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

January 8 - Crazy Horse and his warriors fight their last battle with the United States Cavalry (Montana)

January 20 - Ottoman Turkey rejects proposals of internal reform and Balkan provisions - Conference of Constantinople ends

March 2 - In the Compromise of 1877, the U.S. presidential election, 1876 presidential election of 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.

March 4 - Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake debuts

March 4 - Rutherford B. Hayes becomes President of the United States, succeeding Ulysses S. Grant.

March 15 - The first Test cricket match, between England and Australia

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

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

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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 were 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 - May 16, 1877 political crisis in France

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

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 US Cavalry at White Bird Canyon in the Idaho Territory.

June 21 - The Molly Maquires hanged at Carbon County prison in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania

June 26 - Eruption of Mount Cotopaxi in Ecuador causes severe mudflows that wipe out surrounding cities and valleys - 1000 dead

June 30 - British Mediterranean fleet is sent to Besika Bay

July 9 - All England Croquet and Lawn Tennis 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 19 - Russo-Turkish War, 1877–1878: First battle in the Siege of Pleven.

July 16 - Great railroad strike of 1877 begins. 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 President Hayes calls in the armed forces.

July 30 - Second battle in the Siege of Pleven.

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 lost 29 soldiers and Indians lost 89 warriors in a US Army win.

August 12 - Asaph Hall discovers Deimos, outer moon of Mars.

August 17 - Arizona blacksmith F.P. Cahill is fatally wounded by Billy the Kid. Cahill will die the next day, becoming the first person killed by the Kid.

August 18 - Asaph Hall discovers Phobos, inner moon of Mars.

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September 1 - Battle of Lovcha, Third battle in the Siege of Pleven.

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 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.

November 21 - Thomas Edison announces his invention of the phonograph, a machine that can record sound (this is considered to be Edison's first great invention) (Edison demonstrated the device for the first time on November 29).

December 9 - Fourth battle, concluding the Siege of Pleven.

December 14 - Serbia restates its previous declaration of war against Turkey

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

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Unknown date

Nineteenth Century magazine founded.

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Births

January 2 - Slava Raskaj, Croatian painter (d. 1906)
January 8 - William Dean, Chief Mechanical Engineer of Great Western Railway (d.1905)
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 16 - Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran (d. 1944)
March 18 - Edgar Cayce, American psychic (d. 1945)
March 25 - Walter Little, Canadian politician (d. 1961)
May 3 - Karl Abraham, German psychoanalyst (d. 1925)
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 14 - Jane Bathori, French opera singer (d. 1970)
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)
July 19 - Arthur Batsmen, English cricketer (d. 1947)
July 19 - Arthur Bowler, English cricketer
(d. 1948)
August 6 - Wallace H. White, Jr., U.S. Senator from Maine (d. 1952)
August 7 - Ulrich Salchow, Swedish figure skater (d. 1949)
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)
November 9 - Allama Iqbal, Indian philosopher, Pakistani nationalist, one of the profound founding fathers of the Muslims of India along with Jinnah and National poet of Pakistan (d. 1938)
November 15 - William Hope Hodgson, English author (d. 1918)
November 22 - Endre Ady, Hungarian poet (d. 1919)
December 3 - Richard Pearse, New Zealand airplane pioneer (d. 1953)
Alois Kayser, German missionary (d. 1944)

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Deaths

January 4 - Cornelius Vanderbilt, American entrepreneur (b. 1794)
August 29 - Brigham Young, American Mormon leader (b. 1801)
September 2 - Constantine Kanaris, Greek politician (b. 1795)
September 5 - Crazy Horse, Oglala Sioux chief (b. 1849)
October 16 - Theodore Barrière, French dramatist (b. 1823)
November 2 - Friedrich Graf von Wrangel, Prussian field marshal (b. 1784)
December 31 - Gustave Courbet, French painter (b. 1819)