Famous People Who Died In 1877

Cornelius Vanderbilt was an American business magnate credited with vastly expanding and improving America's transportation infrastructure. For his contributions to the country's railroad industry, Vanderbilt was made an inductee of the North America Railway Hall of Fame in 1999. He is also remembered for providing an initial $1 million endowment to Vanderbilt University, which was named in his honor.

Nineteenth-century Lakota war lord Crazy Horse, of the Oglala subtribe, is remembered as a legendary hero who fought against white encroachment of Native American territories. He was part of the Black Hills War and the Battle of the Little Bighorn. He died fighting at Camp Robinson, in modern-day Nebraska.

Jung Bahadur Rana is credited with founding the famous Rana dynasty in Nepal. One of the most prominent figures in the history of Nepal, Rana took control of the government of Nepal in 1846 and became the country's prime minister. The last few days of his life inspired the 2015 Nepali historical film, Seto Bagh.

Henry Fox Talbot was an English photography pioneer, inventor, and scientist. He is best remembered for inventing the calotype and salted paper processes that served as predecessors to photographic processes of the 20th century. He is also credited with inventing the photoglyphic engraving process. Henry Fox Talbot also played a major role in the progression of photography as an art.

Caroline Chisholm was an English humanitarian remembered for her work in British India where she established the Female School of Industry for the Daughters of European Soldiers which aimed at educating girls, who were taught reading, writing, nursing, cooking, and housekeeping. She also became a much-admired woman in Australia where she placed more than 11,000 people in jobs and homes.

Born to Stuckey's Bank MD Walter Bagehot was initially part of his father’s shipping and banking business. He later became the editor-in-chief of The Economist and married the publication’s founder James Wilson’s daughter. He penned path-breaking works such as Lombard Street and The English Constitution and co-established National Review.

Being the granddaughter of playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan, author Caroline Norton had her first experience at writing in her teens. Her beauty and charm, however, made her failed barrister husband jealous. The rift in their marriage caused her to successfully campaign for married women’s right to property and their children’s custody.

French astronomer Urbain Le Verrier revolutionized celestial mechanics by ascertaining the existence of Neptune by mathematical means. Apart from winning the Royal Society of London’s Copley Medal, he had also led the Observatory of Paris as its director. His name remains one of the 72 engraved on the Eiffel Tower.

Hermann Grassmann was a German polymath remembered for his work in linear algebra, although he wasn’t acknowledged as a mathematician for most part of his life. His work Die lineale Ausdehnungslehre, ein neuer Zweig der Mathematik was revolutionary in the field of mathematics and was far ahead of its time. During his lifetime, he was only known as a linguist.

Johan Ludvig Runeberg was a Finnish priest and poet. He is credited with writing Vårt land, the unofficial national anthem of Finland, and is regarded as a national poet of the country. As a priest, Runeberg was involved in the modernization of Virsikirja and produced numerous texts for the new edition. Johan Ludvig Runeberg is an aconic figure in Finland. 

Saigo Takamori was a samurai and he is considered as one of the most influential samurais in Japanese history. He was one of the three great nobles who led the Meiji Restoration. Saigo Takamori lived during the late Edo and early Meiji periods and led the imperial forces at the Battle of Toba–Fushimi. He was dubbed "the true last Samurai" after his death. 

Adolphe Thiers was a French historian and statesman who served as the French Third Republic's first President. He also served as the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of France in 1840. Apart from playing a major role in the French Revolution of 1830, which ended the Bourbon monarchy, Thiers also played a key role in the French Revolution of 1848.

Regarded as the first economist who had applied math to solve economic problems, Antoine-Augustin Cournot had penned the iconic work Researches into the Mathematical Principles of the Theory of Wealth. He was also the first to chart a supply and demand curve on a graph and introduced Cournot competition.

Constantine Kanaris was a Greek admiral and politician. Regarded as a national hero, Kanaris played a significant role in the Greek War of Independence and helped Greece achieve its independence from the Ottoman Empire. An influential politician, Constantine Kanaris also served five terms in the office of the Prime Minister between 1844 and 1877.

Edward Belcher was a British naval officer and explorer. He was the great-grandson of slave trader Jonathan Belcher. As a young man,  he accompanied Frederick William Beechey's expedition to the Pacific and Bering Strait. He later led an Admiralty expedition to try to find and rescue Sir John Franklin, whose ship became icebound off King William Island in 1847.

Educated at her Unitarian minister father’s school, Mary Carpenter grew up to form her own free schools for the poor, known as the ragged schools. Her work later took her to India and North America. She also established the National Indian Association to ease communication between Indian and British reformers.

Austrian musicologist, composer, writer, botanist and publisher Ludwig von Köchel is best-known for creating the Köchel catalogue, a chronological and thematic register of works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Köchel also arranged works of Mozart into 24 categories and Breitkopf & Härtel used this while publishing the first complete edition of Mozart's works titled Alte Mozart-Ausgabe.

Alexandre Herculano was a Portuguese historian and novelist. He is often credited with introducing Romantic literature to Portugal. An important historian, Alexandre Herculano enjoyed national recognition similar to that of France's Victor Hugo.