Timeline of 1777

A chronological index of notable events, people, and works of the year 1777.

| Date | Event | Category | Source | |—|—|—|—| | January 1777 | Mozart completes Piano Concerto No. 9 (K. 271, “Jenamy”) in Salzburg | Arts & Culture | Mozart’s 1777 Tour | | January 13, 1777 | Prince Hall and seven others petition the Massachusetts legislature to abolish slavery | Political Events | Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Petition | | February 6, 1777 | Washington orders mass inoculation of the Continental Army against smallpox (letter to Dr. William Shippen Jr. from Morristown) | Science & Discovery | Smallpox Inoculation and Variolation in 1777 | | April 30, 1777 | Carl Friedrich Gauss born in Brunswick | Key Figures | Carl Friedrich Gauss | | May 8, 1777 | Sheridan’s The School for Scandal premieres at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane | Arts & Culture | The School for Scandal | | May 15, 1777 | Lightning strikes the Purfleet powder magazine, igniting the Royal Society lightning-conductor controversy | Science & Discovery | Royal Society Lightning Conductor Controversy | | June 13, 1777 | Marquis de Lafayette arrives on the South Carolina coast | Key Figures | Marquis de Lafayette | | June 14, 1777 | Flag Resolution — Stars and Stripes adopted | Political Events | Flag Resolution | | June 14, 1777 | John Paul Jones receives his Continental Navy captain’s commission, the same day as the Flag Resolution | Military Events | John Paul Jones and American Naval Command | | July 8, 1777 | Vermont Constitution adopted | Political Events | Vermont Constitution | | July 11, 1777 | Abigail Adams gives birth to a stillborn daughter, Elizabeth, at Braintree amid wartime hardship | Key Figures | Abigail Adams | | July 1777 | Hyder Ali lays siege to the Chitradurga fortress, opening a Mysore campaign in which Tipu Sultan takes part | Key Figures | Tipu Sultan | | August 3, 1777 | Haydn’s opera buffa Il mondo della luna premieres at Eszterháza for Count Anton Esterházy’s wedding | Arts & Culture | Haydn’s Il mondo della luna | | August 16, 1777 | Battle of Bennington — Stark’s militia destroy Burgoyne’s foraging detachment near Walloomsac | Military Events | Battle of Bennington | | August 25, 1777 | Howe’s army lands at Head of Elk, Maryland, opening the Philadelphia campaign | Military Events | Howe’s 1777 Campaign Strategy | | August 30, 1777 | Death of General John Clavering gives Warren Hastings a working majority on the Bengal Supreme Council | Economics & Trade | Warren Hastings and the East India Company in 1777 | | September 5, 1777 | Lavoisier reads “Mémoire sur la combustion en général” to the Paris Académie | Science & Discovery | Lavoisier’s Oxygen Theory | | September 8, 1777 | Charles III’s royal decree creates the Captaincy-General of Venezuela, separating it from the Viceroyalty of New Granada | Economics & Trade | Spanish Bourbon Reforms and Colonial Reorganization | | September 11, 1777 | Battle of Brandywine | Military Events | Battle of Brandywine | | September 19, 1777 | Battle of Freeman’s Farm (First Battle of Saratoga) | Military Events | Battles of Saratoga | | September 23, 1777 | Mozart departs Salzburg with his mother on his European tour | Arts & Culture | Mozart’s 1777 Tour | | September 23, 1777 | Gluck’s Armide premieres at the Académie Royale de Musique in Paris | Arts & Culture | Gluck’s Armide | | September 26, 1777 | British forces occupy Philadelphia | Military Events | British Occupation of Philadelphia | | October 1777 | William Herschel begins systematic astronomical observation (Mira Ceti) from his new Bath workshop at 19 New King Street | Science & Discovery | William Herschel’s Telescopes and Deep-Sky Observations | | October 4, 1777 | Washington’s counterattack at the Battle of Germantown fails amid fog and confusion | Military Events | Battle of Germantown | | October 6, 1777 | Clinton captures Forts Clinton and Montgomery in his Hudson River relief offensive | Key Figures | Sir Henry Clinton | | October 7, 1777 | Battle of Bemis Heights (Second Battle of Saratoga) | Military Events | Battles of Saratoga | | October 7, 1777 | Benedict Arnold leads the decisive assault on the Breymann Redoubt at Bemis Heights, breaking Burgoyne’s right flank and suffering a shattering leg wound | Key Figures | General Benedict Arnold | | October 17, 1777 | Burgoyne surrenders at Saratoga | Military Events | Battles of Saratoga | | November 1, 1777 | John Paul Jones sails from Portsmouth in command of USS Ranger, bound for France | Military Events | John Paul Jones and American Naval Command | | November 15, 1777 | Articles of Confederation adopted by Continental Congress | Political Events | Articles of Confederation | | December 1, 1777 | Baron von Steuben lands at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to volunteer for the Continental Army | Key Figures | Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben | | December 4, 1777 | News of Burgoyne’s surrender at Saratoga reaches Paris, triggering French alliance negotiations | Economics & Trade | Franco-American Diplomatic Breakthrough | | December 19, 1777 | Continental Army encamps at Valley Forge | Military Events | Valley Forge | | December 25, 1777 | Mozart completes Flute Quartet No. 1 (K. 285) in Mannheim | Arts & Culture | Mozart’s 1777 Tour | | December 30, 1777 | Death of Elector Maximilian Joseph III of Bavaria triggers the Bavarian succession crisis and the “Potato War” | Political Events | Bavarian Succession Crisis and Treaty of Teschen | | 1777 | Coulomb’s prize memoir on the magnetic compass introduces the torsion balance to the Académie des Sciences | Science & Discovery | Coulomb’s Torsion Balance and Electrostatics | | 1777 | Laplace advances his celestial-mechanics program (precession of the equinoxes; solar-system stability), the groundwork for his later nebular hypothesis | Science & Discovery | Laplace’s Nebular Hypothesis and Cosmological Revolution | | 1777 | American privateering against British shipping reaches peak intensity; Parliament responds with the Treason (Pirate) Act | Economics & Trade | American Privateering During the Revolutionary War | | 1777 | Boulton and Watt complete “Old Bess” and secure Cornish mining orders | Economics & Trade | James Watt’s Steam Engine | | 1777 | Catherine the Great advances Russian expansion in the Black Sea, backing Şahin Giray as a client Crimean khan | Political Events | Catherine the Great’s 1777 Diplomacy | | 1777 | Şahin Giray consolidates the Crimean khanate with Russian backing; reform program triggers an autumn rebellion | Political Events | Shahin Giray becomes Crimean Khan | | 1777 | Lord North’s ministry adopts tax measures drawn from Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations, an early sign of its influence on British fiscal policy | Economics & Trade | Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations | | 1777 | Leonhard Euler, nearly blind, sustains roughly one mathematical paper a week from Saint Petersburg and introduces the notation i for the imaginary unit | Key Figures | Leonhard Euler | | 1777–1778 | Beaumarchais writes The Marriage of Figaro while running covert arms shipments to the American Revolution | Arts & Culture | The Marriage of Figaro (Beaumarchais) |