1777 in science
The year 1777 in science and technology involved some significant events.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 to be called a chronometer.
Awards
- Copley Medal: John Mudge
Births
- February 12 – Bernard Courtois, French chemist
- April 30 – Carl Friedrich Gauss, German mathematician
- May 4 – Louis Jacques Thénard, French chemist
- May 18 – John George Children, English chemist, mineralogist and entomologist
- August 14 – Hans Christian Ørsted, Danish physicist
Deaths
- September 22 – John Bartram, naturalist and explorer considered the "father of American botany"
- September 25 – Johann Heinrich Lambert, Swiss polymath
- December 7 – Albrecht von Haller, Swiss anatomist and physiologist
- Celia Grillo Borromeo, Italian scientist and mathematician
