbook in
dermatology.
English surgeon Sampson Gamgee reports on
his use of the medical dressing Gamgee Tissue.
Scottish surgeon William Macewen reports on
his use of orotracheal intubation as an alternative
to tracheotomy.
== Physics ==
February 13 – Thomas Edison observes the
Edison effect.
The first demonstration of the direct piezoelectric
effect is made by the brothers Pierre Curie
and Jacques Curie.
Johannes Diderik van der Waals formulates
the Law of Corresponding States.
== Technology ==
Dugald Clerk builds the first successful two-stroke
engine.
== Publications ==
February – The journal Science is first
published in the United States with financial
backing from Thomas Edison.
Start of publication of Report Of The Scientific
Results of the Exploring Voyage of H.M.S.
Challenger during the years 1873-76.
== Awards ==
Copley Medal: James Joseph Sylvester
Wollaston Medal: Auguste DaubréeMusafir Ahmed
//
== 
Births ==
January 18 – Paul Ehrenfest (died 1933),
Austrian physicist and mathematician.
February 17 – Reginald Farrer (died 1920),
English botanist.
June 21 – Arnold Gesell (died 1961), American
developmental psychologist.
June 24 – Oswald Veblen (died 1960), American
mathematician.
August 17 – Paul Kammerer (died 1926), Austrian
Lamarckian biologist.
October 15 – Marie Stopes (died 1958), English
paleobotanist and pioneer of birth control.
== Deaths ==
January 9 – William Budd (born 1811), English
physician and epidemiologist.
May 6 – Friedrich Bayer (born 1825), German
manufacturing chemist.
July 9 – Paul Broca (born 1824), French
anthropologist
