Famous People Who Died In 1881

The 20th president of the United States, James A. Garfield began his career as an attorney. Born into poverty, he struggled throughout his childhood and youth to become a respected lawyer. He eventually entered politics and rose through the ranks to be elected the president. Unfortunately, he was assassinated less than seven months after he took office.

Alexander II of Russia was the Emperor of Russia, Grand Duke of Finland, and King of Poland from 1855 to 1881. He became known as Alexander the Liberator for his most significant reform, which was the Emancipation Reform of 1861. He is also credited with reorganizing the judicial system, abolishing corporal punishment, and imposing universal military service in Russia.

Mary Seacole was a British-Jamaican nurse, businesswoman, and healer. She played a major role during the Crimean War, providing aid for wounded servicemen and nursing them back to health. In 1991, Seacole was posthumously honored with the Jamaican Order of Merit. In 2004, she was named the greatest black Briton for her contribution during the war.

Occultist and herbalist Marie Laveau was known as the Vodoo Queen of New Orleans. Though a hairdresser, she was chiefly known for her spiritual practices which she used to heal the sick and the poor. She has inspired several books, such as Robert Tallant's The Voodoo Queen.

Benjamin Disraeli was a British politician who served two terms as prime minister of the UK. Disraeli is credited with playing a key role in the formation of the modern Conservative Party. Apart from being an influential politician, Benjamin Disraeli was also a prolific novelist; he wrote and published works of fiction even while serving as the prime minister.

Modest Mussorgsky was a Russian composer best remembered for being part of a renowned 19th-century Russian composers group known as The Five. An innovator of Russian music, Mussorgsky worked towards achieving a Russian musical identity that challenged the already established Western music, which was generally considered conventional at that time.

Known as the ultimate American mountain man, Jim Bridger is remembered for his exploration of the Western United States. It is believed, the illiterate fur trader was the first white man to explore the Great Salt Lake and one of the first to visit Yellowstone. He also worked as a forest guide.

William Burges was a British architect and designer best remembered for building castles like Cardiff Castle and Castell Coch. Apart from designing castles, churches, and houses, William Burges also designed sculptures, metalwork, furniture, jewelry, and stained glass.

Louis Auguste Blanqui was a French socialist who gave rise to Blanquism, a form of radicalism. While he initially studied both medicine and law, he later stepped into politics. He had been imprisoned for more than three decades and died of a stroke after a political speech at age 75.

Matthias Jakob Schleiden was a German botanist who is credited with co-founding cell theory along with Rudolf Virchow and Theodor Schwann. He is also remembered for his service as a professor at the University of Dorpat from the mid 1860s.

Henri Vieuxtemps was a Belgian violinist and composer best remembered as one of the most important exponents of the Franco-Belgian school of violin. He is also famous for owning a legendary violin, which is now called the Vieuxtemps Guarneri del Gesù. This violin, which was built by Giuseppe Guarneri, is counted among the finest examples of the craftsmanship of Guarneri.

Pierre Napoléon Bonaparte was a French nobleman, politician, and revolutionary. He played an important role during the Revolutions of 1848, serving as a member of the Constituent Assembly. He also played a prominent role in helping his cousin Louis Napoleon become the first president of France.

Finnish statesman Johan Vilhelm Snellman was a major figure of the Fennoman movement that was geared toward establishing Finnish as a national language, replacing Swedish. He had been both a professor and a senator, and has switched the Finnish monetary standard from rubles to marks.

Author August Šenoa is credited with leading Croatian literature from Romanticism to Realism. Also considered the "father of the Croatian novel," he studied law but later deviated to writing. He introduced the genre of the historical novel in Croatia and penned iconic works such as Pirates of Senj.

As a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church, Thomas François Burgers questioned the authenticity of the events in the Bible and was even suspended once. As the president of Transvaal, he was infamous for letting the British annex his kingdom. He spent his final days in poverty.

Karl Weyprecht was an Austro-Hungarian explorer. He served as an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Navy and played an important role in the Austro-Sardinian War. He also achieved popularity as an Arctic explorer and co-led the Austro-Hungarian North Pole Expedition of 1872-1874 along with Julius von Payer. In 1875, Karl Weyprecht was honored with the prestigious Royal Geographical Society's Gold Medal.

Born to a French diplomat, Henri Étienne Sainte-Claire Deville initially studied medicine but later deviated to chemistry. He taught chemistry at the Sorbonne and also found a way to produce large-scale metallic aluminium economically through what was known as the Deville process. He also worked extensively on platinum.

Romolo Gessi, also known as Gessi Pasha, was not just an Italian soldier but also an explorer who participated in the exploration of the Nile. He also became the first to circumnavigate Uaganda’s Lake Albert Nyanza. As a soldier, he served the British Empire in Sudan and the Crimea.

Edward John Trelawny was a British biographer, novelist and adventurer. He is famous for his friendship with Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron. Handsome and dashing, he joined the Royal Navy at the age of thirteen, later writing about his experiences in Adventures of a Younger Son. His other well-known work is Recollections of the Last Days of Shelley and Byron.

Italian explorer Pellegrino Matteucci scripted history by becoming the first European to cover the entire African continent north of the Equator. A qualified doctor, he aspired to be a missionary in Africa. He, unfortunately, succumbed to a severe fever that he had contracted while traveling.