title: 1880 in Belgium
text: # 1880 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
  
  * 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
  
  ## Births
  
  * 10 January – Frans Van Cauwelaert, politician (died 1961)
  * 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
  