Events of 1877

January–March

• January 1 – Queen Victoria is proclaimed Empress of India by the Royal Titles Act 1876, introduced by Benjamin Disraeli, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom .

• January 8 – Indian Wars – Battle of Wolf Mountain: Crazy Horse and his warriors fight their last battle with the United States Cavalry in Montana.

• January 20 – The Conference of Constantinople ends with Ottoman Turkey rejecting proposals of internal reform and Balkan provisions.

• March 2 – In the Compromise of 1877, the U.S. presidential election, 1876 is resolved with the selection of Rutherford B. Hayes as the winner, even though Samuel J. Tilden had won the popular vote on November 7, 1876.

• March 4

• * Emile Berliner invents the microphone.

• * Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake debuts.

• * Rutherford B. Hayes becomes President of the United States, succeeding Ulysses S. Grant.

• March 15 – 1877 Australia v. England series: The first Test cricket match is held between England and Australia.

• March 24 – For the only time in history, the Boat Race between the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford is declared a "dead heat" (i.e. a draw).

April–June

• April 24 – Russo-Turkish War, 1877–1878: Russia declares war on the Ottoman Empire.

• May 5 – Indian Wars: Sitting Bull leads his band of Lakota into Canada to avoid harassment by the United States Army under Colonel Nelson Miles.

• May 6 – Realizing that his people are weakened by cold and hunger, Chief Crazy Horse of the Oglala Sioux surrenders to United States troops in Nebraska.

• May 8 – At Gilmore's Gardens in New York City, the first Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show opens (ends May 11).

• May 16 – The May 16, 1877 political crisis occurs in France.

• May 21 – (May 9 O.S.) – Romania declares itself independent from the Ottoman Empire (recognized in 1878 after the end of the Romanian independence war).

• May 31 – Brantford, Ontario, Canada is officially incorporated as a city.

• June 15 – Henry Ossian Flipper becomes the first African American cadet to graduate from the United States Military Academy.

• June 17 – Indian Wars – Battle of White Bird Canyon: The Nez Perce defeat the U.S. Cavalry at White Bird Canyon in the Idaho Territory.

• June 21 – The Molly Maguires are hanged at Carbon County Prison in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania.

• June 26 – The eruption of Mount Cotopaxi in Ecuador causes severe mudflows that wipe out surrounding cities and valleys, killing 1,000.

• June 30 – The British Mediterranean fleet is sent to Besika Bay.

July–September

• July 9 – The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club begins its first lawn tennis tournament at Wimbledon.

• July 10 – The then villa of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico formally receives its city charter from the Royal Crown of Spain.

• July 16 – Great railroad strike of 1877: Riots by Baltimore and Ohio Railroad railroad workers in Baltimore, Maryland lead to a sympathy strike and rioting in Pittsburgh, and a full-scale worker's rebellion in St. Louis, briefly establishing a Communist government before U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes calls in the armed forces.

• July 19 – Russo-Turkish War, 1877–1878: The first battle in the Siege of Pleven is fought.

• July 30 – The second battle in the Siege of Pleven is fought.

• August 9 – Indian Wars – Battle of Big Hole: Near Big Hole River in Montana, a small band of Nez Percé Indians who refused government orders to move to a reservation, clash with the United States Army. The army loses 29 soldiers and Indians lose 89 warriors in a U.S. Army victory.

• August 11 – Asaph Hall discovers Deimos, the outer moon of Mars.

• August 17 – Arizona blacksmith F.P. Cahill is fatally wounded by Billy the Kid. Cahill dies the next day, becoming the first person killed by the Kid.

• August 18 – Asaph Hall discovers Phobos, the inner moon of Mars.

• September 1 – The Battle of Lovcha, third battle in the Siege of Pleven, is fought.

• September 5 – Indian Wars: Oglala Sioux chief Crazy Horse is bayoneted by a United States soldier, after resisting confinement in a guardhouse at Fort Robinson in Nebraska.

October–December

• October 10 – Following the recovery of Lieutenant-Colonel George Armstrong Custer's body from where he fell during the Battle of Little Big Horn the previous year, Custer is given a funeral with full military honors and is laid to rest at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.

• October 22 – The Blantyre mining disaster in Scotland kills 207 miners.

• November 21 – Thomas Edison announces his invention of the phonograph, a machine that can record sound, considered Edison's first great invention. Edison demonstrates the device for the first time on November 29.

• November 22 – The first college lacrosse game is played between New York University and Manhattan College.

• December 9 – The fourth battle of the Russo-Turkish War, 1877–1878 is fought, concluding the Siege of Pleven.

• December 14 – Serbia restates its previous declaration of war against Turkey.

Undated

• Nineteenth Century magazine is founded.

• September 1877: The first meeting of the Knights of Reliance in Lampasas County, Texas, which morphed into the Farmer's Alliance and eventually became the Populist Party.

• Winter 1877/1878: after the defeat of the Dungan revolt in China, several thousands refugees cross the Tian Shan to settle in the Russian Empire, thus starting the future "Soviet Dungan" ethnic group.

• A professionally led army of draftees crushes a major rebellion by feudal elements protesting the loss of their previleges in Japan.

Ongoing events

• Aceh War, Netherlands colonial war in Aceh (aka Thirty Years War) (1873–1904)

• War between Russia and the Ottoman Empire (Russo-Turkish War, 1877–1878), leading to the formation of Bulgaria in 1878 (see Russian Foreign Affairs after the Crimean War)

Births

January–June

• January 2 – Slava Raskaj, Croatian painter (d. 1906)

• February 4 – Eddie Cochems, Father of the Forward Pass in American football (d. 1953)

• February 7 – G. H. Hardy, British mathematician (d. 1947)

• February 14 – Edmund Landau, German mathematician (d. 1938)

• February 17 – André Maginot, French politician (d. 1932)

• February 19 – Gabriele Münter, German painter (d. 1962)

• February 25 – Erich von Hornbostel, Austrian musicologist (d. 1935)

• March 2 – Consuelo Vanderbilt, Duchess of Marlborough (d. 1964)

• March 4

• * Alexander Fyodorovich Gedike, Russian composer (d. 1957)

• * Fritz Graebner, German ethnologist (d. 1934)

• * Garrett Morgan, American inventor (d. 1963)

• March 16 – Reza Shah Pahlavi, Shah of Iran (d. 1944)

• March 18 – Edgar Cayce, American psychic (d. 1945)

• March 25 – Walter Little, Canadian politician (d. 1961)

• March 29 – Alois Kayser, German missionary (d. 1944)

• May 3 – Karl Abraham, German psychoanalyst (d. 1925)

• May 23 – Grace Ingalls, youngest sister of author Laura Ingalls Wilder (d. 1941)

• June 4 – Heinrich Otto Wieland, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1957)

• June 7 – Charles Glover Barkla, English physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1944)

• June 11 – Renee Vivien, poet (d. 1909)

• June 14 – Jane Bathori, French opera singer (d. 1970)

July–December

• July 2 – Hermann Hesse, German-born writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1962)

• July 3 – Shafiqah Shasha (شفيقة شعشع), Lebanese-Australian matriarch (d. 1953)

• July 6 – Arnaud Massy, French golfer (d. 1950)

• July 13 – Erik Scavenius, Prime Minister of Denmark (d. 1962)

• July 17 – Ernst von Dohnányi, Hungarian conductor (d. 1960)

• July 19 – Arthur Fielder, English cricketer (d. 1949)

• August 1 – Charlotte Hughes (née Milburn), the longest-lived person ever documented in the United Kingdom

• August 6 – Wallace H. White, Jr., U.S. Senator from Maine (d. 1952)

• August 7 – Ulrich Salchow, Swedish figure skater (d. 1949)

• August 15 – Stanley Vestal, American writer, poet, historian (d. 1957)

• August 27 – Charles Rolls, co-founder of the Rolls-Royce car firm, pioneer aviator (d. 1910)

• August 27 – Ernst Wetter, member of the Swiss Federal Council (d. 1963)

• September 1 – Francis William Aston, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1945)

• September 2 – Frederick Soddy, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1956)

• September 6 – Buddy Bolden, American jazz musician (d. 1930)

• September 26 – Alfred Cortot, Swiss pianist (d. 1962)

• October 4 – Razor Smith, English cricketer (d. 1946)

• October 27 – George Thompson, English cricketer (d. 1943)

• October 29 – Narcisa de Leon, Filipino film mogul (d. 1966)

• November 2 – Claire McDowell, American silent film actress (d. 1966)

• November 9 – Allama Iqbal, Indian philosopher, one of the profound founding fathers of the Muslims of India (d. 1938)

• November 15 – William Hope Hodgson, English author (d. 1918)

• November 22

• * Endre Ady, Hungarian poet (d. 1919)

• * Joan Gamper, Swiss-born businessman and founder of FC Barcelona (d. 1930)

• November 24 – Kavasji Jamshedji Petigara, Indian police commissioner of Bombay (d. 1941)

• December 3 – Richard Pearse, New Zealand airplane pioneer (d. 1953)

Deaths

• January 2 – Alexander Bain, Scottish inventor (b. 1811)

• January 4 – Cornelius Vanderbilt, American entrepreneur (b. 1794)

• March 1 – Antoni Patek, Polish watchmaker (b. 1811)

• March 24 – Walter Bagehot, British businessman, essayist and journalist (b. 1826)

• May 26 – Kido Takayoshi, Japanese statesman (b. 1833)

• June 3

• * Ludwig Ritter von Köchel, Austrian musicologist (b. 1800)

• * Sophie of Württemberg, queen consort of the Netherlands (b. 1818)

• July 27 – John Frost, British Chartist leader (b. 1784)

• August 8 – William Lovett, British Chartist leader (b. 1800)

• August 29 – Brigham Young, American Mormon leader (b. 1801)

• August 30 – Raphael Semmes, officer in the USN and the CSN (b.1809)

• September 2 – Constantine Kanaris, Greek politician (b. 1795)

• September 3 – Adolphe Thiers, French historian and politician (b. 1797)

• September 5 – Crazy Horse, Oglala Sioux chief (b. 1849)

• September 17 – William Fox Talbot, English photographer (b. 1800)

• September 24 – Saigō Takamori, samurai (b. 1827)

• October 3 – James Roosevelt Bayley, first Bishop of Newark, New Jersey, and the eighth Archbishop of Baltimore (b. 1814)

• October 16 – Theodore Barrière, French dramatist (b. 1823)

• October 29 – Nathan Bedford Forrest, American Confederate Civil War General

• November 2 – Friedrich Graf von Wrangel, Prussian field marshal (b. 1784)

• December 12 – José de Alencar, Brazilian novelist (b. 1829)

• December 31 – Gustave Courbet, French painter (b. 1819)