Events in History
Event of Interest
Jan 1 Queen Victoria proclaimed Empress of India
Queen Victoria
Battle of Interest
Jan 8 Crazy Horse and his warriors fight their last battle with the United States Cavalry at Wolf Mountain (Montana Territory).
Crazy Horse
Election of Interest
Jan 25 Congress establishes the Electoral Commission to determine the disputed presidential election between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel J. Tilden
Rutherford B. Hayes
- Jan 30 Storm flood ravages Dutch coastal provinces
- Feb 7 1st Guernsey Cattle Club organizes (NYC)
- Feb 12 1st news dispatch by telephone, between Boston & Salem, Massachusetts
- Feb 12 US railroad builders strike against wage reduction
- Feb 20 1st cantilever bridge in US completed, Harrodsburg, Kentucky
- Mar 2 US Electoral Commission declares Rutherford B. Hayes (R) winner of the presidential election with an electoral vote of 185-184 against Samuel J. Tilden (D)
- Mar 3 Rutherford B. Hayes takes the oath of office privately as official inauguration day falls on a Sunday
- Mar 4 Tchaikovski's incomplete ballet "Zwanenmeer" premieres in Moscow
- Mar 5 Rutherford B. Hayes publicly inaugurated as 19th President of the United States
- Mar 12 Great Britain annexes Walvis Bay at Cape colony, Southern Africa.
Earmuffs on, shhhh!
Mar 13 American Chester Greenwood patents earmuffs after inventing them at age 15
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Event of Interest
Mar 18 US President Rutherford B. Hayes appoints Frederick Douglass marshal of Washington, D.C.
Frederick Douglass
Rutherford B. Hayes
- Mar 19 Australia beat England by 45 runs in very first Test match
- Mar 24 University boat race between Oxford & Cambridge ends in a dead heat
- Mar 31 British High Commissioner Sir Bartle Frere arrives in Capetown
- Mar 31 The family with samurai antecedents who responded to the Saigo army in Ōita Nakatsu rebels.
- Apr 2 1st Easter egg roll held on White House lawn
Flash! Bang! It's the Human Cannonball!
Apr 2 1st human cannonball act performed by 14-year-old Rossa Matilda Richter known as Zazel at the Royal Aquarium in London
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- Apr 10 Federal troops withdrawn from Columbia, SC
- Apr 12 British annex Transvaal, South Africa
- Apr 15 Boston-Somerville installs the world's 1st telephone in Massachusetts
- Apr 24 Last federal occupying troops withdraw from the South (New Orleans)
- Apr 24 Russo-Turkish War, 1877-78: Russia declares war on the Ottoman Empire
- Apr 27 Rutherford B. Hayes removes Federal troops from LA, Reconstruction ends
Event of Interest
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
Sitting Bull
- May 7 Cincinnati Enquirer first uses term "Bullpen" to indicate foul territory
- May 8 1st Westminster Dog Show held
- May 9 Mihail Kogălniceanu reads, in the Chamber of Deputies, the Declaration of Independence of Romania. This day becomes the Independence Day of Romania.
- May 12 Ottawa Rough Riders 1st outside competition vs Britannia
- May 13 Caesar Franck's "Lesson Eolides" premieres
- May 16 May 16, 1877 political crisis in France.
- May 17 Edwin T Holmes installs 1st telephone switchboard burglar alarm
- Jun 1 Society of American Artists forms
- Jun 1 US troops authorized to pursue bandits into Mexico
Event of Interest
Jun 15 Henry Ossian Flipper becomes 1st African American to graduate from West Point Military Academy
Henry Ossian Flipper
- Jun 17 Indian Wars: Battle of White Bird Canyon - the Nez Perce defeat the US Cavalry at White Bird Canyon in the Idaho Territory
- Jun 21 The Molly Maguires, ten Irish immigrants, are hanged at the Schuylkill County and Carbon County, Pennsylvania prisons
- Jul 1 1st edition of "Amsterdammer" published
- Jul 10 The then villa of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, formally receives its city charter from the Royal Crown of Spain
- Jul 11 Kate Edger becomes New Zealand’s first woman graduate and first woman in the British Empire to earn a Bachelor of Arts
- Jul 14 General strike brings US railroad to a stand still
- Jul 20 Military shoots on stopped railroad workers in Baltimore, kills 9
- Jul 21 -27] US army breaks railroad strike
- Jul 23 1st US municipal railroad, Cincinnati Southern, begins operations
- Jul 23 1st telephone and telegraph line in Hawaii completed
- Jul 24 1st time federal troops are used to combat strikers
- Jul 31 Second Russian assault on Plevna, Turkey fails, during Russo-Turkish War, 7,300 Russian casualties
- Aug 2 San Francisco Public Library opens with 5,000 volumes
Event of Interest
Aug 9 Henry Morton Stanley's party reaches Boma, Congo, after 999 days, losing half of the 228 members.
Henry Morton Stanley
Thomas Edison's Phonograph
Aug 12 Thomas Edison completes 1st model for the phonograph, a device that recorded sound onto tinfoil cylinders
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- Aug 17 American astronomer Asaph Hall discovers Mars' moon Phobos
- Aug 22 Nez Perce (Niimíipu) indians flee into Yellowstone National Park
- Sep 5 Southern blacks led by Pap Singleton settle in Kansas
- Sep 11 Rijkslandbouwhoge school opens in Wageningen
- Sep 20 Chase National Bank opens in NYC (later merges into Chase Manhattan)
Event of Interest
Sep 22 Rudolf Virchow delivers an anti-Darwinian speech to the Congress of German Naturalist and Physicians, Munich where he speaks against the teaching of the theory of evolution in schools
Rudolf Virchow
- Sep 23 Hurricane strikes Curacao & Bonaire kills 200
- Sep 24 Battle of Shiroyama, decisive victory of the Imperial Japanese Army over the Satsuma Rebellion
- Sep 27 John Mercer Langston named minister of Haiti
- Sep 30 1st US amateur swim meet (NY Athletic Club)
- Oct 5 Chief Joseph surrenders, ending Nez Perce War
- Oct 9 American Humane Association organizes (Cleveland)
- Oct 15 45th Congress (1877-79) convenes
- Oct 17 Henry Morton Stanley reaches Boma during trip cross Africa
- Oct 22 The Blantyre mining disaster in Scotland kills 207 miners. Those widows and orphans who were unable to support themselves were evicted by the mine owners and likely sent to the Poor House.
- Nov 1 Dutch government of Heemskerk-Van Lynden resigns
- Nov 9 American Chemical Society chartered in NY
- Nov 17 Gilbert and Sullivan's operette "Sorcerer" premieres in London
- Nov 17 Russia launches a surprise night attack that overruns Turkish forces at Kars, Armenia
- Nov 24 English author Anna Sewell sells her manuscript "Black Beauty" to Norwich publisher for £40, the novel is published soon after
Historic Invention
Nov 29 US inventor Thomas Edison demonstrates his hand-cranked phonograph for the first time
Thomas Edison
- Dec 6 Thomas Edison records himself reciting "Mary had a little lamb"
- Dec 6 Washington Post publishes 1st edition
- Dec 7 Thomas Edison demonstrates his phonograph (gramophone) to the editors of "Scientific American"
- Dec 22 Thomas Edison's phonograph is announced by Scientific American
- Dec 24 Thomas Edison files a patents for the phonograph
- Dec 26 Socialist Labor Party of North America holds 1st national convention
- Dec 28 John Stevens, applies for a patent for his flour rolling mill
Birthdays in History
- Jan 2 Slava Raskaj, Croatian painter (d. 1906)
- Jan 7 Johannes F Buziau, Dutch cabaret performer (1 great dog)
- Jan 10 Frederick Gardner Cottrell, American inventor (electrostatic precipitator), born in Oakland, California (d. 1948)
- Jan 12 Frank J. Corr, American politician (d. 1934)
- Jan 15 Lewis Terman, American psychologist (developed Stanford-Binet IQ test), born in Johnson County, Indiana (d. 1956)
- Jan 17 May Gibbs, Australian children's author (d. 1969)
- Jan 18 Samuel Zemurray, U.S. businessman (d. 1961)
- Jan 22 Hjalmar Schacht, president of German Reichsbank/minister of Economics
- Jan 26 Kees van Dongen, Netherland, French painter
- Jan 29 Georges Catroux, French general (d. 1969)
- Jan 31 Max Ettlinger, German philosopher, born in Frankfurt, Germany (d. 1929)
- Feb 7 G. H. Hardy, English mathematician (Hardy–Weinberg principle, A Mathematician's Apology), born in Cranleigh, England (d. 1947)
- Feb 7 Julius Curtius, German minister of Foreign affairs (1929-..)
- Feb 12 Louis Renault, French automobile executive, born in Paris, France (d. 1944)
- Feb 17 Henri Vandeputte, Belgian author/poet (L'homme Jeune)
- Feb 17 Isabelle Eberhardt, Swiss explorer and writer (d. 1904)
- Feb 17 André Maginot, French politician, advocated for the Maginot Line, born in Paris, France (d. 1932)
- Feb 19 Else Berg, German born Dutch painter (Bergense School), born in Ratibor, German Empire (d. 1942)
- Feb 19 Gabriele Münter, German painter (d. 1962)
- Feb 21 Jacob D du Toit [Totius], South African poet/theologist
- Feb 22 Yme C Schuitmaker, Dutch potato salesman/dramatist
- Feb 24 Ettie Rout, New Zealand activist (d. 1936)
- Feb 26 Carel Steven Adama van Scheltema, Dutch socialist poet, born in Amsterdam, Netherlands (d. 1924)
- Mar 4 Garrett Morgan, American inventor (gas mask and traffic signal), born in Claysville, Kentucky (d. 1963)
- Mar 4 Daniel G van Beuningen, Dutch art collector
- Mar 4 Fritz Graebner, German ethnologist (d. 1934)
- Mar 9 Emil Abderhalden, Swiss physiologist and biochemist, born in Oberuzwil, Switzerland (d. 1950)
- Mar 10 David M Chumaceiro, Curacao, poet
- Mar 12 Wilhelm Frick, German protector of Bohemia/Moravia
- Mar 17 Albert P Hahn, Dutch political cartoonist (People/Nutcracker)
- Mar 18 Edgar Cayce, American psychic (d. 1945)
- Mar 25 Walter Little, Canadian politician (d. 1961)
- Apr 10 Alfred Kubin, Austrian writer and illustrator, born in Leitmeritz, Bohemia (d. 1959)
- Apr 14 Daniel Plooy, Dutch new testament scholar, born in Schiedam, Netherlands (d. 1935)
- Apr 17 Matsudaira Tsuneo, Japanese diplomat, born in Tokyo, Japan (d. 1949)
- Apr 18 Vicente Sotto, Filipino politician and author (Sotto Law, Republic Act No. 53), born in Cebu City, Spanish Empire (d. 1950)
- Apr 19 Ole Evinrude, Norwegian-American industrialist and inventor (outboard marine engine), born in Gjøvik, Norway (d. 1934)
- Apr 30 Alice B. Toklas, American-Parisian avant-garde and companion of Gertrude Stein, born in San Francisco, California (d. 1967)
- May 3 Karl Abraham, German psychoanalyst, born in Bremen, Germany (d. 1925)
- May 26 Jean Schlumberger, French writer (La Mort de Sparte), born in Guebwiller, Alsace-Lorraine (d. 1968)
- May 26 Sadao Araki, Japanese general, Minister of War (1931-34), born in Tokyo, Japan (d. 1966)
- Jun 3 Raoul Dufy, French Fauvist painter (Palm), born in Le Havre, France (d. 1953)
- Jun 4 Heinrich Otto Wieland, German chemist (bile acids-Nobel 1927), born in Pforzheim, Baden, Germany (d. 1957)
- Jun 5 Johan W Albarda, 1st Dutch socialist minister (1939-45)
- Jun 7 Charles Glover Barkla, English physicist (1917 Nobel Prize for Physics for X-ray scattering), born in Widnes, England (d. 1944)
- Jun 9 Rudolf Borchardt, German writer, born in Königsberg, Germany (d. 1945)
- Jun 11 Renee Vivien, English-born poet, wrote in French, born in London (d. 1909)
- Jun 12 Thomas C. Hart, U.S. admiral and commander (Pacific Fleet), born in Davison, Michigan (d. 1971)
- Jun 18 James Montgomery Flagg, illustrator ("I want you" Uncle Sam)
- Jun 24 Aleksei M Remizov, Russian writer (Iveren), born in Moscow (d. 1957)
Hermann Hesse
Jul 2 Hermann Hesse, German-Swiss novelist and poet (Steppenwolf, Nobel 1946), born in Calw, Württemberg, Germany (d. 1962)
Hermann Hesse
- Jul 6 Niceto Alcalá-Zamora, 1st Prime Minister of the Second Spanish Republic and President of Spain (1931-36), born in Priego de Cordoba, Spain (d. 1949)
- Jul 8 Elin Pelin [Dimitar Ivanov Stoyanov], Bulgarian writer (The Gerak Family; Earth), of Bailovo, Ottoman Empire (d. 1949)
- Jul 16 Béla Schick, Hungarian-American paediatrician (Schick test), born in Balatonboglár, Hungary (d. 1967)
- Jul 24 Calogero Vizzini, Sicilian Mafia boss, born in Villalba, Sicily, Italy (d. 1954)
- Aug 1 Charlotte Hughes, British supercentenarian (lived under the rule of 6 monarchs and 24 British Prime Ministers), born in Middlesbrough, England (d. 1993)
- Aug 1 Jan van den Tempel, Dutch politician (SDAP), born in Willemstad, North Brabant (d. 1955)
- Aug 4 Dame Laura Knight, English impressionist artist, born in Long Eaton, Derbyshire, England (d. 1970)
- Aug 5 Tom Thomson, Canadian painter, born in Claremont, Ontario (d. 1917)
- Aug 6 Wallace H. White, Jr., American politician (Senate Majority Leader), born in Lewiston, Maine (d. 1952)
- Aug 10 Rudolf Hilferding, German economist/SPD-minister of Finance
- Aug 11 Adolph M. Christianson, justice of the North Dakota Supreme Court (d. 1954)
- Aug 25 Joshua L. Cowen, American inventor (electric train), born in NYC, New York (d. 1965)
- Aug 27 Charles Stewart Rolls, British auto manufacturer (Rolls-Royce Ltd), born in Berkeley Square, London (d. 1910)
- Aug 27 Lloyd C. Douglas, American novelist (The Big Fisherman), born in Columbia City, Indiana (d. 1951)
- Aug 27 Ernst Wetter, Member of the Swiss Federal Council, born in Töss, Winterthur, Switzerland (d. 1963)
- Aug 29 Dudley Pound, British admiral of the fleet and 1st Sea Lord (Jutland, WW II), born in Ventnor, Isle of Wight, England (d. 1943)
- Sep 1 Francis William Aston, Nobel laureate (d. 1945)
Frederick Soddy
Sep 2 Frederick Soddy, English chemist, Nobel laureate, (d. 1956), born in Eastbourne, Sussex (d. 1956)
Frederick Soddy
- Sep 5 Albert Roelofs, Dutch painter and etcher, born in Schaarbeek, Brussels, Belgium (d. 1920)
- Sep 10 Georgia Douglas Johnson, African American poet and playwright (Autumn Love Cycle), born in Atlanta, Georgia (d. 1966)
- Sep 11 Felix Dzerzhinsky [Iron Felix, Bloody Felix], Ivyanets, Lithuania, Soviet statesman, established and developed Soviet secret police (Cheka, forerunner to the KGB)
- Sep 11 James Hopwood Jeans, English physicist, mathematician and astronomer (The Mysterious Universe), born in Southport, Lancashire (d. 1946)
- Sep 13 Wilhelm Filchner, German explorer who led the German Antarctic expedition of 1911–12, born in Munich, Germany (d. 1957)
- Sep 13 Stanley Lord, Captain of the SS Californian the night of the Titanic disaster, born in Bolton, Lancashire, England (d. 1962)
- Sep 15 Jakob Ehrlich, Austrian politician and Zionist, born in Bystřice pod Hostýnem, Czech Republic (d. 1938)
- Sep 15 Max Factor, Polish-American make-up artist, inventor and founder of cosmetics manufacturer Max Factor & Company, born in Zduńska Wola, Poland, Russian Empire (d. 1938)
- Sep 16 Willem Huibert Rassers, Dutch cultural anthropologist (Pandji), born in Roosendaal, Netherlands (d. 1973)
- Sep 25 Plutarco Elias Calles, Mexican revolutionary and president (1924-28), born in Guaymas, Mexico (d. 1945)
- Sep 26 Ugo Cerletti, Italian neurologist (discovered the method of electroconvulsive therapy), born in Conegliano, Italy (d. 1963)
- Oct 8 Hans Heysen, German-born landscape artist, born in Hamburg, Germany (d. 1968)
- Oct 18 Florence Dahl Walrath, humanitarian, founded Cradle society
- Oct 25 Henry Norris Russell, American astronomer (Hertzsprung-Russell diagram), born in Oyster Bay, New York (d. 1957)
Aga Khan III
Nov 2 Aga Khan III, Shia Imam who was one of the founders of the All-India Muslim League and later President of the League of Nations (1937-38), born in Karachi, British India (d. 1957)
Aga Khan III
- Nov 2 Joseph De Piro, Maltese founder of the Missionary Society of St. Paul, born in Mdina, Malta (d. 1933)
- Nov 3 Carlos Ibáñez del Campo, 19th and 25th President of Chile, born in Chillán, Chile (d. 1960)
- Nov 9 Allama Iqbal, Indian philosopher and poet, born in Sialkot, Punjab Province, British India (d. 1938)
- Nov 9 Sergei US Aleksi, patriarch of Russian-orthodox church
- Nov 9 Enrico De Nicola, Italian politician, 1st President of Italy (1948), born in Naples, Italy (d. 1959)
- Nov 14 René de Clerq, Flemish poet/author (Emergency Horn)
- Nov 18 Arthur Cecil Pigou, English economist (Economics of Welfare), born in Ryde, Isle of Wight, England (d. 1959)
- Nov 22 Endre Ady, Hungarian lyric poet (Még egyzer, Uj versek), born in Ermindszent, Hungary (d. 1919)
- Nov 22 Joan Gamper, Swiss-Catalan businessman and founder of FC Barcelona, born in Winterthur, Switzerland (d. 1930)
- Nov 24 Alben W Barkley, Graves County Ky, (35th Vice Pres-D-1949-53)
- Nov 24 Kavasji Jamshedji Petigara, Indian CID Commissioner of Police (d. 1941)
- Nov 25 Harley Granville-Barker, English dramatist, producer (The Voysey Inheritance) and critic, born in London (d. 1946)
- Dec 31 Lawrence Beesley, English journalist and author, born in Wirksworth, United Kingdom (d. 1967)
Weddings in History
Wedding of Interest
Jul 11 Scientist and inventor Alexander Graham Bell (30) weds Mabel Hubbard (19) at the Hubbard estate in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Alexander Graham Bell
Deaths in History
Charles Wilkes
Feb 8 Charles Wilkes, American Antarctic explorer and naval officer (Union Navy), dies at 78
Charles Wilkes
- Mar 4 Hendrik E van Rijgersma, Dutch governor (St Maarten), dies at 42
- Mar 9 Mark Prager Lindo, English Dutch author (Neth Spectator), dies at 58
- Mar 13 Charles Cowden Clarke, English editor and Shakespearean critic, dies at 89
- Mar 24 Walter Bagehot, English economist/critic/banker, dies at 51
- Mar 25 Elkanah Brackin Greer, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies at 51
- Mar 31 Antoine Cournot, French philosopher and mathematician (rule of Cournot), dies at 75
- Apr 22 James P. Kirkwood, American civil engineer, dies at 70
- May 6 Johan Ludvig Runeberg, Finnish poet (b. 1804)
- May 29 John Lothrop Motley, American historian and author (The Rise of the Dutch Republic), dies at 63
- Jun 3 Frank Pocock, British explorer, drowned in the Congo while travelling with Stanley
- Jun 3 Sophie of Württemberg, Queen of Netherlands as wife of William III, dies at 58
- Jun 6 Prairie Flower, daughter of Ponca & chief Standing Bear, dies
- Jun 7 Winand Staring, Dutch geologist (Bottom of Netherlands), dies at 68
- Jun 9 Hugh W. Mercer, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), dies at 68
- Jul 1 William Henry Davenport, American stage magician, claimed to be a spirit medium, dies at 36
- Jul 13 Wilhelm E Freiherr von Ketteler, German bishop of Mainz, dies at 65
- Aug 5 Gustavus, Crown Prince of Sweden, dies at 77
- Aug 12 James Drummond, Scottish historical painter, (b. 1816)
Brigham Young
Aug 29 Brigham Young, 2nd president of Latter-day Saints, dies of peritonitis at 76
Brigham Young
Crazy Horse
Sep 5 Crazy Horse [Tashunka Witko], last great Sioux war chief, dies at 37
Crazy Horse
William Henry Fox Talbot
Sep 17 William Henry Fox Talbot, English photographic pioneer, dies at 77
William Henry Fox Talbot
- Sep 23 Urbain JJ Leverrier, codiscoverer of Neptune, dies
- Sep 25 Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich, German Physician and advocate of scientific medicine, dies at 62
- Sep 26 Hermann Grassmann, German linguist and mathematician, dies at 68
- Sep 30 Toohoolhoolzote, prophet of Nez Perce indians, dies in battle
- Oct 3 James Roosevelt Bayley, first Bishop of Newark, New Jersey, and the eighth Archbishop of Baltimore, dies at 63
- Oct 10 Johann Georg Baiter, Swiss philologist, dies at 76
- Oct 16 John Zwijsen, archbishop of Utrecht, dies at 83
- Oct 16 Theodore Barrière, French dramatist (b. 1823)
- Oct 28 Robert Swinhoe, British naturalist (b. 1835)
Nathan Bedford Forrest
Oct 29 Nathan Bedford Forrest, American Confederate general, dies at 56
Nathan Bedford Forrest
- Nov 1 Oliver Hazard Perry Throck Morton, American politician (Governor of Indiana), dies of a stroke at 56
- Nov 2 Friedrich Graf von Wrangel, Prussian field marshal, dies at 93
- Dec 7 Benjamin Huger, American Major General (Confederate Army), dies at 72
- Dec 10 Jared Kirtland, American physician, naturalist and reformed penitentiaries, dies at 84
- Dec 12 José de Alencar, Brazilian writer (O Guarani), dies at 48
- Dec 23 Thomas Wright, English antiquarian and writer, dies at 87
- Dec 24 Robert Parker Parrott, American inventor (developed the rifled cannon known as the Parrott gun), dies at 73
- Dec 27 Nikolay Alekseyevich Nekrasov, Russian poet, writer and publisher (Russkije Zjenjshiny), dies at 56
- Dec 29 Willem Sassen, Dutch attorney general on Curacao (Affair-S), dies
- Dec 31 Gustave Courbet, French realist painter (Demoiselles the la Seine), dies at 58