Charles Fort: A Fortean Chronology, 1877.

The year 1877 (MDCCCLXXVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar.

January

  • January 1: Queen Victoria is proclaimed Empress of India by the Royal Titles Act 1876, introduced by Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Benjamin Disraeli.
  • 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 15: In Memphis, Tenn., "in a space of two blocks," and after a violent storm in which the rain "fell in torrents" snakes were found. (Books93)
  • January 20: The Conference of Constantinople ends with Ottoman Turkey rejecting proposals of internal reform and Balkan provisions.

 

February

  • February 20: M. Trouvelot, of the Observatory of Meudon, observed, in the lunar crater Eudoxus a fine line of light; like a luminous cable drawn across the crater. (Books441)
  • February 27: At Peckloh, Germany, there was golden-yellow fall in which four kinds of organisms, not pollen, were the colouring matter. There were minute things shaped like arrows, coffee beans, horns and disks. (Books25)

March

  • 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.
  • 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: 1877 Australia v. England series: The first Test cricket match is held between England and Australia.
  • March 21: A brilliant illumination, and not by the light of the sun, in the lunar crater Proclus was observed. (Books441)
  • March 23: Lights appeared in the sky above Vence, France. Described as balls of fire of dazzling brightness. (Books295) 
  • March 24: For the only time in history, the Boat Race between the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford is declared a "dead heat".

 

April

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

 

May

  • May 2: Captain of the Royal Yacht, the Osborne, who in an official report to the Admiralty, told of having seen a turtle-like sea monster fifty feet long off the coast of Sicily. (Books616)
  • 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 15: A bright spot is obserevd on the moon, west of the crater Picard. (Books442) 
  • May 16: The May 16, 1877 political crisis occurs in France.
  • May 21: Romania declares itself independent from the Ottoman Empire (recognized in 1878 after the end of the Romanian independence war).
  • May 29: On the moon a bright spot is seen west of the impact crater of Picard: (Books442) 

 

June

  • June 14: A light on the dark part of the moon, resembling a reflection from a moving mirror; reported by Prof. Henry Harding. (Books442)
  • June 15: Henry Ossian Flipper becomes the first African American cadet to graduate from the United States Military Academy.
  • June 16: Prof Henry Harrison again observes a moving light upon a dark part of the moon, but shining faintly. (Books442)
  • June 17: Frank Dennet, "I fancied I could detect a minute point of light shining out of the darkness that filled Bessel." (A lunar crater) (Books442) 
  • 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 23: Red rain fell in Italy containing "microscopically small particles of sand." (Books40)
  • June 24: During a tornado in Colorado fell "pieces of ice so large they could not be grasped in one hand." (Books184) 
  • June 26: The eruption of Mount Cotopaxi in Ecuador causes severe mudflows that wipe out surrounding cities and valleys, killing 1,000.

 

July

  • July 7: The streets of Kilburn were "literally strewn" with a mass of clinkers during a storm, a quantity estimated to measure about two bushels and range in size from a walnut to a mans hand. (Books111)
  • July 9: The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club begins its first lawn tennis tournament at Wimbledon.
  • 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

  • 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.
  • August 27: During an eclipse of the moon a large ball of fire is seen dropping apparently from cloud to cloud. (Books442) 

 

September

  • 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.
  • September 7: Lights appeared in the sky of Bloomington, Indiana. (Books435)
  • September18: Mr. W.H. Smith watches in the sky above Brooklyn a winged man fly. (Books638) 

 

October

  • 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 14: Someting fell in a gale that the London Times described as a "huge ball of green fire." (Books100) 
  • October 22: The Blantyre mining disaster in Scotland kills 207 miners.

 

November

  • November 13: The lunar crater Hyginus N stands out with such prominence as to be seen at first glance. The following day Hyginus N lacked its prominence even though viewing conditions were excellent. (Books442)
  • 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

  • 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.