1880 in Belgium

← 1879 1878 1877 1880 in Belgium → 1881 1882 1883
Decades:	1860s 1870s 1880s 1890s 1900s
See also:	Other events of 1880 List of years in Belgium

The following lists events that happened during 1880 in the Kingdom of Belgium.

Incumbents

• Monarch: Leopold II
• Prime Minister: Walthère Frère-Orban

Events

National Exhibition in Cinquantenaire Park

• January – The White slave trade affair is exposed in Brussels and attracts international attention.
• 7 March – Reception in the winter garden at Royal Palace of Laken to celebrate the engagement of Princess Stéphanie of Belgium to Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria.
• 24 May – Provincial elections
• 5 June – Belgian government breaks off diplomatic relations with the Holy See.
• 8 June – Partial legislative elections of 1880
• 16 August – Celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Belgian independence in Cinquantenaire Park
• 22-28 August – International Educational Congress held in Brussels.
• September – Queen Marie Henriette visits Aachen for her health.
• 25 December – Pope Leo XIII issues a breve to establish a new chair in Thomist philosophy at the Catholic University of Louvain.

Publications

Periodicals

• Bulletin de l'Association Belge de Photographie, vol. 7
• La Jeune Belgique begins publication.

Exhibition catalogues

• F.G. Dumas, Catalogue illustré de l'exposition historique de l'art belge et du Musée moderne de Bruxelles (Brussels and Paris)
• Exposition nationale: IVe section, industries d'art en Belgique antérieurs au XIXe siècle (Brussels, Veuve Ch. Vanderauwera)

Art and architecture

Buildings

• Cinquantenaire

Paintings

• Jan Verhas, The Parade of the Schools in 1878
• Charles Soubre, The Arrival of Charles Rogier and the Volunteers of Liège in Brussels

• 
  Jan Verhas, The Parade of the Schools in 1878 (1880), now in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels
• 
  Charles Soubre, The Arrival of Charles Rogier and the Volunteers of Liège in Brussels [1830] (1880), now in the Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and Military History, Brussels

Births

• 10 January – Frans Van Cauwelaert, politician (died 1961)
• 5 May – Adrian Carton de Wiart, British general (died 1963)
• 4 December – Eugène Soudan, politician (died 1960)

Deaths

• 30 January – Paul Devaux (born 1801), politician
• 28 April – Louis Dubois (born 1830), painter
• 13 May – Lievin De Winne (born 1821), painter