Dashed left edge = started before August 1881 ·
Dashed right edge = ongoing beyond August 1881
Events in August 1881 4
1881US Championships 1881 — first editionMen: Richard SearsFirst US National Championships held at Newport, Rhode Island. Richard Sears won the first of seven consecutive titles — a record that still stands.
1881Pretoria Convention ends First Boer WarBritain grants the Transvaal self-governmentFollowing the Boer victory at Majuba Hill, Britain and the Transvaal signed the Pretoria Convention, restoring Boer self-government under nominal British suzerainty. It formally ended the First Boer War. The settlement left tensions unresolved that would resurface in the Second Boer War two decades later.
1881 – 1955Alexander FlemingDiscovery of PenicillinPhysician who discovered the first antibiotic substance.
1881Second Irish Land Act passedGladstone government grants Irish tenants the "three Fs"The British Parliament passed the Land Law (Ireland) Act, granting Irish tenant farmers fair rent, fixity of tenure, and free sale of their interest in a holding. It was a major concession by William Gladstone's government amid escalating agrarian unrest known as the Land War. A Land Commission was established to arbitrate rents.