1777 in science

Exploration

• March – Third voyage of James Cook: English explorer Captain Cook discovers Mangaia and Atiu in the Cook Islands.

Mathematics

• Leonhard Euler introduces the symbol i to represent the square root of −1.

Technology

• probable date – Thomas Arnold of London produces the first watch ("Arnold 36") to be called a chronometer.

Awards

• Copley Medal: John Mudge

Births

• February 12 – Bernard Courtois, French chemist (died 1838)
• April 30 – Carl Friedrich Gauss, German mathematician (died 1855)
• May 4 – Louis Jacques Thénard, French chemist (died 1857)
• May 18 – John George Children, English chemist, mineralogist and entomologist (died 1852)
• August 14 – Hans Christian Ørsted, Danish physicist (died 1851)

Deaths

• September 22 – John Bartram, naturalist and explorer considered the "father of American botany" (born 1699)
• September 25 – Johann Heinrich Lambert, Swiss polymath (born 1728)
• December 7 – Albrecht von Haller, Swiss anatomist and physiologist (born 1708)
• Celia Grillo Borromeo, Italian scientist and mathematician (born 1684)

References

References

1. Crilly, Tony. (2007). "50 Mathematical Ideas You Really Need to Know". Quercus.
2. (1780). "An account kept during thirteen months in the Royal Observatory at Greenwich of the going of a pocket chronometer made on a new construction by John Arnold".
3. (1989). "chronometer, ''n.''". [[Oxford English Dictionary]] online version.
4. "Copley Medal {{!}} British scientific award".