What Happened in 1877

Douglass is Appointed U.S. Marshal of the District of Columbia

Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), the most important African American figure of the 19th Century, is appointed Marshal of the District of Columbia by... Read more

Jack McCall is Hung for the Murder of James Butler 'Wild Bill' Hickok

As I write the closing lines of this brief sketch, word reaches me that the slayer of Wild Bill has been re-arrested by the United State... Read more

Ulysses S. Grant Leaves The White House

The second President from Ohio, Grant was elected the 18th President of the United States in 1868, and was re-elected to the office in 1872. Grant... Read more

Rutherford B. Hayes is inaugurated as the 19th president of the United States

The outcome of the election of 1876 was not known until the week before the inauguration itself. Democrat Samuel Tilden had won the greater number... Read more

James Montgomery Flagg Is Born

James Montgomery Flagg, creator of this illustration of Uncle Sam, was born on June 18, 1877, in Pelham Manor, New York. Flagg claimed that his... Read more

Bell Telephone Company Organized

The Bell Telephone Company, a common law joint stock company, was organized on July 9, 1877 by Alexander Graham Bell's father-in-law Gardiner... Read more

Thomas Alva Edison Completes The Model For The First Phonograph

August 12, 1877, is the date popularly given for Thomas Alva Edison's completion of the model for the first phonograph, a device that recorded... Read more

Chief Joseph Surrenders

On October 5, 1877, Chief Joseph, exhausted and disheartened, surrendered in the Bears Paw Mountains of Montana, forty miles south of Canada.... Read more

Charles Darwin received an Honorary Doctorate of Law from Cambridge University

The University of Cambridge had come round to Darwinism, and on Saturday 17 November the family attended the Senate House for a ceremony in which... Read more