1877
Edison's Phonograph
In a Menlo Park workshop, Thomas Edison cranked a hand-turned tinfoil drum, shouted "Mary had a little lamb" into a diaphragm, and heard his own voice come back. Reporters did not believe it. Recorded sound was born, and with it a hundred-year argument about what music and memory actually were.
Satsuma Rebellion
Samurai in southern Japan, angry at the loss of their privileges and rice stipends, rose under Saigo Takamori, one of the architects of the Meiji Restoration. The new conscript army crushed them after eight months of brutal fighting. Saigo, wounded, had a retainer cut off his head. The samurai era ended on a hillside outside Kagoshima.
Russo-Turkish War
In the name of Slavic brotherhood, Alexander II declared war on the Ottoman Empire. Russian troops crossed the Danube, besieged Plevna for five months, and forced the sultan to sign a peace that created a huge Bulgaria in Russia's sphere. Britain and Austria, alarmed, demanded a revision. The Congress of Berlin would provide one.
Compromise of 1877
In exchange for the White House, the Republicans agreed to withdraw the last federal troops from the South and abandon Reconstruction. Rutherford B. Hayes became president; African Americans in the former Confederacy lost most of what they had gained during the previous decade. Jim Crow took the place of blue coats.
Nez Perce Flight
Refusing to move to a reservation, Chief Joseph led eight hundred Nez Perce - men, women, children, elders - on a seventeen-hundred-mile fighting retreat toward Canada, outmaneuvering US pursuit for months. Caught thirty miles from the border in the Montana snow, Joseph surrendered: "I will fight no more forever." The speech entered the language.
Great Railroad Strike
The first nationwide strike in American history began when Baltimore and Ohio railroad workers refused a wage cut. It spread through Pittsburgh, Chicago, and St. Louis; state militias and federal troops fired on workers; dozens died. The strike was broken, but it marked the arrival of mass industrial labor conflict in the United States.
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Frequently asked
What happened in the year 1877?
Saeculum lists 6 curated events from 1877. The most significant is Edison's Phonograph: In a Menlo Park workshop, Thomas Edison cranked a hand-turned tinfoil drum, shouted "Mary had a little lamb" into a diaphragm, and heard his own voice come…
What era was 1877 part of?
1877 falls within the Industrial Age (1801-1900). Steam, empire, and the unmaking of the old order.
Which regions saw notable events in 1877?
The curated events from 1877 span North America, East Asia and Middle East.