Directory

1877 CE

A year defined by the Russo-Turkish War, the Great Railroad Strike in the United States, Thomas Edison's invention of the phonograph, and the end of Reconstruction in the American South.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire on April 24, beginning the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 in support of Slavic nationalist movements in the Balkans.
  • Reconstruction ended in the United States when President Rutherford Hayes withdrew federal troops from the South as part of the Compromise of 1877.
  • Rutherford Hayes was inaugurated as the nineteenth President of the United States on March 5 after the disputed 1876 election was resolved by an electoral commission.
  • Romania declared independence from the Ottoman Empire on May 21 and joined Russia in the war against the Ottomans.
  • Queen Victoria was formally proclaimed Empress of India at a grand ceremony in Delhi on January 1, consolidating British authority over the subcontinent.
  • The Satsuma Rebellion in Japan challenged the Meiji government as disaffected samurai under Saigo Takamori rose in revolt.
  • Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce led his people on a 1,170-mile retreat toward Canada to escape forced relocation by the United States Army.
  • The Transvaal Republic in South Africa was annexed by the British Empire on April 12 under Sir Theophilus Shepstone.
  • Japan suppressed the Satsuma Rebellion by September, with the death of Saigo Takamori marking the end of samurai resistance to modernization.
  • France established colonial control over parts of West Africa, expanding its territorial holdings along the Senegal and Niger rivers.

Conflict & Security

  • The Siege of Plevna lasted from July to December as Ottoman forces under Osman Pasha resisted repeated Russian and Romanian assaults in Bulgaria.
  • The Satsuma Rebellion ended on September 24 with the Battle of Shiroyama, where Saigo Takamori and his remaining samurai followers were defeated by the Imperial Japanese Army.
  • The Nez Perce War ended on October 5 when Chief Joseph surrendered to the United States Army near the Canadian border in Montana Territory.
  • The Great Sioux War continued as Sitting Bull led his followers into exile in Canada rather than surrender to the United States.
  • Crazy Horse surrendered to the United States Army at Fort Robinson, Nebraska on May 6, and was fatally stabbed in September while in custody.
  • Russian forces crossed the Danube in June and advanced into Ottoman-held Bulgaria, engaging in heavy fighting at the Shipka Pass.
  • The fall of Plevna on December 10 opened the road to Constantinople for Russian forces and effectively decided the outcome of the war.
  • The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 erupted in July across the United States, with workers protesting wage cuts, and was suppressed by federal troops and state militias.
  • The Aceh War in Sumatra continued as Dutch forces fought Acehnese guerrilla resistance in the interior of northern Sumatra.
  • Anti-Chinese violence erupted in San Francisco during the railroad strike, with mobs attacking Chinese residents and businesses.

Economy & Finance

  • The Great Railroad Strike of 1877 began in Martinsburg, West Virginia on July 14 and spread to cities across the country, becoming the first nationwide labor uprising in the United States.
  • The Long Depression continued, with wages cut repeatedly across industries, provoking widespread labor unrest.
  • The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's wage cuts triggered the Great Railroad Strike, which disrupted rail traffic across the eastern and midwestern United States.
  • Property damage from the Great Railroad Strike was extensive, with rioters burning railroad equipment and buildings in Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and other cities.
  • The Indian famine of 1876-1878 worsened under British colonial economic policies that continued to export grain while millions starved.
  • Silver mining expanded in the American West, particularly in Leadville, Colorado, where rich silver deposits were discovered.
  • Japanese industrialization continued under the Meiji government, with state-sponsored factories producing textiles, munitions, and other goods.
  • The Southern economy remained depressed as Reconstruction ended, with sharecropping and tenant farming replacing plantation slavery.
  • British investment in Ottoman bonds was imperiled by the war, as the military conflict raised further doubts about the empire's financial stability.
  • Railroad consolidation began in the United States as smaller lines merged to form larger, more efficient networks.

Technology & Infrastructure

  • Thomas Edison invented the phonograph in December, creating the first device capable of recording and reproducing sound.
  • The telephone spread rapidly after Bell's patent, with the Bell Telephone Company founded on July 9 to commercialize the invention.
  • Edison demonstrated the phonograph at his Menlo Park laboratory, astonishing visitors by playing back recorded speech.
  • The first telephone line was installed between Boston and Somerville, Massachusetts, demonstrating the practical application of Bell's invention.
  • Emile Berliner invented an improved microphone that would later be adapted for use in telephones, improving voice clarity.
  • Railroad engineers continued developing more powerful locomotives to handle heavier freight loads across the expanding American rail network.
  • The St. Gotthard Tunnel construction continued through the Swiss Alps, with workers making progress from both the Swiss and Italian sides.
  • The development of steel-frame construction techniques advanced, pointing toward the possibility of taller buildings in urban centers.
  • Electric arc lighting was installed on a trial basis in some public spaces in Paris and London, though practical incandescent lighting remained elusive.
  • Submarine telegraph cables were extended across the Pacific, improving communications between Asia and the Americas.

Science & Discovery

  • Giovanni Schiaparelli observed what he called canali on the surface of Mars during the planet's close approach to Earth, sparking decades of speculation about Martian life.
  • Asaph Hall discovered the two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, in August using the refractor telescope at the United States Naval Observatory.
  • Lord Rayleigh published the theory of sound scattering that would later explain why the sky appears blue.
  • Ludwig Boltzmann further developed his statistical mechanics, providing a microscopic explanation for macroscopic thermodynamic properties.
  • Charles Sanders Peirce continued his philosophical work on pragmatism, developing the foundations of American pragmatist philosophy.
  • Thomas Henry Huxley published Physiography, a textbook that integrated physical geography with geology and meteorology.
  • The Bone Wars continued as Cope and Marsh competed to describe new dinosaur species from fossil deposits in the American West.
  • Heinrich Hertz enrolled at the University of Berlin to study under Hermann von Helmholtz, beginning the research that would later prove the existence of electromagnetic waves.
  • The Royal Observatory at Greenwich continued its systematic observations of stellar positions and proper motions.
  • Wilhelm Wundt began planning his experimental psychology laboratory at the University of Leipzig, which would open in 1879.

Health & Medicine

  • The Great Famine of 1876-1878 in India killed millions, with drought, failed harvests, and the continuation of grain exports under British policy contributing to mass starvation.
  • A yellow fever epidemic struck the southern United States, particularly affecting cities along the Mississippi River.
  • Robert Koch continued to develop his bacteriological techniques, preparing the methods that would allow him to identify specific disease-causing microorganisms.
  • Patrick Manson began his research on filariasis in China, discovering that mosquitoes transmitted the parasite that causes elephantiasis.
  • Cholera outbreaks struck several cities in India and the Middle East, with contaminated water supplies as the primary vector.
  • Tuberculosis remained the leading cause of death in Europe and North America, with no effective treatment available.
  • The Japanese government continued expanding its Western-style medical education system, training a new generation of physicians.
  • Surgical antisepsis using Lister's carbolic acid method became increasingly standard practice in European and American hospitals.
  • Infant mortality remained extremely high, with diarrheal diseases, whooping cough, and measles killing thousands of children annually.
  • Mental health treatment remained largely confined to asylums, though some reformers began advocating for more humane approaches to mental illness.

Climate & Environment

  • Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration was approximately 290 parts per million, as later confirmed by ice core analysis.
  • Severe drought struck southern India and parts of China, contributing to widespread famine and millions of deaths.
  • The Great Famine in India was exacerbated by El Nino conditions that suppressed the monsoon rains across South and Southeast Asia.
  • The American bison was nearly extinct on the southern Plains, with commercial hunting shifting to the remaining northern herds.
  • Deforestation continued across the American frontier as settlers cleared forests for farming and logging companies harvested timber.
  • Coal consumption continued to rise in industrial nations, with Britain, Germany, and the United States burning increasing quantities for industry and domestic heating.
  • The Rocky Mountain locust swarms diminished from their peak in previous years, though the insects continued to damage crops on the Great Plains.
  • Coastal erosion along the eastern seaboard of the United States prompted early discussions about shoreline protection and land management.
  • Mining operations in the American West continued to pollute rivers and streams with mercury and other toxic byproducts.
  • The Japanese government established forest reserves and began modern forestry management practices to protect watersheds.

Culture & Society

  • Leo Tolstoy completed the serialization of Anna Karenina, which was published in book form and became recognized as a masterpiece of world literature.
  • Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake premiered at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow on March 4, receiving an initially poor reception.
  • The first Wimbledon tennis championship was held in London in July, won by Spencer Gore in the men's singles competition.
  • Emile Zola published L'Assommoir, a naturalistic novel depicting working-class life in Paris that became a bestseller.
  • The phonograph's invention by Edison opened the possibility of recording and preserving sound, though commercial applications were years away.
  • Chief Joseph's eloquent surrender speech became widely published in American newspapers, generating public sympathy for the Nez Perce.
  • The end of Reconstruction in the South ushered in the era of Jim Crow, with Black Americans increasingly subjected to disenfranchisement and segregation.
  • Henrik Ibsen published The Pillars of Society, one of his early realist plays examining bourgeois Norwegian society.
  • The world population was approximately 1.476 billion.
  • The Workingmen's Party of the United States was founded in July, advocating for the rights of industrial laborers during the economic depression.