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 – American 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.
 * January 29 – The Satsuma Rebellion, a revolt of disaffected samurai in Japan against the new imperial government. The Rebellion lasts until September of that year when it is crushed by a professionally led army of draftees.
 * March – The Nineteenth Century magazine is founded in London.
 * 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 won the popular vote on November 7, 1876.
 * March 3 – Rutherford B. Hayes is privately sworn in as President of the United States.
 * March 4
 * Emile Berliner invents the microphone.
 * Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake debuts.
 * Rutherford B. Hayes becomes President of the United States, as a result of the Compromise of 1877.
 * March 5 – President Rutherford B. Hayes is publicly sworn in.
 * 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 12 – The United Kingdom annexes the South African Republic, violating the Sand River Convention of 1852, causing a new Xhosa War.
 * April 24 – Russia declares war on the Ottoman Empire.
 * May 5 – American 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 8–11 – At Gilmore's Gardens in New York City, the first Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show is held.
 * May 9 (May 10 0:59 UTC) – Iquique earthquake and tsunami: An earthquake of at least magnitude 8.5 Ms occurs on the west coast of South America, killing 2,541 around the Pacific Rim.
 * May 16 – The 16 May 1877 crisis occurs in France.
 * May 21 (May 9 O.S.) – By a speech in the Parliament of Romania by Mihail Kogălniceanu, the country declares itself independent from the 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 – American Indian Wars – Battle of White Bird Canyon: The Nez Perce defeat the U.S. Cavalry at White Bird Canyon in the Idaho Territory.
 * June 20 - Alexander Graham Bell installs the world's first commercial telephone service in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
 * June 21 – The Molly Maguires are hanged at Carbon County Prison in Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania.
 * June 26 – The eruption of the volcano 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 – Conclusion of serial publication of Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina in The Russian Messenger.
 * 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 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: The first battle in the Siege of Plevna is fought.
 * July 30 – The second battle in the Siege of Plevna is fought.
 * July 30 – Russo-Turkish War: The Turkish army and its allies destroy the Bulgarian city of Stara Zagora and massacre the inhabitants.
 * August 9 – American Indian Wars – Battle of the Big Hole: Near Big Hole River in Montana, a small band of Nez Perce people who refuse government orders to move to a reservation, clash with the United States Army. The army loses 29 soldiers and the Indians lose 89 warriors in an Army victory.
 * August 12 – American astronomer Asaph Hall discovers Deimos, the outer moon of Mars.
 * August 18 – Asaph Hall discovers Phobos, the inner moon of Mars.
 * September 1 – The Battle of Lovcha, third battle in the Siege of Plevna, is fought. Russian forces successfully reduce the Ottoman fortress at Lovcha.
 * September 5 – American 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 22 – Treaty 7 is concluded between several mainly Blackfoot First Nations tribes and the Canadian Confederation at the Blackfoot Crossing of the Bow River, settling the Blackfoot on Indian reserves in what will become southern Alberta.
 * September 24 – Battle of Shiroyama in Kagoshima, Japan: The Imperial Japanese Army annihilates heavily outnumbered rebel samurai under Saigō Takamori (who is killed), ending the Satsuma Rebellion.

October–December

 * October 22 – The Blantyre mining disaster in Scotland kills 207 miners.
 * November 14 – Henrik Ibsen's first contemporary realist drama The Pillars of Society is premièred at the Odense Teater.
 * 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 is fought, concluding the Siege of Plevna.
 * December 14 – Serbia restates its previous declaration of war against Turkey.

January–June

 * January 2 – Slava Raškaj, Croatian painter (d. 1906)
 * January 22 – Hjalmar Schacht, German economist, politician and banker (d. 1970)
 * January 26 – Kees van Dongen, Dutch-French painter (d. 1968)
 * February 4 – Eddie Cochems, Father of the forward pass in American football (d. 1953)
 * February 7
 * G. H. Hardy, British mathematician (d. 1947)
 * Alfred Williams, British poet (d. 1930)
 * February 12 – Louis Renault, French industrialist, founder of Renault (d. 1944)
 * February 14 – Edmund Landau, German mathematician (d. 1938)
 * February 17
 * Isabelle Eberhardt, Swiss explorer and writer (d. 1904)
 * 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 9 – Albert Leo Stevens, pioneering American balloonist (d. 1944)
 * March 12 – Wilhelm Frick, German Nazi politician (d. 1946)
 * March 16 – Reza Shah Pahlavi, Shah of Iran (d. 1944)
 * March 18 – Edgar Cayce, American psychic (d. 1945)
 * March 21 – Maurice Farman, French pilot and aircraft designer (d. 1964)
 * March 25 – Walter Little, Canadian politician (d. 1961)
 * March 29 – Alois Kayser, German missionary (d. 1944)
 * April 15 – Georg Kolbe, German sculptor (d. 1947)
 * April 17 – Lionel Pape, English actor (d. 1944)
 * April 23 – Charles D. Herron, general in the United States Army (d. 1977)
 * April 30 – Alice B. Toklas, American writer (d. 1967)
 * May 3 – Karl Abraham, German psychoanalyst (d. 1925)
 * May 5 – Halfdan Egedius, Norwegian painter and illustrator (d. 1899)
 * May 23 – Grace Ingalls, youngest sister of author Laura Ingalls Wilder (d. 1941)
 * May 24 – Samuel W. Bryant, American admiral (d. 1938)
 * May 27 – Isadora Duncan, American dancer (d. 1927)
 * 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 – Renée Vivien, British poet who wrote in French (d. 1909)
 * June 12 – Thomas C. Hart, American admiral and politician (d. 1971)
 * June 14 – Jane Bathori, French opera singer (d. 1970)

July–December

 * July 2
 * Rinaldo Cuneo, American artist ("the painter of San Francisco") (d. 1939)
 * 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
 * George Hackenschmidt, Estonian strongman and professional wrestler (d. 1968)
 * Charlotte Hughes (née Milburn), the longest-lived person ever documented in the United Kingdom (d. 1993)
 * 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 16 – Roque Ruaño, Spanish priest-civil engineer (d. 1935)
 * August 22 – Ananda Coomaraswamy, philosopher (d. 1947)
 * August 27
 * Lloyd C. Douglas, American minister and author (d. 1951)
 * Charles Rolls, co-founder of the Rolls-Royce car firm, pioneer aviator (d. 1910)
 * Ernst Wetter, member of the Swiss Federal Council (d. 1963)
 * August 29 – Dudley Pound, British admiral (d. 1943)
 * September 1
 * Rex Beach, American novelist, playwright, and Olympic water polo player (d. 1949)
 * 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 10 – William Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield, British businessman and philanthropist (d. 1963)
 * October 15 – Helen Ware, American stage & film actress (d. 1939)
 * October 21 – Oswald Avery, Canadian-American physician and medical researcher (d. 1955)
 * October 22 – Frederick Twort, English bacteriologist (d. 1950)
 * October 24 – Ernst Mielck, Finnish composer (d. 1899)
 * 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 17 – Frank Lahm, Brigadier General USAF, airship pilot, early military aviator trained by the Wright brothers (d. 1963)
 * November 22
 * Endre Ady, Hungarian poet (d. 1919)
 * Joan Gamper, Swiss-born businessman and founder of FC Barcelona (d. 1930)
 * November 24
 * Edward C. Kalbfus, American admiral (d. 1954)
 * Kavasji Jamshedji Petigara, Indian police commissioner of Bombay (d. 1941)
 * Alben W. Barkley, 35th Vice President of the United States (d. 1956)
 * December 3 – Richard Pearse, New Zealand airplane pioneer (d. 1953)
 * December 24 – Sigrid Schauman, Finnish painter (d. 1979)

January–June

 * January 2 – Alexander Bain, Scottish inventor (b. 1811)
 * January 4 – Cornelius Vanderbilt, American entrepreneur (b. 1794)
 * January 20 – Dato Maharajalela Lela, Malay nationalist.
 * February 20 – Louis M. Goldsborough, United States Navy admiral (b. 1805)
 * 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)
 * June 17 – John Stevens Cabot Abbott, American historian, pastor, and pedagogical writer (b. 1805)
 * June 22 – John R. Goldsborough, United States Navy commodore (b. 1809)

July–December

 * July 16 – Samuel McLean, American congressman (b. 1826)
 * 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, American and Confederate naval officer (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 12 – Emily Pepys, English child diarist (b. 1833)
 * September 17 – William Fox Talbot, English photographer (b. 1800)
 * September 24 – Saigō Takamori, Japanese samurai (b. 1828)
 * October 3 – James Roosevelt Bayley, first Roman Catholic Bishop of Newark, New Jersey, and the eighth Archbishop of Baltimore (b. 1814)
 * October 10 – Johann Georg Baiter, Swiss philologist and textual critic (b. 1801)
 * October 16 – Théodore Barrière, French dramatist (b. 1823)
 * October 28 – Julia Kavanagh, Irish novelist (b. 1824)
 * October 29 – Nathan Bedford Forrest, American Confederate Civil War General, first Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan (b. 1821)
 * 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)