*Timeline 1780-1789*

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1780        Jan 2, A blizzard hit Washington's army at the Morristown,
NJ, winter encampment.
    (AH, 2/05, p.16)
1780        Jan 2, Johann Ludwig Krebs (b.1713), German composer, died.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Ludwig_Krebs)

1780        Feb 9, Walenty Karol Kratzer, composer, was born.
    (MC, 2/9/02)

1780        Feb 14, William Blackstone (56), English lawyer, died.
    (MC, 2/14/02)

1780         Mar 1, Pennsylvania became the first U.S. state to abolish
slavery (for new-borns only). It was followed by Connecticut and Rhode
Island in 1784, New York in 1785, and New Jersey in 1786. Massachusetts
abolished slavery through a judicial decision in 1783. [see Jul 2, 1777]
    (HN, 3/1/98)(SC, 3/1/02)(HNQ, 5/29/02)

1780        Mar 17, Thomas Chalmers, 1st moderator (Free Church of
Scotland 1843-47), was born.
    (MC, 3/17/02)

1780        Mar 26, The 1st British Sunday newspaper appeared as the
British Gazette and Sunday Monitor.
    (SS, 3/26/02)

1780        Mar 27, August L. Crelle, German inventor, mathematician
(1st Prussian Railway), was born.
    (MC, 3/27/02)

1780        Apr 4, Edward Hicks (d.1849), Quaker preacher and painter,
was born. His work included over 60 paintings that were all titled "The
Peaceable Kingdom.?
    (WSJ, 11/16/99, p.A28)(SFC, 9/25/00, p.F1)(HN, 4/4/01)

1780        Apr, George Washington censured Benedict Arnold for his
misdeeds as governor of Philadelphia.
    (ON, 11/01, p.2)

1780        May 4, American Academy of Arts & Science was founded.
    (MC, 5/4/02)

1780        May 12, Charleston, SC, fell to the British in the US
Revolutionary War.
    (SC, internet, 5/12/97)(HN, 5/12/98)

1780        May 19, A mysterious darkness enveloped much of New England
and part of Canada in the early afternoon; the cause has never been
determined.
    (HFA, '96, p.30)(DTnet 5/19/97)

1780        May, The Virginia continentals surrendered to Lieutenant
Colonel Banastre Tarleton, commander of the British Legion, following
his victory at Waxhaws, SC. Tarleton then led the British troops to a
massacre of the surrendering Virginia regulars and militiamen, 
eliminating the last organized force in South Carolina. During the
course of the Revolutionary War, Tarleton became one of the most hated
men in America.
    (HNQ, 9/26/00)(AH, 10/07, p.29)

1780        Jun, The East India ship Princess Royal landed at Bengkulu
on Sumatra with American rebels. The prisoners were sent to Fort
Marlboro to be trained as British soldiers.
    (ON, 1/00, p.5)

1780        Jun, The London riots led by George Gordon in opposition to
the Catholic Relief Act of 1778 took place.
    (HNQ, 2/24/99)

1780        Aug 5, Benedict Arnold took over the command of West Point
from American Major Gen. Robert Howe.
    (ON, 11/01, p.2)

1780        Aug 16, American troops under Gen. Horatio Gates were badly
defeated by the British at the Battle of Camden, South Carolina.
    (HFA, '96, p.36)(HN, 8/16/98)(ON, 12/01, p.9)

1780        Aug 22, HMS Resolution returned to England without Capt Cook.
    (MC, 8/22/02)

1780        Aug 24, King Louis XVI abolished torture as a means to get
suspects to confess.
    (HN, 8/24/98)

1780        Aug 29, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (d.1867), French
painter, was born. His work included the "Portrait of Monsieur de
Norvins" and "Valpincon Bather."
    (WUD, 1994, p.731)(WSJ, 7/1/96, p.A11)(MC, 8/29/01)

1780        Aug 30, General Benedict Arnold betrayed the US when he
promised secretly to surrender the fort at West Point to the British
army. Arnold whose name has become synonymous with traitor fled to
England after the botched conspiracy. His co-conspirator, British spy
Major John Andre, was hanged in an act of spite by Washington ("it's
good for the armies").
    (MC, 8/30/01)

1780        Sep 21-22, General Benedict Arnold, American commander of
West Point, met with British spy Major John André to hand over plans of
the important Hudson River fort to the enemy. Unhappy with how General
George Washington treated him and in need of money, Arnold planned to
"sell" West Point for 20,000 pounds--a move that would enable the
British to cut New England off from the rest of the rebellious colonies.
Arnold's treason was exposed when André was captured by American
militiamen who found the incriminating plans in his stocking. Arnold
received a timely warning and was able to escape to a British ship, but
André was hanged as a spy on October 2, 1780. Condemned for his
Revolutionary War actions by both Americans and British, Arnold lived
until 1801.
    (HNPD, 9/21/98)

1780        Sep 23, British spy John Andre was captured along with
papers revealing Benedict Arnold's plot to surrender West Point to the
British. Arnold had switched sides partly because he disapproved of the
US French alliance.
    (AP, 9/23/97)(SFEC,11/23/97, Par p.19)

1780        Sep 25, American General Benedict Arnold joined the British.
    (MC, 9/25/01)(ON, 11/01, p.5)

1780        Oct 2, British spy John Andre was hanged in Tappan, N.Y.,
for conspiring with Benedict Arnold.
    (AP, 10/2/97)

1780        Oct 6, Over 1500 Patriot fighters assembled on the outskirts
of Cowpens, South Carolina, to confront Loyalist forces of British Major
Patrick Ferguson.
    (ON, 12/07, p.6)

1780        Oct 7, Colonial patriots slaughtered a loyalist group at the
Battle of King's Mountain in South Carolina. Patrick Ferguson (36),
English Major in South Carolina, died in the battle along with some 200
Loyalists. Patriot losses numbered 30 with 62 wounded.
    (HN, 10/7/99)(ON, 12/07, p.7)

1780        Oct 10, A Great Hurricane killed 20,000 to 30,000 in Caribbean.
    (MC, 10/10/01)

1780        Oct 20, M. Pauline Bonaparte, Corsican duchess of Parma and
Guastalla, was born.
    (MC, 10/20/01)

1780        Oct 31, The HMS Ontario was lost with barely a trace and as
many as 130 people aboard during a gale on Lake Ontario. In 2008
explorers found the 22-gun British warship. Canadian author Arthur
Britton Smith chronicled the history of the HMS Ontario in a 1997 book,
"The Legend of the Lake."
    (AP, 6/14/08)

1780        Oct, Gen. Washington ordered Major General Nathanael Greene
to replace Gen. Horatio Gates and take command of the southern
Department of the Continental Army.
    (ON, 12/01, p.9)

1780        Nov 29, Maria Theresa Hapsburg (63), Queen of Austria, died.
    (MC, 11/29/01)

1780        Dec 4, At the Battle of Rugeley's Mill, South Carolina,
Colonel William Washington attacked a fortified log barn with 107
Loyalists inside. When the Patriot?s small arms proved ineffective,
Washington cut a log to resemble a cannon and demanded the surrender of
the Loyalists. The "Quaker guns" used in the American War of
Independence were fashioned out of logs to resemble cannon.  Fooled by
the fake cannon, the promptly gave up. Quaker guns were also decisive at
the May 1780 Battle of Hunt?s Bluff, also in South Carolina.
    (HNQ, 4/24/00)

1780        George Stubbs, British painter, created his portrait of a
poodle.
    (SFC, 6/25/99, p.A3)

1780         Goethe published a fragment of Faust.
    (V.D.-H.K.p.239)

1780        The Warren Tavern was built in Charlestown and named after
Gen?l. Joseph Warren, who was killed at the battle of Bunker Hill.
    (HT, 3/97, p.34)

c1780        It was Alexander Hamilton?s idea to establish a central
bank and consolidate the state debts left over from the Revolutionary War.
    (WSJ,2/13/97, p.A18)

1780        John Paul Jones? "Continental Ship of War," Ranger, was
captured by the British at the fall of Charleston, South Carolina, and
was added to the Royal Navy under the name of Halifax.
    (NG, Sept. 1939, J. Maloney p.362)

1780        US Gen?l. Benedict Arnold, newly married and strapped for
cash to maintain an extravagant lifestyle, began providing information
to the British. He eventually joined the British as a brigadier general.
    (SFC, 7/1/97, p.A3)

1780        Guillaume Raynal, a French historian, proclaimed Puerto Rico
to be "in proportion to its size the very best island in the New World."
    (SFEC, 4/26/98, p.A3)

1780        The mission of San Lorenzo in the Native American pueblo of
Picuris was built. It has no bell towers, is flanked by curved
buttresses, and is one of the 6 adobe missions scattered along the
western shoulder of the Sangre de Cristo mountains between Taos and
Santa Fe, New Mexico.
    (SFC, 5/12/96, p.T-5)

1780        A Japanese whaling ship ran aground near the western end of
the Aleutian Islands. Rats from the ship reached the nearest island
giving it the name Rat Island. The incident introduced the non-native
Norway rat, also known as the brown rat, to Alaska. The rats terrorized
all but the largest birds on the island. In the Fall of 2008 poison was
dropped onto the island from helicopter-hoisted buckets for a week and a
half. By mid 2009 there were no signs of living rats and some birds had
returned.
    (Econ, 1/20/07, p.43)(Reuters, 6/12/09)

1780        The giant Mosasaurus dinosaur head was found in the
Netherlands near Maastricht. [see 1794]
    (NYT, 6/7/96, p.A4)

1780        A deadly hurricane hit the Windward and Leeward Islands and
20-22,000 people were killed.
    (SFC, 11/30/98, p.A2)

1780        In England Richard Brinsley Sheridan, playwright, entered
Parliament as a supporter of the Whig politician Charles James Fox, who
supported the American colonies against George III.
    (WSJ, 11/20/98, p.W6)(WSJ, 1/7/00, p.W4)

1780        In France a communal grave at the Cemetery of the Innocents
in Paris cracked and spilled into the cellars of adjoining houses and
prompted its closure.
    (Hem., 3/97, p.129)

1780        Salomon Gessner, printer, poet and friend of Goethe, founded
the Neue Zurcher Zeitung (NZZ). In 2005 the newspaper celebrated its
225th birthday.
    (Econ, 4/2/05, p.45)

1780        The Ottomans build the al-Ajyad Castle in Mecca to protect
the city and its Muslim shrines from invaders. The castle was torn down
by the Saudis in 2001 to make way for a trade center and hotel complex.
Turkey called this a "cultural massacre."
    (SFC, 1/8/02, p.A6)

1780        Sheep were introduced to Ireland from Scotland.
    (SFCM, 10/14/01, p.25)

1780        In Peru Jose Gabriel Condorcanqui led a failed Indian revolt
against the Spanish.
    (SFC, 12/20/96, p.B4)

1780s        Steel pens were developed as more durable than quills.
    (SFC, 7/26/04, p.F4)

1780s        Antoine Lavoisier and Pierre-Simon Laplace, chemists,
demonstrated that the byproducts of fire weighed as much as the original
wood and demolished the idea that heat was caused by the release of
phlogiston.
    (WSJ, 12/10/99, p.W12)

1780s        English plumber, William Watts, built a tower to let fall
drops of molten lead to a water well in his cellar to create shot for
guns. Just as raindrops turn spherical on falling, so did his lead
drops. His tower stood till 1968.
    (SFC, 6/22/96, p.E4)

1780-1783    A 4-year war between England and the Dutch was fought.
    (SFC, 3/31/98, p.F4)

1780-1792    The intellectual development over this period of American
President James Madison is covered in a 1995 book by Lance Banning
titled: The Sacred Fire of Liberty: James Madison and the Founding of
the Federal Republic.
    (WSJ, 12/20/95, p.A-12)

1780-1820    Some 5,000 cases came before the Spanish Inquisition from
which only 6 Spaniards were prosecuted for Judaism.
    (WSJ, 4/16/98, p.A20)

1780-1830    Louis-Leopold Boilly devoted himself in this period to
painting aspects of the common man in France. His paintings include A
Game of Billiards (1807) and Moving Day (1822).
    (WSJ, 11/7/95, p.A-1)

1780-1831    Karl von Clausewitz, German military officer and author of
books on military science. In his 1st book "On War" he wrote: "War is an
act of force to compel our enemy to do our will."
    (WUD, 1994, p.273)(WSJ, 4/1/99, p.A10)

1780-1839    The Maharajah Ranjit Singh lived in India. He consolidated
Sikh rule after splintering conflicts with Punjab's Mughal court and
Afghan and Persian invaders.
    (SFC, 9/22/99, p.E1)

1780-1842    William Ellery Channing, American clergyman: "How the 'I'
pervades all things!"
    (AP, 12/14/98)

1781        Jan 5, A British naval expedition led by Benedict Arnold
burned Richmond, Va. Arnold led some 1,600 British and Loyalist troops
in the destructive raid on Richmond.
    (AP, 1/5/98)(AH, 2/06, p.14)

1781        Jan 17, Daniel Morgan?s Continental regiments routed British
forces at Cowpens, South Carolina. 300 British soldiers were killed or
wounded and 500 taken prisoner. The cavalry skirmish at Cowpens was
bloody but inconclusive.
    (ON, 12/01, p.10)(AH, 2/06, p.15)

1781        Feb 25, American General Nathanael Greene crossed the Dan
River on his way to his March 15th confrontation with Lord Charles
Cornwallis at Guilford Court House, N.C.
    (HN, 2/25/98)

1781        Feb, Gen. Washington, sensitive to the pleas of the Virginia
Governor, ordered Lafayette south with a picked force of some 1,200 New
England and New Jersey troops.
    (http://xenophongroup.com/mcjoynt/laf_va.htm)
 
1781        Mar 1, The Continental Congress adopted the Articles of
Confederation, following ratification by Maryland.
    (AP, 3/1/08)

1781        Mar 13, Astronomer William Herschel discovered the planet
Uranus, which he named 'Georgium Sidus,' in honor of George III. He
initially though it was a comet. It is the 7th planet from the sun and
revolves around the sun every 84.02 years. It is 14.6 time the size of
Earth and has five satellites.
    (AHD, p.1408)(HFA, '96, p.26)(AP, 3/13/98)(HN, 3/13/99)(MC, 3/13/02)

1781        Mar 15, Gen. Nathanael Greene engaged British forces under
Cornwallis at Guilford Court-House, North Carolina. Greene retreated
after inflicting severe casualties on Cornwallis? army.
    (ON, 12/01, p.10)

1781        Mar, The Continental cavalry under Col. Henry Lee, the
father of Robert E. Lee, surprised and cut to pieces the Loyalist
cavalry near Hillsborough, NC. Ninety Loyalists were killed with no
losses to Lee.
    (AH, 10/07, p.29)

1781        Apr 8, Premiere of Mozart's violin sonata K379.
    (MC, 4/8/02)

1781        Apr 25, Gen. Nathanael Greene engaged British forces at
Hobkirk?s Hill, South Carolina, and was forced to retreat.
    (ON, 12/01, p.10)

1781        Apr 29, French fleet stopped Britain from seizing the Cape
of Good Hope.
    (MC, 4/29/02)

1781        May 1, Emperor Josef II decreed protection of population.
    (MC, 5/1/02)

1781        May 2, In Charles Town, S.C., William Collings sold his wife
to Thomas Schooler, with her bed and clothing for $2 and a half dozen
bowls of gross.
    (SFEC, 2/8/98, Z1 p.8)

1781        May 13, British Gen. William Phillips died of a fever
Petersburg, Va., as his forces confronted the American army under
Lafayette. Phillips had commanded the artillery battery whose fire had
killed Lafayette?s father at the Battle of Minden (1759).
    (ON, 2/09, p.5)

1781        May 14, Abram Petrovich Gannibal (b.1696), an African slave
adopted by Peter the Great, died. He served Peter in various important
capacities including spy and privy councilor. He is the
great-grandfather of Alexander Pushkin. In 2005 Hugh Barnes authored
?Gannibal: The Moor of Petersburg.?
    (Econ, 8/20/05,
p.66)(www.shaebia.org/wwwboard/contributedarticles/messages/58.html)

1781        May 25, Ferdinand, archduke of Austria-Este,
Governor-General (Sicily), was born.
    (SC, 5/25/02)

1781        Jun 9, George Stephenson, English engineer, inventor of the
steam locomotive, was born in Newcastle, England.
    (HN, 6/9/01)(MC, 6/9/02)

1781        Jun 11, A Peace Commission created by Congress was composed
of John Adams, John Jay, Benjamin Franklin, Henry Laurens and Thomas
Jefferson. Congress decided to appoint a commission to negotiate terms
for peace rather than entrust John Adams alone with the negotiations. On
June 15 Congress modified the 1779 peace instructions to include only as
essential U.S. independence and sovereignty.
    (HNQ, 6/23/98)

1781        Summer, Emily Geiger was said to have crossed British lines
in North Carolina to deliver an urgent message to American Gen.
Nathaniel Greene as Greene?s army retreated from British forces under
Gen. Francis Rawdon.
    (ON, 11/01, p.9)

1781        Jul 5, Stamford Raffles, founder of Singapore, was born.
    (MC, 7/5/02)

1781        Jul 6, In Virginia the Battle of Green Spring took place on
the Jamestown Peninsula. It was the last major engagement of the
Revolutionary War prior to the Colonial?s final victory at Yorktown in
October.
    (LP, Spring 2006, p.60)

1781        Jul 27, Mauro Giuseppe Sergio Pantaleo Giuliani, composer,
was born.
    (MC, 7/27/02)

1781        Aug 1, English army under Lord Cornwallis occupied Yorktown,
Virginia.
    (MC, 8/1/02)

1781        Aug 12, Robert Mills, architect and engineer, was born. His
designs include the Washington Monument, the National Portrait Gallery
and the U.S. Treasury Building.
    (HN, 8/12/00)

1781        Aug 20, George Washington began to move his troops south to
fight Cornwallis.
    (MC, 8/20/02)

1781        Aug 22, Col. William Campbell (36), West Virginia Patriot
militia leader, died of an apparent heart attack during the siege of
Yorktown. Campbell had led his militia in the Patriot victory on October
7, 1780, at the Battle of King's Mountain in South Carolina
    (ON, 12/07, p.7)

1781        Aug 30, The French fleet of 24 ships under Comte de Grasse
arrived in the Chesapeake Bay to aid the American Revolution. The fleet
defeated British under Admiral Graves at battle of Chesapeake Capes.
    (HN, 8/30/00)(MC, 8/30/01)

1781        Aug, Lt. Gen. Cornwallis began the defensive earthworks
around Yorktown with 8,300 regulars and 2,000 escaped slaves, who
believed British victory would mean freedom. The British army numbered
8,700.
    (NG, 6/1988, p.808)(SFEC,11/23/97, Par p.19)

1781        Sep 4, Mexican Provincial Governor, Felipe de Neve, founded
Los Angeles. He founded El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora la Reina de Los
Angeles (Valley of Smokes), originally named Nuestra Senora la Reina de
Los Angeles de Porciuncula, by Gaspar de Portola, a Spanish army captain
and Juan Crespi, a Franciscan priest, who had noticed the beautiful area
as they traveled north from San Diego in 1769. 44 Spanish settlers named
a tiny village near San Gabriel, Los Angeles. Los Angeles, first an
Indian village Yangma, was founded by Spanish decree. 26 of the settlers
were of African ancestry.
    (HFA, '96, p.38)(AP, 9/4/97)(SFEC, 4/12/98, Par p.20)(HN,
9/4/98)(SFEC, 9/20/98, Z1 p.4)(HN, 9/4/00)(MC, 9/4/01)

1781        Sep 5, The British fleet arrived off the Virginia Capes and
found 26 French warships in three straggling lines. Rear Adm. Thomas
Graves waited for the French to form their battle lines and then fought
for 5 days. Outgunned and unnerved he withdrew to New York. The French
had some 37 ships and 29,000 soldiers and sailors at Yorktown while
Washington had some 11,000 men engaged. French warships defeated British
fleet, trapping Cornwallis in Yorktown.
    (NG, 6/1988, p.763)(SFEC,11/23/97, Par p.19)(MC, 9/5/01)

1781        Sep 6, Anton Diabelli, Austria publisher and composer, was born.
    (MC, 9/6/01)
1781        Sep 6, Martha Jefferson (b.1748), wife of Thomas Jefferson,
died.
    (www.whitehouse.gov/history/firstladies/mj3.html)

1781        Sep 8, Gen. Nathanael Greene engaged British forces at Eutaw
Springs, South Carolina, and was forced to retreat.
    (ON, 12/01, p.10)

1781        Sep 16, Lt. Gen. Lord Charles Cornwallis directed the
sinking of a fleet of ships at Yorktown to block a French landing and to
keep them out of enemy hands.
    (NG, 6/1988, p.806)

1781        Sep 28, American forces in the Revolutionary War, backed by
a French fleet, began their siege of Yorktown Heights, Va. 9,000
American forces and 7,000 French troops began the siege of Yorktown.
    (AP, 9/28/97)(MC, 9/28/01)

1781        Oct 1, James Lawrence, naval hero (War of 1812-"Don't give
up the ship!"), was born.
    (MC, 10/1/01)

1781        Oct 6, Americans and French began the siege of Cornwallis at
Yorktown, the last battle of Revolutionary War.
    (MC, 10/6/01)

1781        Oct 9, General George Washington commenced a bombardment of
the Lord Cornwallis's encircled British forces at Yorktown, Virginia
(Battle of Yorktown Revolutionary War). For eight days Lord Cornwallis
endured the Americans heavy bombardment and had no choice but to
surrender his 9,000 troops. It was considered that Washington had
achieved the inconceivable with victory at Yorktown and that the British
were defeated.
    (HN, 10/9/99)(MC, 10/9/01)

1781        Oct 17, Cornwallis was defeated at Yorktown. [see Oct 16,19]
    (MC, 10/17/01)

1781        Oct 19, Major General Lord Charles Cornwallis, surrounded at
Yorktown, Va., by American and French regiments numbering 17,600 men,
surrendered to George Washington and Count de Rochambeau at Yorktown,
Va. Cornwallis surrendered 7,157 troops, including sick and wounded, and
840 sailors, along with 244 artillery pieces. Losses in this battle had
been light on both sides. Cornwallis sent Brig. Gen. Charles O'Hara to
surrender his sword. At Washington's behest, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Lincoln
accepted it. Washington himself is seen in the right background of ?The
Surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown? by artist John Trumbull. After
conducting an indecisive foray into Virginia, Lt. Gen. Charles Lord
Cornwallis retired to Yorktown on August 2, 1781. On August 16, General
Washington and Maj. Gen. Jean Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de
Rochambeau, began marching their Continental and French armies from New
York to Virginia. The arrival of a French fleet, and its victory over a
British fleet in Chesapeake Bay, sealed the trap.
    (NG, 6/1988, p.808)(AP, 10/19/97)(HNPD, 10/19/98)(HN, 10/19/98)

1781        Oct (mid), French siege engineers under American command
destroyed the British fortifications at Yorktown.
    (SFC, 7/7/96, BR p.7)

1781        Nov, British Capt. Luke Collingwood, commander of the slave
ship Zong, in the face of endemic dysentery that had already killed 7
crewmen and 60 of 470 slaves, ordered his crew to throw sick slaves
overboard in order to claim insurance money at the end of the voyage.
Over 100 slaves were cast overboard. In 2007 Marcus Rediker authored
?The Slave Ship,? an account of this and the slave trade from 1700-1808.
    (WSJ, 10/11/07,
p.D8)(www.umich.edu/~ece/student_projects/slavery/the_zong.html)

1781        Dec 11, David Brewster, physicist and inventor
(kaleidoscope), was born in Scotland.
    (MC, 12/11/01)

1781        Mozart broke with his patron, the archbishop of Salzburg,
and struck off on his own. Mozart?s opera "Idomeneo" was composed.
    (V.D.-H.K.p.236)(WSJ, 1/6/00, p.A20)

1781        Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), English lexicographer, essayist
and poet, authored ?Lives of the English Poets.?
    (ON, 11/06, p.9)(WSJ, 9/18/08, p.A23)

1781        Immanuel Kant published his "Critique of Pure Reason." The
questions of whether the universe has a beginning and whether it is
limited in space are described as antinomies (that is, contradictions).
This is because he saw compelling arguments for and against. [see 1790]
    (BHT, Hawking, p.8)

1781        The earliest reference to the New Orleans Mardi Gras
"Carnival" appeared in a report to the Spanish colonial governing body.
The Perseverance Benevolent & Mutual Aid Association became the first of
hundreds of clubs and carnival organizations formed in New Orleans.
    (www.mardigrasneworleans.com/history.html)

1781        Asprey of London was founded. They established themselves
based on accouterments and paraphernalia for tea parties.
    (SFEM,10/26/97, p.4)

1781        John Quincy Adams (14) served as secretary to the American
ambassador to Russia.
    (SFEC, 10/25/98, Z1 p.12)

1781        Benedict Arnold led raids on the privateering towns of New
London and Groton, Connecticut. At Fort Griswold 83 patriots including
Col. William Ledyard were killed upon surrendering to the British forces.
    (AH, 10/01, p.A10)

1781        Count Arco, a secretary of Austria?s Archbishop of Salzburg,
fired Mozart from the service of the Archbishop. Mozart then began
working on his comic opera ?The Abduction from the Seraglio,? which
premiered the next year.
    (WSJ, 4/25/08, p.W14)

1781        Tupak Katari, Aymara Indian leader, laid siege to La Paz,
Bolivia, for 109 days. A Spanish army finally broke through and Katari
was executed by being drawn and quartered.
    (SFC, 4/5/01, p.A12)(WSJ, 1/8/04, p.A1)

1781        In Colombia the Comunero Revolt was the most serious revolt
against Spanish authority before the war for independence. The most
important uprising began among artisans and peasants in Socorro (in
present day Santander Department). The imposition of new taxes by the
viceroy stimulated the revolt further.
    (http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+co0019))

1781        Chobei Takeda I (32) started a business selling traditional
Japanese and Chinese medicines in Doshomachi, Osaka. In 1925 it was
incorporated as Chobei Takeda & Co., Ltd., with capital of 5.3 million
yen and Chobei Takeda V as president. The Company changed its name to
Takeda Pharmaceutical Industries, Ltd. in 1943. Its English name was
changed to Takeda Chemical Industries, Ltd. in 1961.
    (Econ, 11/20/10, SR p.9)
1781        Soga Shohaku (b.1730), Japanese artist, died.
    (SFC, 1/14/06, p.E1)

1781-1782    Smallpox, reduced the Mandans, a Missouri River tribe of
40,000 people, down to 2,000 survivors. They partially recovered,
increasing their numbers to some 12,000 by 1837.
    (www.madoc1170.com/madoc.htm)

1781-1841    Karl Friedrich Schinkel, German architect and artist.
    (WSJ, 7/16/98, p.A16)

1781-1865    Andres Bello, diplomat, politician (a Senator in Chile -
his adopted country), educator, poet and author of a Spanish grammar,
was born in Venezuela. His selected writings were published by the
Oxford Library of Latin America in 1998.
    (WSJ, 2/3/98, p.A20)

1782        Jan 7, The 1st US commercial bank, Bank of North America,
opened in Philadelphia.
    (MC, 1/7/02)

1782        Jan 18, Daniel Webster (d.1852, aka Black Dan) American
political leader, Senator and orator, lawyer, statesman, administrator
and diplomat, was born in Salisbury, N.H. In 1830 he proclaimed "Liberty
and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!" He was Secretary of
State before the Civil War.
    (HFA, '96, p.22)(AHD, p.1452)(WSJ, 9/30/97, p.A20)(AP, 1/18/98)(HN,
1/18/99)

1782        Mar 4, Johann Wyss, Swiss folklorist, writer (Swiss Family
Robinson), was born.
    (SC, 3/4/02)

1782        Mar 8, The Gnadenhutten massacre took place as some 90
Christian Delaware Indians were slain by militiamen in Ohio in
retaliation for raids carried out by other Indians.
    (AP, 3/8/98)(AH, 4/07, p.14)

1782        Mar 18, John C. Calhoun (d.1850), U.S. statesman, was born. 
He served as US vice-president from 1825-1832 under Adams and Jackson.
    (HN, 3/18/99)(WUD, 1994, p.210)

1782        Mar 25, Carolina [Maria A] Bonaparte, (countess Lipona),
sister of Napoleon), was born.
    (MC, 3/25/02)

1782        Apr 12, The British navy won its only naval engagement
against the colonists in the American Revolution at the Battle of Les
Saintes in the West Indies off Dominica. A British fleet beat the French.
    (HN, 4/12/99)(MC, 4/12/02)

1782        Apr 19, Netherlands recognized the United States.
    (HN, 4/19/97)

1782        Apr 21, Friedrich Froebel, German educator and founder of
kindergarten, was born.
    (HN, 4/21/98)(MC, 4/21/02)

1782        Jun 20, Congress approved the Great Seal of the United
States and the eagle as its symbol.
    (AP, 6/20/97)(SFC, 6/2/04, G9)

1782        Jul 15, Farinelli (77), Italian castrato, died.
    (MC, 7/15/02)

1782        Jul 16, Mozart's opera "Das Entfuehrung aus dem Serail" (The
Abduction from the Seraglio) premiered in Vienna.
    (MC, 7/16/02)

1782        Jul 26, John Field, pianist, composer (Nocturnes), was born
in Dublin, Ireland.
    (MC, 7/26/02)

1782        Jul, "Die Entfuehrung aus dem Serail" (Abduction from the
Seraglio) by Mozart was first performed.
    (SFC, 6/28/96, p.D6)(WSJ, 8/11/98, p.A16)

1782        Aug 2, George Washington created the Honorary Badge of
Distinction. [see Aug 7]
    (MC, 8/2/02)

1782        Aug 7, General George Washington created the Order of the
Purple Heart, a decoration to recognize merit in enlisted men and
noncommissioned officers. Washington authorized the award of the Purple
Heart for soldiers wounded in combat.
    (AP, 8/7/97)(HN, 8/7/98)
1782        Aug 7, A statue of Peter the Great was unveiled in St.
Petersburg on the 100th anniversary of his accession to the throne. It
was made by French sculptor Etienne-Maurice Falconet (1716-1791), who
spent 12 years on the work. Empress Catherine commissioned it in 1765.
    (WSJ, 8/5/06, p.P12)

1782         Aug 18, Poet and artist William Blake married Catherine
Sophia Boucher.
    (HN, 8/18/00)

1782        Sep 13, The British fortress at Gibraltar, under siege by
French and Spanish forces since 1789, held off a heavy attack of
battering ships.
    (HN, 9/13/98)(ON, 7/01, p.9)

1782        Oct 27, Niccolo Paganini (d.1840), composer and violin
virtuoso, was born in Genoa, Italy. He was both syphilitic and
consumptive since early manhood and died of TB in Nice.
    (WP, 1951, p.21)(MC, 10/27/01)

1782        Nov 5, The Continental Congress elected John Hanson of
Maryland its chairman, giving him the title of "President of the United
States in Congress Assembled."
    (AP, 11/5/99)

1782        Nov 30, The United States and Britain signed preliminary
peace articles in Paris, recognizing American independence and ending
the Revolutionary War.
    (AP, 11/30/97)(HN, 11/30/98)

1782        Dec 5, Martin Van Buren, 8th US President (1837-1841) was
born in Kinderhook, N.Y. He was the first chief executive to be born
after American independence.
    (AP, 12/5/08)

1782        Dec 14, Charleston, SC, was evacuated by British.
    (MC, 12/14/01)

1782        Dec 29, 1st nautical almanac in US was published by Samuel
Stearns in Boston.
    (MC, 12/29/01)

1782        Zayn al-Din, the John James Audubon of Indian art, painted
"A Painted Stork."
    (SFC, 2/7/98, p.E1)

1782        J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur authored his "Letters From
an American Farmer."
    (SFEC, 9/17/00, BR p.8)

1782        French writer Pierre Choderlos de Laclos wrote his novel
"Les Liaison Dangereuses." It was made into the opera "The Dangerous
Liaisons" in 1994 by Conrad Susa and Philip Littell.
    (WSJ, 3/25/98, p.A20)

1782        The first English Bible in America was published.
    (WSJ, 8/7/98, p.W13)

1782        The Unitarians were established as a religious group. They
encouraged their members to seek spiritual truth based on human
experience, not allegiance to creeds and doctrines. In 1961 they merged
with the Universalists.
    (SFC, 4/20/04, p.B2)

1782        The Presidio at Santa Barbara, Ca., was built by the Spanish
military.
    (SFEC, 5/4/97, p.T6)

1782        Father Serra held Easter Day services on the beach in
Ventura, Ca., and founded the Mission San Buenaventura.
    (SSFC, 10/14/01, p.T8)(SFCM, 7/18/04, p.16)

1782        Elias Boudinot served as president of the Continental Congress.
    (WSJ, 8/7/98, p.W13)

1782        The US declared the eagle was as its national bird.
    (SFC, 6/18/99, p.A3)

1782        Lexington, Kentucky, was established and became the first
commercial and cultural center west of the Allegheny Mountains.
    (SFEM, 3/12/00, p.47)

1782        John Goodricke, a deaf mute astronomer, explained the
varying brightness of the star Algol as being the result of 2 stars
orbiting a common center of gravity. He thus explained the first
"eclipsing binary."
    (NH, 10/96, p.62)

1782        British Capt. George Vancouver sailed by Lana?i, Hawaii, and
noted its "naked appearance."
    (SFEM, 10/13/96, p.24)

1782        The Comedie Francaise installed benches in the pit to
prevent a mob-like atmosphere.
    (SFC, 3/9/07, p.E8)

1782        In Switzerland Anna Goeldi was beheaded as a witch for an
alleged case of poisoning. A museum on Goeldi was opened in Mollis in
2007 on the 225th anniversary of her death. In 2008 the canton of Glarus
said she should be exonerated because the execution was a miscarriage of
justice. Goeldi was exonerated on August 27, 2008.
    (AP, 6/11/08)(AP, 8/27/08)

1782        The Wat Phra Kaew Temple was built in Bangkok, Thailand. It
houses the most sacred image of Thai Buddhism, the Emerald Buddha.
    (Hem, 3/95, p.58)(SFCM, 9/23/07, p.22)
1782        The Grand Palace was built by King Rama I on the Chao Phraya
River. The city of Bangkok grew up around it.
    (SFEC, 7/16/00, p.T14)

1782-1785    Mozart during this period wrote six string quartets
dedicated to Haydn.
    (T&L, 10/80, p. 103)

1782-1849    William Miller, US religious leader. His followers founded
the Adventist Church in 1845. The Seventh-Day Adventists broke from the
Adventist Church in 1846, stressing legalism and Sabbatarianism, with
strong views on diet, health and medicine.
    (HNQ, 9/29/99)

1782-1854     Susan Edmonstone Ferrier, Scottish novelist: "There are
plenty of fools in the world; but if they had not been sent for some
wise purpose, they wouldn't have been here; and since they are here they
have as good a right to have elbow-room in the world as the wisest."
    (AP, 10/3/97)

1782-1857     Anne Sophie Swetchine, Russian-French author: "The chains
which cramp us most are those which weigh on us least."
    (AP, 8/25/97)

1783        Jan 20, The fighting of the Revolutionary War ended. Britain
signed a peace agreement with France and Spain, who allied against it in
the American War of Independence.
    (HFA, '96, p.22)(HN, 1/20/99)

1783        Jan 23, Stendahl (d.1842), [Marie Henri Beyle], French
critic and writer (Le Rouge et de Noir), was born.  In 1997 Jonathon
Keates published his book "Stendhal," which covers the writer?s life
story. "Beauty is the promise of happiness." "One can acquire everything
in solitude, except character."
    (WSJ, 3/25/97, p.A16)(AP, 12/4/97)(AP, 6/6/98)(MC, 1/23/02)

1783        Feb 3, Spain recognized United States' independence.
    (AP, 2/3/97)(HN, 2/3/99)

1783        Feb 4, Britain declared a formal cessation of hostilities
with its former colonies, the United States of America.
    (AP, 2/4/97)

1783        Feb 5, Sweden recognized the independence of the United States.
    (AP, 2/5/97)(HN, 2/5/99)

1783        Feb 7, The Siege of Gibraltar, pursued by the Spanish and
the French since July 24, 1779, was finally lifted. [see Sep 13, 1782]
    (HN, 2/7/99)(ON, 7/01, p.10)

1783        Mar 5, King Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski granted rights
to Jews of Kovno.
    (MC, 3/5/02)

1783        Mar 8, Hannah Hoes Van Buren, wife of Martin Van Buren, was
born.
    (HN, 3/8/98)

1783        Apr 3, Washington Irving (d. Nov 28, 1859), essayist,
author, historian, biographer, attorney/lawyer, American writer (Legend
of Sleepy Hollow & Rip Van Winkle), was born in New York City. "No man
is so methodical as a complete idler, and none so scrupulous in
measuring out his time as he whose time is worth nothing."
    (DTnet 11/28/97)(HN, 4/3/98)(AP, 9/10/98)

1783        Apr 10, Hortense E. de Beauharnais, French queen of
Netherlands (1806-10), was born.
    (MC, 4/10/02)

1783        Apr 11, After receiving a copy of the provisional treaty on
13 March, Congress proclaimed a formal end to hostilities with Great
Britain.
    (HN, 4/11/99)

1783        Apr 29, David Cox (d.1857), English watercolorist, was born.
He books included ?Treatise on Landscape Painting? (1813).
    (SFC, 4/29/97,
p.B5)(www.chrisbeetles.com/pictures/artists/Cox_David/Cox_David.htm)

1783        May 4, In India Tipu Sultan was enthroned as the ruler of
Mysore after the death of Haider Ali in a simple ceremony at Bednur.
    (www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080048779)

1783        May 9, Alexander Ross, pioneer, fur trader, was born in Canada.
    (MC, 5/9/02)

1783        May 10, Niccola Benvenuti, composer, was born.
    (MC, 5/10/02)

1783        May 30, The first American daily newspaper, The Pennsylvania
Evening Post, began publishing in Philadelphia.
    (HN, 5/30/01)

1783        Jun 1, Last British troops sailed from New York. (MC, 6/1/02)

1783        Jun 4, The Montgolfier brothers launched their 1st hot-air
balloon (unmanned) in a 10-minute flight over Annonay, France.
    (http://inventors.about.com/od/astartinventions/ss/airship_2.htm)

1783        Jun 8, In Iceland the Lakagicar volcano began erupting. Over
the next 6 months it built a lava dam 40 miles long and 540 feet high in
a month. The Laki volcano wiped out 75% of the crops, which led to a
severe famine that killed some 10,000 people, 20% of the population,
reducing the population to some 40,000 people. This was described by
Haraldur Sigurdson in an article titled Volcanic Pollution and Climate:
Eos 63, Aug. 10, 1982. The Laki eruption sent poisonous gases across Europe.
    (NH, 9/97, p.38)(SFEC, 9/19/99, p.A18)(AM, 7/00, p.40)(ON, 2/04,
p.9)(Econ, 12/22/07, p.132)(Econ, 4/24/10, p.62)(Econ, 5/29/10, p.85)
1783        Jun 8-1784 Feb, A series of 10 eruptions from the Laki
Craters on Iceland changed atmospheric conditions in most of the
Northern Hemisphere. This also generated a cascade of events that led to
record low levels of water in the Nile River and brought famine to the
region. By 1785 a sixth of Egypt?s population had either perished or fled.
    (http://tinyurl.com/y9xemq)(Econ, 12/22/07, p.134)

1783        Jul 24, Simon Bolivar (d.1830), was born in Caracas,
Venezuela. He  was a soldier and statesmen who led armies of liberation
throughout much of South America, including Ecuador, Venezuela,
Colombia, Panama, Peru and Bolivia, which took its name from Bolivar.
Bolivar, called "the Liberator," was a leader in Venezuela for struggles
of national independence in South America. He formed a Gran Colombia
that lasted 8 years but broke apart into Venezuela, Colombia and
Ecuador. Bolivar died of tuberculosis.
    (AHD, p.148)(SFC, 6/14/97, p.E3)(AP, 7/24/97)(HNQ, 3/30/00)
1783        Jul 24, Georgia became a protectorate of tsarist Russia.
    (MC, 7/24/02)

1783        Aug 7, John Heathcoat (d.1861), English inventor of
lace-making machinery (1809), was born. In 1816 Luddites burned down his
Nottingham factory.
    (MC, 8/7/02)(Internet)   

1783        Aug 27, The 1st hydrogen balloon flight (unmanned), made by
Professor Jacques Charles, successfully completed its inaugural flight
in Paris.
    (www.twinring.jp/english/balloon/what_balloon/)

1783        Sep 3, The Treaty of Paris between the United States and
Great Britain officially ended the Revolutionary War. The Treaty of
1783, which formally ended the American Revolution, is also known as the
Definitive Treaty of Peace, the Peace of Paris and the Treaty of
Versailles. Under the treaty, Great Britain recognized the independence
of the United States. The treaty bears the signatures of Benjamin
Franklin, John Adams and John Jay.
    (AP, 9/3/97)(HNQ, 7/19/98)(HN, 9/3/98)(MC, 9/3/01)
1783        Sep 3, Mackinac Island, Michigan, passed into US hands
following the Paris Peace Treaty,
    (SSFC, 7/27/03, p.C5)

1783        Sep 11, Benjamin Franklin drafted the Treaty of Paris. [see
Sep 3]
    (MC, 9/11/01)

1783        Sep 19, Jacques Etienne Montgolfier launched a duck, a sheep
and a rooster aboard a hot-air balloon at Versailles, France.
    (AP, 9/19/06)

1783        Sep 26, Jane Taylor, children's writer, was born. She was
best known as the author of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star."
    (HN, 9/26/99)

1783        Oct 6, Benjamin Hanks patented a self-winding clock.
    (MC, 10/6/01)

1783        Oct 15, Francois Pilatre de Rozier (Jean Piletre de Rozier)
made the first manned flight in a hot air balloon. The first flight was
let out to 82 feet, but over the next few days the altitude increased up
to 6,500 feet. [see Jun 5]
    (HN, 10/15/98)(MC, 10/15/01)

1783        Oct 23, Virginia emancipated slaves who fought for
independence during the Revolutionary War.
    (HN, 10/23/98)

1783        Oct 29, Jean-Baptiste Le Rond d'Alembert (66), philosopher,
mathematician, died. He co-compiled the Encyclopedia with Denis Diderot.
    (MC, 10/29/01)

1783        Nov 1, Continental Army dissolved and George Washington made
his "Farewell Address." [See Nov 2]
    (MC, 11/1/01)

1783        Nov 2, Gen. George Washington issued his "Farewell Address
to the Army" near Princeton, N.J.
    (AP, 11/2/97)

1783        Nov 3, Washington ordered the Continental Army disbanded
from its cantonment at New Windsor, NY, where it had remained since
defeating Cornwallis in 1781.
    (MC, 11/3/01)

1783        Nov 21, Jean-Francois Pilatre de Rozier (1754-1785) and the
Marquis d?Arlandes made the first free-flight ascent in a balloon, to
over 500 feet, in Paris.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Romain)(NPub, 2002, p.2)

1783        Nov 23, Annapolis, Md., became the US capital until June
1784. [see Nov 26, 1783]
    (MC, 11/23/01)

1783        Nov 25, The British evacuated New York, their last military
position in the United States during the Revolutionary War.
    (AP, 11/25/97)

1783        Nov 26, The city of Annapolis, Maryland, was the first
peacetime U.S. capital. The U.S. Congress met at Annapolis November 26,
1783-June 3, 1784, following the signing of the Treaty of Paris on
September 3, 1783, formally ending hostilities between Great Britain and
her former colony. New York was the capital from 1785 until 1790,
followed by Philadelphia until 1800 and then Washington, D.C.
    (HNQ, 6/15/00)

1783         Dec 4, Gen. George Washington said farewell to his officers
at Fraunces Tavern in NYC. In 2003 Stanley Weintraub authored "General
Washington's Christmas Farewell."
    (AP, 12/4/97)(SFEC, 6/21/98, p.T4)(WSJ, 12/10/03, p.D8)

1783        Dec 9, The 1st execution at English Newgate-jail took place.
    (MC, 12/9/01)

1783        Dec 20, Antonio Francisco Jawer Jose Soler (54), Spanish
composer (Fandango), died.
    (MC, 12/20/01)

1783        Dec 22, Washington resigned his military commission. [see
Dec 23]
    (MC, 12/22/01)

1783        Dec 23, George Washington resigned as commander-in-chief of
the Army and retired to his home at Mount Vernon, Va.
    (AP, 12/23/97)

1783        Dec 31, Import of African slaves was banned by all of the
Northern American states.
    (MC, 12/31/01)

1783        Augustin Pajou, French sculptor, completed his "Psyche
Abandoned."
    (WSJ, 3/18/98, p.A20)

1783        John Mitchell wrote a paper in the Philosophical
Transactions of the Royal society of London in which he pointed out that
a star that was sufficiently massive and compact would have such a
strong gravitational field that light could not escape.
    (BHT, Hawking, p.82)

1783        Antonio Salieri (1750-1825), Italian composer, wrote his
opera "Les Danaides."
    (WSJ, 1/14/04, p.D10)

1783        Noah Webster (1758-1843), a Connecticut schoolmaster,
published the first edition of his American spelling book. As a
Grammatical Institute of the English Language, the Spelling Book was
influential in standardizing and differentiating, from the British
forms, English spelling and pronunciation in America.
    (ON, 12/09, p.9)(Econ, 6/18/11, p.34)

1783        Thomas Jefferson (40) of Virginia, US President (1801-1809)
began serving in US Congress and continued for two years.
    (www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/private-banks-quotation)

1783        Oliver Evans (1755-1819), American inventor, designed an
automated gristmill.
    (WSJ, 6/4/08, p.A19)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Evans)

1783        Loyalist Tory homes in Maine were taken apart and moved to
New Brunswick, Canada, and reassembled. Boatloads of newcomers from New
York and New England moved. Some of the new arrivals froze to death in
makeshift shelters that winter.
    (SFEC, 5/25/97, p.T6,7)

1783        The so-called 1838 Aroostook War stemmed from a boundary
dispute that had loomed since 1783 between Maine and New Brunswick and
was not settled by the Peace of Ghent. After Maine became a state in
1820, it disregarded British claims in making land grants to settlers
along the Aroostook River.
    (HNQ, 9/30/99)

1783        Nebula NGC 2261 was discovered by William Herschel.
    (http://observing.skyhound.com/archives/jan/NGC_2261.html)

1783        William Alexander (b.1726), American Revolutionary War
general, died. Before the revolution, William Alexander petitioned
Parliament for the right to the earldom of Stirling, Scotland. The title
was never formally conferred upon him, but Alexander was generally known
throughout the colonies as "Lord Stirling."
    (WUD, 1994 p.36)(HNQ, 8/14/02)

1783        English Architect Thomas Leverton (1795-1885) designed the
fanlight window above an entry in London?s Bedford Square.
    (WSJ, 11/18/06,
p.P11)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Leverton_Donaldson)
1783        In Britain William Pitt (24) became prime minister and the
youngest leader of the Tories. He was one of Great Britain?s greatest
peacetime leaders and served a prime minister from 1783-1801 and from
1804 until his death in 1806. Pitt was the son of William Pitt the
Elder, who served as prime minister from 1766 to 1768.
    (SFC, 6/20/97, p.A22)(WSJ, 3/26/99, p.W10)(HNQ, 1/29/00)
1783        In England executions were moved from Tyburn Gallows in Hyde
Park to Newgate Prison.
    (SFEM, 3/21/99, p.24)
1783        James Man founded a sugar cooperage and brokerage at 23 Harp
Lane in the City of London. The company later became known as the Man Group.
    (www.mangroupplc.com/assets/pdf/media/press-pack.pdf)(Econ, 5/22/10,
p.78)
1783        Captain Samuel Turner, a British army officer, traveled
through Bhutan and Tibet.
    (Econ, 1/31/09, p.91)

1783        Some 3,000 Blacks, who had obtained British certificates of
freedom for their loyalty in the American Revolution, arrived in Nova
Scotia and spent some miserable years there. In 1785 a delegation sailed
to Britain where they were offered passage to Africa in return for
establishing a British colony in Sierra Leone.
    (MT, summer 2003, p.8)
1783        John H. Molson (19) acquired a share in a log cabin brewery
on the banks of the St. Lawrence River and began the Molson beer empire.
    (WSJ, 6/29/04, p.A11)

1783        After this year German officially replaced Latin as the
language of instruction in Austria.
    (StuAus, April '95, p.17)

1783        Mount Asama, one of Japan's largest and most active
volcanoes, had a major eruption.
    (AP, 9/15/04)
1783        Yosa Buson (b.1716), Japanese painter based in Kyoto, died.
His work included ?Landscapes on silver Ground? (1782).
    (SFC, 12/8/05, p.E1)(SFC, 1/14/06, p.E10)

1783        The Kirov Ballet was founded in St. Petersburg.
    (WSJ, 7/16/02, p.D6)
1783        Catherine the Great annexed the Crimea to the Russian
empire. 83% or the residents were Tatars.
    (SFC, 1/4/99, p.A8)(Econ, 2/25/06, p.55)

1783        The great Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler introduced
latin squares as a new kind of magic squares. It later formed the basis
for the ?sudoku? number game.
    (www.cut-the-knot.org/arithmetic/latin.shtml)(Econ, 5/21/05, p.67)

1783-1786    Japan suffered one of its worst famines in history when
exceptional cold destroyed the rice harvest. As many as 1 million people
died. Most of the impact for this was due to the eruptions of the Laki
volcano in Iceland beginning in June, 1783.
    (Econ, 12/22/07, p.134)

1783-1840    Constantine Samuel Rafinisque, naturalist and author of the
Walam Olum.
    (NH, 10/96, p.14)

1784        Jan 14, The United States ratified a peace treaty with
England, the Treaty of Paris, ending the Revolutionary War.
    (HFA, '96, p.22)(AP, 1/14/98)

1784        Jan 26, In a letter to his daughter, Benjamin Franklin
expressed unhappiness over the eagle as the symbol of America. He wanted
the turkey.
    (AP, 1/26/98)

1784        Feb 7, In Iceland the Lakagicar (Laki) volcano ceased its
eruptions. Smoke from the 8 months of eruptions caused one of the
longest and coldest winters in Europe. [see Jun 8, 1783]
    (ON, 2/04, p.10)

1784        Feb 22, A U.S. merchant ship, the "Empress of China," left
New York City for the Far East.
    (AP, 2/22/99)

1784        Feb 28, John Wesley (1703-1791) chartered the Methodist
Church. His teaching emphasized field preaching along with piety,
probity and respectability. In 2003 Roy Hattersley authored "A Brand
from the Burning: The Life of John Wesley."
    (MC, 2/28/02)(WSJ, 6/13/03, p.W19)

1784        Feb 29, Marquis de Sade was transferred from Vincennes
fortress to the Bastille.
    (HN, 2/29/00)

1784        Mar 1, E. Kidner opened the 1st cooking school in Great
Britain.
    (SC, 3/1/02)

1784        Apr 2, Pierre Leclair (74), composer, died.
    (MC, 4/2/02)

1784        Apr 5, Louis [Ludwig] Spohr, German violin virtuoso,
composer (Faust), was born.
    (MC, 4/5/02)

1784        Apr 15, The first balloon flight occurred in Ireland. [see
Jun 5, 1783 in France]
    (HN, 4/15/98)

1784        Apr 29, Premiere of Mozart's Sonata in B flat, K454 (Vienna).
    (MC, 4/29/02)

1784        Apr, The idea of resetting clocks forward an hour in the
spring and back an hour in the fall was first suggested by Benjamin
Franklin in his essay "An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of
Light," published in the Journal de Paris, as a way to save electricity.
    (http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/whostarteddaylightsavingtime)

1784        May 20, Peace of Versailles ended the war between France,
England, and Holland.
    (HN, 5/20/98)

1784        May 25, Jews were expelled from Warsaw by Marshall Mniszek.
    (SC, 5/25/02)

1784        Jun 4, Elizabeth Thible became the first woman to fly aboard
a Montgolfier hot-air balloon, over Lyon, France.
    (AP, 6/4/07)

1784        Jun 9, John Carroll was appointed supervisor of US Catholic
Missions.
    (MC, 6/9/02)

1784        Jun 16, Holland forbade orange clothes.
    (MC, 6/16/02)

1784        Jun 24, In a tethered flight from Baltimore, Maryland,
Edward Warren (13) became the 1st to fly in a balloon on US soil.
    (NPub, 2002, p.3)

1784            Jun 29, Caesar Rodney (b.1728), US judge, Delaware
representative as a signer of the Declaration of Independence, died. He
was later depicted on the Delaware state quarter
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesar_Rodney)

1784        Jul 1, Wilhelm Friedmann Bach (73), composer (Sinfonias 64),
died.
    (MC, 7/1/02)

1784        Jul 30, Denis Diderot (b.1713), French philosopher, critic,
and encyclopedist, died. "Men will never be free until the last king is
strangled with the entrails of the last priest."
    (WSJ, 6/15/99, p.A16)(
www.giga-usa.com/quotes/authors/denis_diderot_a001.htm)

1784        Aug 14, The 1st Russian settlement in Alaska was established
on Kodiak Island. Grigori Shelekhov, a Russian fur trader, founded Three
Saints Bay.
    (MC, 8/14/02)

1784        Aug 23, Eastern Tennessee settlers declared their area an
independent state and named it Franklin; a year later the Continental
Congress rejected it.
    (MC, 8/23/02)

1784        Sep 20, Packet and Daily, the first daily publication in
America, appeared on the streets.
    (HN, 9/20/98)

1784        Oct 13, Ferdinand VII, king of Spain, was born.
    (HN, 10/13/98)

1784        Oct 19, Leigh Hunt (d.1859), English journalist, essayist,
poet and political radical, was born. He was a friend and advisor to
Shelley and Lord Byron and wrote the poems "Abou Ben Adhem" and "Jenny
Kissed Me."
    (HN, 10/19/99)(www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRleigh.htm)
1784        Oct 19, John McLoughlin, Hudson's Bay Co. pioneer in Oregon
Country, was born.
    (MC, 10/19/01)

1784        Oct, Pierre Eugene Du Simitiere (b.1736), artist and
philosopher, died. He helped design the 1st Great Seal of the US.
    (WSJ, 5/19/05, p.D8)(http://tinyurl.com/d23rr)

1784        Nov 1, Maryland granted citizenship to Lafayette and his
descendents.
    (MC, 11/1/01)

1784        Nov 24, Zachary Taylor, the 12th president of the United
States, was born in Orange County, Va.
    (AP, 11/24/97)

1784        Nov 28, Ferdinand Reis, composer, was born.
    (MC, 11/28/01)

1784        Nov 29, American Dr. John Jeffries paid Frenchman
Jean-Pierre Blanchard £100 pounds for a balloon flight in England during
which he made some atmospheric measurements.
    (ON, 10/03, p.6)

1784        Dec 13, Samuel Johnson (b.1709), English lexicographer,
essayist, poet and moralist best known for "The Dictionary of the
English Language," died. "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."
-- (To which Ambrose Bierce replied, "I beg to submit that it is the
first.") Johnson, an antagonist of slavery, left behind an annuity and
much of his personal property to his black valet, Francis Barber
(b.1735-1801). In 1791 Boswell wrote the celebrated "The Life of Samuel
Johnson." In 1955 Walter Jackson Bate (1918-1999) published "The
Achievement of Samuel Johnson" and in 1977 the biography "Samuel
Johnson." In 2000 Adam Potkay authored "The Passion for Happiness," in
which he argued that Samuel Johnson should be included in the
Anglo-Scottish Enlightenment along with David Hume, Adam Smith and
Edward Gibbon. In 2000 Peter Martin authored "A Life of James Boswell."
In 2008 Peter Martin authored ?Samuel Johnson: A biography.?
    (AP, 10/8/97)(WSJ, 11/29/00, p.A24)(ON, 11/06, p.10)(SSFC, 10/28/07,
p.M3)(WSJ, 9/18/08, p.A23)

1784        John Filson, schoolmaster, published the stories of Daniel
Boone as narrated to him by Boone.
    (SFEC, 7/23/00, Z1 p.2)

1784        Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais wrote "The Marriage of
Figaro," the sequel to "The Barber of Seville." A 1997 film,
"Beaumarchais," was a look at the artist, who was also a womanizer, a
spy and an arms runner.
    (WSJ, 12/19/96, p.A16)(SFEC,11/23/97, DB p.14)

1784        William Blake coined the term "transmography," to describe
artistic processes of continual invention and cumulative transformation.
    (LSA, Spring 1995, p.17)

1784        Philosopher Emmanuel Kant posed the question ?What is
enlightenment??
    (WSJ, 9/1/04, p.AD10)

1784        Mozart composed four piano concertos. The G Major is K. 453
(K is for Kochel who catalogues all of Mozart?s work in chronological
order).
    (T&L, 10/80, p. 103)

1784        Trenton, North Carolina, was founded.
    (SFC, 3/10/99, p.A3)

1784        George Washington met a 16-year-old slave named Venus, who
later bore a mulatto son named West Ford who lived in special favor at
Mt. Vernon. In 1998 descendants of Ford set out to prove that Washington
was his father.
    (SFC, 11/23/98, p.A6)

1784        Thomas Jefferson excavated an Indian burial mound on his
property in Virginia.
    (TV Doc.)
1784        Virginia Congressman Thomas Jefferson (41) became the US
Commissioner and Minister to France. He continued there to 1798 and
negotiated commercial treaties with European nations along with Ben
Franklin and John Adams.
    (www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/private-banks-quotation)
1784        Ben Franklin, while serving as US Minister to France, came
up with the idea of manipulating the hours of the business day so that
shops would both open and close earlier, when it was still light outside.
    (WSJ, 10/26/95, p.A-22)

1784        NY state awarded Thomas Paine 227 acres in New Rochelle.
    (SSFC, 4/1/01, p.A7)

1784        Phillis Wheatley, black poet, died. Only a child of about
eight when she was kidnapped and brought to America as a slave, Phillis
Wheatley was given the name of her Boston master, tailor John Wheatley.
With his wife Susanna, John Wheatley treated the young girl kindly,
providing an education that included the classical languages and
literature. Her work, lost and forgotten until the publication of a new
edition in 1834, was used by abolitionists to prove that blacks were not
intellectually inferior to white.
    (HNPD, 2/21/00)

1784        The British gave their Indian allies from New York a large
parcel of land southwest of Toronto after they fled to Canada following
the American war of independence. In 2006 the Six Nations Iroquois
Confederacy claimed that part of this land had been sold without their
proper consent for a new housing development in Caledonia.
    (Econ, 9/16/06, p.46)
1784        England?s Quarry Bank Mill on the river Bollin at Styal was
built by merchant Samuel Greg to supply cotton to the weavers of
Lancashire. Raw cotton from America was processed on the latest
machinery, Richard Arkwright?s water frame.
    (Econ, 9/24/11, SR p.3)

1784        The Hotel de Salm, a palace, was built in Paris. It became
the headquarters of Napoleon's Legion of Honor.
    (WSJ, 11/16/95, p.A-18)

1784        King Louis XVI appointed a French commission to examine the
theory of ?animal magnetism,? developed by German Dr. Franz Anton Mesmer
(1734-1815). The commission, which included American ambassador Benjamin
Franklin, branded Mesmer a fraud.
    (WSJ, 12/8/04, p.A1)

1784        The 1st Spanish military officer who explored the Mayan
ruins of Palenque thought it was Atlantis risen.
    (SSFC, 12/7/03, p.C10)

1784-1789    Thomas Jefferson?s years in Paris are depicted in a film
titled "Jefferson in Paris." He served as an American minister and Sally
Hemmings accompanied him as his daughter?s servant.
    (WSJ, 4/6/95, p.A-12)(WSJ, 11/6/98, p.W15)

1784-1849    Peter De Wint, watercolorist.
    (SFC, 4/29/97, p.B5)

1785        Jan 1, "Daily Universal Register" (Times of London)
published its 1st issue. [see Jan 1, 1788]
    (MC, 1/1/02)

1785        Jan 4, Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm, German philosopher who wrote
Grimm?s Fairy Tales, was born.
    (HN, 1/4/99)(MC, 1/4/02)

1785        Jan 6, Haym Salomon (44) died in Philadelphia. He helped
finance the US revolution.
    (MC, 1/6/02)

1785        Jan 7, The first balloon flight across the English Channel
was made. Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and the American Dr. John
Jeffries crossed the English Channel for the first time in a hydrogen
balloon.
    (HN, 5/15/98)(HN, 1/7/99)

1785        Jan 11, Continental Congress convened in NYC.
    (MC, 1/11/02)

1785        Jan 21, Chippewa, Delaware, Ottawa and Wyandot Indians
signed a treaty of Fort McIntosh, ceding present-day Ohio to the United
States.
    (HN, 1/21/99)

1785        Feb 24, Carlo Bonaparte (39), Corsican attorney, died.
    (MC, 2/24/02)

1785        Mar 1, Philadelphia Society for the Promotion of Agriculture
was organized.
    (SC, 3/1/02)

1785        Mar 7, Alessandro Manzoni, poet, novelist (Betrothed), was
born in Italy.
    (MC, 3/7/02)

1785        Mar 10, Thomas Jefferson was appointed minister to France,
succeeding Benjamin Franklin.
    (AP, 3/10/98)(HN, 3/10/98)

1785        Mar 19, Pierre-Joseph-Guillaume Zimmermann, composer, was born.
    (MC, 3/19/02)

1785        Mar 27, Louis XVII, Pretender to the throne (1793-1795)
during the French Revolution, was born. His father may have been Marie
Antoinette?s Swedish lover, Count Axel von Fersen.
    (HN, 3/27/98)(SFC, 4/20/00, p.A18)(MC, 3/27/02)

1785        Apr 21, Russian Tsarina Catharina II ended nobility privileges.
    (MC, 4/21/02)

1785        Apr 26, John James Audubon (d.1851), American naturalist,
bird watcher (ornithologist) and artist, was born in Haiti and educated
in France. The engraving of America's indigenous turkey, which Benjamin
Franklin nominated as the national bird, appeared in John James
Audubon's classic work "Birds of America," a book of 435 hand-colored
engravings prepared from his wildlife paintings begun in 1820. An artist
and naturalist, Audubon was one of the first to study and paint American
birds in their natural surroundings. Audubon came to America at 18 and
failed in several business ventures.
    (440 Int?l. internet,4/26/97, p.5)(AP, 4/26/98)(HN, 4/26/98)(HNPD,
7/15/98)

1785        Apr, Elizabeth Marsh (b.1735), traveler and writer, died of
breast cancer in Calcutta, India. In 1769 she had published ?The Female
Captive,? an account of her captivity in a Muslim court. In 2007 Linda
Colley authored ?The Ordeal of Elizabeth Marsh: A Woman in World History.?
    (Econ, 7/14/07, p.89)(www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n12/mant01_.html)

1785        May 9, James Pollard Espy, meteorologist (Philosophy of
Storms), was born in Pennsylvania.
    (MC, 5/9/02)
1785        May 9, British inventor Joseph Bramah patented a beer-pump
handle.
    (MC, 5/9/02)

1785        May 23, Benjamin Franklin in Paris spoke of his invention of
bifocals in a letter to friend and philanthropist George Whatley.
    (www.antiquespectacles.com/topics/franklin/franklin.htm)

1785        Jun 15, Two French balloonists died in the world's 1st fatal
aviation accident.
    (MC, 6/15/02)

1785        Jul 4, The first Fourth of July parade was held in Bristol,
Rhode Island. It served as a prayerful walk to celebrate independence
from England.
    (SFC, 7/5/97, p.A3)

1785        Jul 17, France limited the importation of goods from Britain.
    (HN, 7/17/98)

1785        Jul 20, Mahmud II, sultan of Turkey (1808-39), Westernizer,
reformer, was born.
    (MC, 7/20/02)

1785        Jul 23, Prussia's Frederick the Great formed Die Furstenbund
(League of German Princes).
    (AP, 7/23/97)

1785        Aug 15, Thomas De Quincey, English writer (Confessions of
English Opium Eater), was born.
    (MC, 8/15/02)
1785        Aug 15, French cardinal De Rohan (51), Bishop of Strasbourg,
was arrested in the affair of the diamond necklace.
    (PC, 1992, p.335)

1785        Aug 20, Oliver Hazard Perry, US Naval hero ("We have met the
enemy"), was born in Rhode Island.
    (MC, 8/20/02)

1785        Sep 1, Mozart published his 6th string quartet opus 10 in
Vienna.
    (MC, 9/1/02)

1785        Sep 28, Napoleon Bonaparte (16) graduated from the military
academy in Paris. He was 42nd in a class of 51.
    (MC, 9/28/01)

1785        Oct 18, Benjamin Franklin was elected president of
Pennsylvania. Special balloting unanimously elected Franklin the sixth
President of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, replacing
John Dickinson.
    (AH, 2/06,
p.47)(http://help.com/post/275760-why-is-benjamin-franklin-important)

1785        Nov 17, Church of England was organized in New England.
    (MC, 11/17/01)

1785        Nov 21, William Beaumont, surgeon, was born. He later
studied digestion by peering through a natural opening of the stomach
wall in a young Indian in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin.
    (MC, 11/21/01)

1785        Nov 23, John Hancock was elected President of the
Continental Congress for the second time.
    (HN, 11/23/98)

1785        Dec 8, Antonio Maria Mazzoni (68), composer, died.
    (MC, 12/8/01)

1785        Dec 26, Laurent Clerc, teacher, was born: 1st deaf teacher
in U.S., helped establish American School for the Deaf in Connecticut.
    (440.com)

1785        Dec 29, Johann Heinrich Rolle (69), composer, died.
    (MC, 12/29/01)

1785        Jean-Antoine Houdon sculpted a white marble bust of the
Marquis de Condorcet.
    (WSJ, 8/26/97, p.A14)

1785        Romney painted Emma, Lady Hamilton, the passion of sea-hero
Nelson.
    (SFEC, 2/1/98, p.T8)

1785        James Madison wrote the petition "Memorial and Remonstrance"
for circulation in Virginia to oppose the use of public funds for
Christian education.
    (WSJ, 9/1/99, p.A24)

1785        William Paley (1743-1805), an orthodox Anglican and
conservative moral and political thinker, published ?The Principles of
Moral and Political Philosophy.?
    (www.wmcarey.edu/carey/paley/paley.htm)

1785        US Congress decided that the country?s monetary system would
be based on a silver coin called a dollar, similar to that of the
Spanish dollar. The first American silver dollar was minted in 1794.
    (HNQ, 1/5/00)

1785        John Adams, the new US ambassador to Britain, presented
himself to King George.
    (Econ, 1/28/06, p.80)
1785        Thomas Jefferson succeeded Benjamin Franklin as US
ambassador to France.
    (http://history.state.gov/milestones/1776-1783/BFranklin)

1785        The American Continental Congress? Land Grant Act of 1785
set aside land for schools. In anticipation of the country expanding
with new states, the Continental Congress took possession of all land
won during the Revolution, dividing it into 640-acre sections and
selling it for $1 an acre.  Thirty-six sections comprised a township,
and within each township, one section was set aside to support public
schools.
    (HNQ, 4/3/99)

1785        The University of Georgia was the first state university
chartered, in 1785, but was not established until 1801. The University
of North Carolina was chartered in 1789 and was the first state
university in the U.S. to begin instruction, in 1795.
    (HNQ, 12/3/01)                   

1785        Barbary pirates seized American ships and imprisoned their
crew in Algiers for 11 years. Military and ransom operations raised
issues of Congressional approval and appropriations that bedeviled
Thomas Jefferson as both Sec. of State and as president. The issue is
covered in the 1997 book: Separating Power: Essays on the Founding
Period" by Gerhard Casper.
    (SFEC, 1/4/98, BR p.9)

1785        James Hutton presented his Theory of the Earth. Here he
formulated the principle of "uniformitarianism," which stated that
geological features were understandable as having resulted from
processes still occurring (i.e. volcanism, erosion, and deposition).
Hutton had studied physiology at Leyden and wrote his thesis on the
circulation of the blood. He wrote of Earth as a kind of super-organism,
whose proper study is planetary physiology.
    (RFH-MDHP, p.70)(DD-EVTT, p.16)(NOHY, 3/90, p.192)

1785        Manual Gonzalez, the 3rd mayor of Pueblo San Jose de
Guadelupe (California), conscripted local residents to build the town?s
1st City Hall.
    (SFC, 8/10/05, p.B4)

1785        Prince George of England after mentioning to his wife that
he liked her right eye, was presented with a Christmas painting of the
eye. It started a London fad and eye paintings flourished for a brief time.
    (SFEC, 10/5/97, Z1 p.6)

1785        In Canada Loyalist graduates of Harvard and King?s College
founded the Univ. of New Brunswick.
    (SFEC, 5/25/97, p.T7)

1785        Chechen people launched an armed struggle for freedom and
independence under the leadership of Sheikh Mansur.
    (www.chechnyafree.ru)

1785        Marie-Joseph de Condorcet (1743-1794), French philosopher
and mathematician, wrote the ?Essay on the Application of Analysis to
the Probability of Majority Decisions,? one of his most important works.
This work described several now famous results, including Condorcet's
jury theorem, which states that if each member of a voting group is more
likely than not to make a correct decision, the probability that the
highest vote of the group is the correct decision increases as the
number of members of the group increases.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquis_de_Condorcet)

1785        In Sweden the first Illis Quorum Meruere Labores (For Those
Whose Labors Have Deserved It), a gold medal, was awarded.
    (NH, 4/97, p.31)

1785-1812    This period in the life of Martha Ballard, Maine herbalist
and mid-wife, was covered by Ballard in her diaries and later uncovered
by historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich and portrayed in a 1998 TV
documentary for "The American Experience."
    (WSJ, 1/8/98, p.A7)

1786        Jan 4, Mozes Mendelssohn (56), Jewish-German philosopher
(Haksalah), died.
    (MC, 1/4/02)

1786        Jan 8, Nicholas Biddle, head of the first United States
bank, was born.
    (HN, 1/8/99)

1786        Jan 16, The Council of Virginia passed the Virginia Act for
Establishing Religious Freedom. Thomas Jefferson had drafted The
Virginia Act for Establishing Religious Freedom in 1779 three  years
after he wrote the Declaration of Independence. 
    (HN, 1/16/99)(WSJ, 12/14/02,
p.W17)(http://religiousfreedom.lib.virginia.edu/sacred/vaact.html)

1786        Jan 26, Benjamin Robert Haydon, painter (Waiting for The
Times, Wordsworth Ascending), was born in Plymouth.
    (MC, 1/26/02)

1786        Feb 24, Wilhelm Carl Grimm (d.1859), compiler of "Grimm's
Fairytales," was born in Germany.
    (HN, 2/24/98)(WUD, 1994, p.623)
1786        Feb 24, Charles Cornwallis, whose armies had surrendered to
US at Yorktown, was appointed governor-general of India. [see Sep 12]
    (MC, 2/24/02)

1786        Mar 22, Joachim Lelevelis was born in Warsaw. He became a
renowned historian and Prof. at Vilnius Univ. He died May 29, 1861 in Paris.
    (LHC, 3/22/03)

c1786        Apr 6,    Sacagawea (also Sacajawea), American explorer,
was born.
    (HN, 4/6/01)

1786        Apr 16, Sir John Franklin, arctic explorer, was born. He
discovered the North-West Passage.
    (HN, 4/16/99)

1786        Apr 20, John Goodricke (21), English deaf and dumb
astronomer, died.
    (MC, 4/20/02)

1786        Apr, The process of moving the bones from the Cemetery of
the Innocents to the new site in the limestone quarries began. The
process took 2 years. The Revolutionary Government of Paris had decided
to relieve congestion and improve sanitary conditions by emptying the
city cemeteries into an official ossuary. The Cemetery of the Innocents
and other church cemeteries were moved to the limestone quarries south
of the city.
    (Hem., 3/97, p.129)(SSFC, 11/12/06, p.G3)

1786        May 1, The opera "The Marriage of Figaro," by Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart, premiered in Vienna.
    (AP, 5/1/97)

1786        May 19, John Stanley (74), composer, died.
    (MC, 5/19/02)

1786        May 21, Carl W. Scheele (43), Swedish pharmacist, chemist, died.
    (MC, 5/21/02)

1786        Jun 13, Winfield Scott, U.S. Army general famous for his
victories in the War of 1812 and the War with Mexico, was born.
    (HN, 6/13/98)

1786        Jun 19, Gen. Nathanael Greene died of sunstroke at his
Georgia plantation. In 1960 Theodore Thayer authored "Nathanael Greene,
Strategist of the American Revolution." In 1973 William Johnson authored
"Life and Correspondence of Nathanael Greene."
    (ON, 12/01, p.12)

1786        Jul 11, Morocco agreed to stop attacking American ships in
the Mediterranean for a payment of $10,000.
    (HN, 7/11/98)

1786        Jul 24, Jean-Louis Nicollet, French explorer, was born.
    (HN, 7/24/02)

1786        Aug 8, The US Congress adopted the silver dollar and decimal
system of money.
    (MC, 8/8/02)
1786        Aug 8, Jacques Balmat and Dr. Michel-Gabriel Paccard became
the first men to climb Mont Blanc in France.
    (HN, 8/8/98)(ON, 4/04, p.1)

1786        Aug 17, Davy Crockett, American frontiersman and politician
who died in the defense of the Alamo, was born.
    (HN, 8/17/98)

1786        Aug 25, Ludwig I (d.1868), King of Bavaria, was born. He
later had an affair with international courtesan, Lola Montez.
    (MC, 8/25/02)

1786        Aug 29, Shay?s Rebellion began in Springfield, Mass. Daniel
Shay led a rebellion in Massachusetts to protest the seizure of property
for the non-payment of debt. Shay was a Revolutionary War veteran who
led a short-lived insurrection in western Massachusetts to protest a tax
increase that had to be paid in cash, a hardship for veteran farmers who
relied on barter and didn?t own enough land to vote. The taxes were to
pay off the debts from the Revolutionary War, and those who couldn?t pay
were evicted or sent to prison..  [see Jan 25, 1787]
    (HNQ, 7/6/00)(www.shaysnet.com/dshays.html)

1786        Sep 9, George Washington called for the abolition of slavery.
    (HN, 9/9/98)

1786        Sep 11, The US Convention of Annapolis opened with the aim
of revising the articles of confederation.
    (HN, 9/11/98)

1786        Sep 12, Despite his failed efforts to suppress the American
Revolution, Lord Cornwallis was appointed governor general of India.
[see Feb 24]
    (HN, 9/12/98)

1786        Sep 14, Two French ships appeared off the coast of Monterey,
the first foreign vessels to visit Spain's California colonies. Aboard
was a party of eminent scientists, navigators, cartographers,
illustrators, and physicians. For the next ten days Jean Francois de La
Pérouse, the commander of this expedition, took detailed notes on the
life and character of the area. Perouse?s notes were later published
under the title ?Life in a California Mission: Monterey in 1786: The
Journals of Jean Francois De LA Perouse.?
    (http://tinyurl.com/fbuud)

1786        Sep 26, France and Britain signed a trade agreement in London.
    (HN, 9/26/99)

1786        Oct 20, Harvard University organized the 1st astronomical
expedition in US.
    (MC, 10/20/01)

1786        Nov 18, Karl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber, German
composer (Der Freischutz), was born.
    (MC, 11/18/01)

1786        Dec 18, Carl Maria von Weber, German romantic composer (Der
Freischutz), was born.
    (MC, 12/18/01)

1786        Dec 20, Pietro Raimondi, composer, was born.
    (MC, 12/20/01)

1786        Dec 26, Daniel Shay led a rebellion in Massachusetts to
protest the seizure of property for the non-payment of debt. Shay was a
Revolutionary War veteran who led a short-lived insurrection in western
Massachusetts to protest a tax increase that had to be paid in cash, a
hardship for veteran farmers who relied on barter and didn?t own enough
land to vote. The taxes were to pay off the debts from the Revolutionary
War, and those who couldn?t pay were evicted or sent to prison. [see Jan
25, 1787]
    (HN, 12/26/98)(HNQ, 7/6/00)

1786        Scotsman Gregor MacGregor (d.1845), later known as His
Serene Highness Gregor I, Prince of Poyais, was born in Scotland. [see 1811]
    (SSFC, 1/18/04, p.M2)(WSJ, 1/30/04, p.W9)

1786        Andres Lopez of Mexico painted "Sacred Heart of Jesus."
    (WSJ, 3/3/98, p.A16)

1786        George Morland painted "The Wreck of the Haswell."
    (WSJ, 9/3/98, p.A20)

1786        Tiepolo painted "The Third Temptation of Jesus."
    (SSFC, 12/17/06, p.M6)

1786        Robert Burns published his first book of poetry in
Kilmarnock, Scotland.
    (SFC, 9/30/98, Z1 p.3)

1786        Nicolas-Edme Restif de la Bretonne began writing in a new
genre, the nighttime prowl. His "Les Nuits de Paris ou Le Spectateur
nocturne" was a rambling account of 1,001 nights wandering the streets
of Paris.
    (SFCM, 10/14/01, p.35)

1786        Rev. Henry Channing gave a sermon on the occasion of the
hanging of a 12-year old mulatto girl, Hannah Ocuish, in New London,
Connecticut.
    (LSA., Fall 1995, p.20)

1786        Mission Santa Barbara in California was founded as a place
for the Franciscan friars to assemble and convert the native Chumash
Indians.
    (SFEC, 5/4/97, p.T6)

1786        Encke, the most frequent visiting comet was first observed.
Its period is only 3.3 years. NASA planned a rendezvous for 1984.
    (NG, Aug., 1974, p.223)

1786        Meg Nicholson (d.1828) attempted to stab King George III.
She was sent to Bedlam and died there at age 77.
    (WSJ, 1/29/03, p.D10)

1786        French explorer Jean-Francois de Galaup de la Perouse set
foot near Makena Beach on the Hawaiian island of Maui.
    (SFEC, 9/7/97, p.T5)

1786        Capt. Francis Light landed in Penang (Malaysia) and built
Fort Cornwallis. Light, acting on behalf of the East India Company,
swindled the island from the ruling sultan with a promise of protection.
The British usurped the land to break the Dutch monopoly on the spice trade.
    (SFEC, 8/3/97, p.T8)(SFEM, 12/19/99, p.8)(SFC, 12/8/05, p.E7)

1786        Graaff-Reinet, the major town of the Easter Karoo in South
Africa, was founded.
    (Nat. Hist., 3/96, p.60)

1786        Frederick II (b.1712), King of Prussia, died. In 2000 Giles
MacDonogh authored "Frederick the Great."
    (WSJ, 4/27/00, p.A24)

1786-1859    Marceline Desbordes-Valmore, French actress and poet: "Who
will give me back those days when life had wings and flew just like a
skylark in the sky."
    (AP, 2/28/99)

1787        Jan 11, Titania and Oberon, moons of Uranus, were discovered
by William Herschel.
    (www.skyhound.com/george.html)

1787        Jan 25, Shays' Rebellion suffered a setback when debt-ridden
farmers led by Capt. Daniel Shays failed to capture an arsenal at
Springfield, Mass. Small farmers in Springfield, Massachusetts led by
Daniel Shays continued their revolt against tax laws. Federal troops
broke up the protesters of what later became known as Shay?s Rebellion.
[see Aug 29, 1786]
    (AP, 1/25/98)(HN, 1/25/99)(www.sjchs-history.org/Shays.html)

1787        Feb 4, Shay?s Rebellion, an uprising of debt-ridden
Massachusetts farmers, failed.
    (HN, 2/4/99)

1787        Feb 18, Austrian emperor Josef II banned children under 8
from labor.
    (MC, 2/18/02)

1787        Feb 23, Emma Hart Willard, pioneer in higher education for
women, was born.
    (HN, 2/23/98)

1787        Mar 8, Karl Ferdinand von Grafe was born. He helped create
modern plastic surgery.
    (MC, 3/8/02)

1787        Mar 16, George S. Ohm, German scientist, was born. He gave
his name to the ohm unit of electrical resistance. [HN later said Mar
16, 1789]
    (HN, 3/16/99)(WUD, 1994 p.1001)

1787        Apr 12, Philadelphia's Free African Society formed.
    (MC, 4/12/02)

1787        May 10, The British Parliament impeached Warren Hastings.
There was an effort to impeach the governor-general of India. Edmund
Burke indicted Warren Hastings, governor-general of India (1773-1785),
on 21 charges for high crimes and misdemeanors. The trial lasted 7 years
and Hastings was acquitted on all charges.
    (SFEC, 11/1/98, BR p.11)(WSJ, 5/1/00, p.A24)(MC, 5/10/02)

1787        May 13, Arthur Phillip set sail from Portsmouth, Great
Britain, with 11 ships of criminals to Australia. By year?s end some
50,000 British convict servants were transported to the American
colonies in commutation of death sentences. After the American
Revolution, Britain continued dumping convicts in the US illegally into
1787. Australia eventually replaced America for this purpose. Penal
transports continued until 1853, which left a remarkable legacy: an
almost totally unexplored continent settled largely by convicted felons.
    (HNQ, 1/24/99)(www.foundingdocs.gov.au/item.asp?dID=35)

1787        May 14, Delegates began gathering in Philadelphia for a
convention to draw up the U.S. Constitution.
    (AP, 5/14/97)

1787        May 25, The Constitutional Convention convened in
Philadelphia after enough delegates showed up for a quorum. The Founding
Fathers turned to the Rushworth's Collections of England for
revolutionary precedents. George Washington presided. [see May 25, 1777]
Rhode Island refused to send delegates.
    (AP, 5/25/97)(WSJ, 3/10/99, p.A22)(HN, 5/25/99)(Econ, 9/16/06, p.44)

1787        May 28, Johann Georg Leopold Mozart (67), Austrian composer,
died.
    (MC, 5/28/02)

1787        May 29, The "Virginia Plan" was proposed.
    (SC, 5/29/02)

1787        May, Eight ships left Great Britain carrying the first of
what would be the largest transportation of convicts in history to
Botany Bay in New South Wales, Australia. Penal transports continued
until 1853, which left a remarkable legacy: an almost totally unexplored
continent settled largely by convicted felons.
    (http://www.csmi.med.ed.ac.uk/session1/group65/index.htm)

1787        Jun 28, Sir Henry G. W. Smith, leader of British-Indian
forces, was born.
    (HN, 6/28/98)

1787        Jul 2, The Marquis de Sade shouted from Bastille that
prisoners were being slaughtered.
    (SC, 7/2/02)

1787        Jul 13, Congress, under the Articles of Confederation,
enacted the Northwest Ordinance, establishing rules for governing the
Northwest Territory, for admitting new states to the Union and limiting
the expansion of slavery.
    (AP, 7/13/97)(HN, 7/13/98)

1787        Jul 30, The French parliament refused to approve a more
equitable land tax.
    (HN, 7/30/98)

1787        Aug 2, Horace de Saussure, Swiss scientist, reached the top
of Mont Blanc.
    (MC, 8/2/02)

1787        Aug 6, The Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia began
to debate the articles contained in a draft of the United States
Constitution.
    (AP, 8/6/97)

1787        Aug 10, Mozart completed his "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik."
    (MC, 8/10/02)

1787        Aug 13, The Ottoman Empire declared war on Russia.
    (HN, 8/13/98)

1787        Aug 17, Jews were granted permission in Budapest, Hungary,
to pray in groups.
    (SC, 8/17/02)

1787        Aug 22, Inventor John Fitch demonstrated his steamboat, the
Perseverance, on the Delaware River to delegates of the Continental
Congress. In 2004 Andrea Sutcliffe authored ?Steam: The Untold Story of
America?s First Great Invention.?
    (AP, 8/22/99)(WSJ, 7/27/04, p.D10)

1787        Aug 24, Wolfgang A. Mozart completed his viola sonata in A,
K526.
    (MC, 8/24/02)

1787        Sep 4, Louis XVI of France recalled parliament.
    (HN, 9/4/98)

1787        Sep 17, The Constitution of the United States was completed
and signed by a majority of delegates (12) attending the constitutional
convention in Philadelphia. The US Constitution went into effect on Mar
4, 1789. Clause 3 of Article I, Section 8 empowered Congress to
"regulate Commerce with foreign nations, among the several states, and
with the Indian Tribes." Two of the signers went on to become presidents
of the United States. George Washington, the president of the
Constitutional Convention, and James Madison both signed the
Constitution. The US Constitution is the world's oldest working
Constitution. James Mason of Virginia refused to sign the document
because he thought it made the federal government too powerful believed
that it should contain a Bill of Rights.
    (HFA, '96, p.38)(AP, 9/17/97)(HN, 9/17/98)(WUD, 1994, p.314)(WSJ,
4/9/99, p.W17)(HNQ, 5/19/99)(WSJ, 3/31/06, p.A1)
1787        Sep 17, The US Constitution included the Connecticut, or
"Great," Compromise in which every state was conceded an equal vote in
the Senate irrespective of its size, but representation in the House was
to be on the basis of the "federal ratio," an enumeration of the free
population plus three fifths of the slaves.
    (SSFC, 11/2/03, p.M6)
1787        Sep 17, The "College of Electors" (electoral college) was
established at the Constitutional Convention with representatives to be
chosen by the states. Pierce Butler of South Carolina first proposed the
electoral college system. [see Sep 13, 1788]
    (SFC, 11/9/00, p.A14)(WSJ, 11/9/00, p.A26)
1787        Sep 17, The Electoral College, proposed by James Wilson, was
the compromise that the Constitutional Convention reached. In 2004
George C. Edwards III authored ?Why the Electoral College Is Bad for
America.?
    (www.usconstitution.net/consttop_elec.html)(SSFC, 10/17/04, p.M3)

1787        Sep 27, The US Constitution was submitted to states for
ratification. [see Sep 28]
    (MC, 9/27/01)

1787        Sep 28, Congress voted to send the just-completed
Constitution of the United States to state legislatures for their
approval. [see Sep 27]
    (AP, 9/28/97)

1787        Oct 27, The first of the Federalist Papers, a series of 77
essays calling for ratification of the U.S. Constitution, was published
in a New York newspaper. The essays by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison
and John Jay were written under the pseudonym ?Publius? and later
published as "The Federalist Papers."
    (AP, 10/27/97)(WSJ, 11/19/98, p.A1)(WSJ, 12/29/07, p.A8)

1787        Oct 29, Mozart's opera Don Giovanni opened in Prague. Don
Giovanni was first performed at the Prague?s Estates Theater with Mozart
at the piano and conducting the orchestra. It was a sensational success.
    (V.D.-H.K.p.236)(SFC, 4/14/96, T-12)(HN, 10/29/00)   

1787        Nov 15, Christoph W. Ritter von Gluck (73), composer
(Iphigenie Tauride), died.
    (MC, 11/15/01)

1787        Nov 18, Louis-Jacques Daguerre, French painter
(daguerreotype), was born.
    (MC, 11/18/01)
1787        Nov 18, Sojourner Truth, abolitionist and feminist, was
born. [see Nov 19]
    (MC, 11/18/01)
1787        Nov 18, The 1st Unitarian minister in US was ordained in Boston.
    (MC, 11/18/01)

1797        Nov 19, Sojourner Truth (d.1883), abolitionist and women's
rights advocate, was born. "Religion without humanity is a poor human
stuff." [see Nov 18]
    (HN, 11/19/98)(AP, 10/29/00)

1787        Nov 21, Samuel Cunard (d.1865), founder of the 1st regular
Atlantic steamship line, was born in Canada.
    (MC, 11/21/01)(WSJ, 7/1/03, p.D8)

1787        Nov 23, Anton Schweitzer (52), composer, died.
    (MC, 11/23/01)

1787        Nov 25, Franz Xavier Gruber, Austria, organist and composer
(Silent Night), was born.
    (MC, 11/25/01)

1787        Nov 29, In France Louis XVI promulgated an edict of
tolerance, granting civil status to Protestants.
    (HN, 11/29/98)(WSJ, 11/1/01, p.A19)

1787        Dec 7, Delaware became the first state to ratify the U.S.
Constitution.
    (AP, 12/7/97)

1787        Dec 10, Thomas H. Gallaudet, a pioneer of educating the
deaf, was born in Philadelphia.
    (AP, 12/10/07)

1787        Dec 12, Pennsylvania became the second state to ratify the
U.S. Constitution.
    (AP, 12/12/97)

1787        Dec 18, New Jersey became the third state to ratify the U.S.
Constitution.
    (AP, 12/18/97)

1787        Dec, William Wilberforce, on the suggestion of PM William
Pitt, introduced a motion in British Parliament for the abolition of the
slave trade.
    (ON, 4/05, p.2)

1787        Robert Barker, an Irish painter, is credited with inventing
the panorama and patented the idea in this year.
    (WSJ, 9/3/98, p.A20)

1787        Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) authored ?Panopticon,? a plan for
prison construction and management.
    (SSFC, 9/12/04, p.M1)(http://cartome.org/panopticon2.htm)

1787        Peter Markoe (1752?-1792) authored ?An Algerine Spy in
Pennsylvania.? His satirical provocation helped to push the US Congress
authorized a Navy and to dispatch Marines to subdue the pirates of Tripoli.
    (WSJ, 6/2/07, p.P8)

1787        The Mission La Purisima Concepcion in Lompoc, Ca., was
founded. It is now a 900 acre state park. (AWAM, Dec. 94, p.67)

1787        Rev. Richard Allen and Absalom Jones decided to form the
Free African Society, a non-denominational religious mutual aid society
for the black community. Eventually this society grew into the African
Church of Philadelphia.
    (www.pbs.org)

1787        Quatremiere de Quincy coined the term "Baroque" and defined
it as absurdity carried to excess.
    (WSJ, 8/18/99, p.A17)

1787        Alexander Hamilton (32) became the first US Treasury secretary.
    (WSJ, 11/19/98, p.A1)
1787        Alexander Hamilton sponsored a New York law that recognized
adultery as the only ground for divorce. It remained in force until 1967.
    (WSJ, 8/6/07, p.B1)

1787        Thomas Jefferson toured Bordeaux while serving as US
ambassador to France. He purchased cases Haut-Brion, d?Yquiem, and
Margaux for himself and George Washington.
    (WSJ, 9/1/06, p.A9)

1787        In the US the Northwest Ordinance abolished slavery and
marked the establishment of segregation and separate churches for
blacks. It included the sentence: "Religion, morality and knowledge are
necessary to good government..."
    (SFC, 6/24/96, p.A19)

1787        A private mint struck the first penny. It was 100% copper
and known as the Fugio cent.
    (USAT, 7/19/01, p.3A)

1787        The first left and right shoes were made.
    (SFEC, 1/30/00, Z1 p.2)

1787        The younger brother of William Blake, Robert, died. His
death deeply affected William and marked the genesis of Blake?s
Illuminated Works.
    (LSA, Spring 1995, p.17)

1887        In Argentina the last census to include blacks as a separate
category indicated that about 2% of the population in Buenos Aires was
African.
    (SSFC, 11/27/05, p.A24)

1787        Granville Sharp, English abolitionist, formed the Society
for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade.
    (ON, 12/08, p.9)
1787        Thomas Clarkson, deacon in the Church of England, led the
formation of the original abolitionist committee, the
interdenominational ?Committee to Effect the Abolition of the Slave
Trade.? His anti-slavery committee distributed 1,000 copies of ?A Letter
to our Friends in the Country, to inform them of the state of the
Business.? This was later considered as possibly the 1st direct-mail
fund-raising letter. In 2004 Adam Hochschild authored ?Bury the Chains:
Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire?s Slaves.?
    (SSFC, 1/23/05, p.F1)(ON, 4/05, p.1)
1787        Henry Hobhouse, a Bristol slave trader, bought the Hadspen
country house in Somerset, England, and rebuilt it.
    (Econ, 5/3/08, p.23)
1787        English ships transported some 38,000 slaves this year.
    (Econ, 12/23/06, p.93)
1787        British settlers bought land from African tribal leaders in
Sierra Leone and used it as a haven for freed African slaves. The
indigenous community, dominated by the Mende, wiped out the first
settlers. A 2nd group followed in 1792. The settlers intermarried but
held themselves aloof, monopolized power and discriminated against the
original population. In 2005 Simon Schama authored ?Rough Crossings:
Britain, the Slaves and the American Revolution.?
    (SFC, 3/11/98, p.A10)(SFC, 2/14/98, p.A8)(WSJ, 5/31/00, p.A26)(Econ,
8/27/05, p.66)(MT, summer 2003, p.8)
1787        Gen. Thomas Gage, former commander of British forces in
North America, died at age 66. In 1948 John Richard Alden authored
"General Gage in America."
    (ON, 3/01, p.4)

1787        Morocco became the first country to recognize the US as a
sovereign nation. Pres. Washington acknowledged Morocco?s recognition in
1789.
    (SFC, 8/15/98, p.E4)(SFCM, 3/27/05, p.19)

1787-1788    In Milan the Teatro alla Scala was built by Giuseppe
Piermarini in neo-Classical style.
    (WSJ, 12/26/01, p.A26)(SSFC, 1/27/02, p.C9)

1787-1826    Joseph von Fraunhofer, German physicist, using advanced
optical techniques, found that the spectrum of Newton?s rainbow ribbon
is marred by a large number of thin dark crosslines. The lines are
called Fraunhofer lines but were not explained until the work of
Kirchoff 50 years later.
    (SCTS, p.6)

1787-1863    Richard Whately, British theologian: "Honesty is the best
policy, but he who acts on that principle is not an honest man."
    (AP, 1/24/01)

1787-1948    William Herschel and other astronomers spotted 5 moons
circling Uranus during this period.
    (SFC, 12/23/05, p.A4)

1788        Jan 1, The Times, London's oldest running newspaper, was
first published. [see Jan 1, 1785]
    (HN, 1/1/99)
1788        Jan 1, Quakers in Pennsylvania emancipated their slaves.
    (MC, 1/1/02)

1788        Jan 2, Georgia became the fourth state to ratify the U.S.
Constitution.
    (HFA, '96, p.22)(AP, 1/2/98)

1788        Jan 9, Connecticut became the fifth state to ratify the U.S.
Constitution.
    (AP, 1/9/99)

1788        Jan 18, The first English settlers arrived in Australia's
Botany Bay to establish a penal colony. They found the location
unsuitable and Capt. Arthur Philip moved on to Sydney Cove. England sent
the first sheep along with convicts to Australia.
    (NG, 5.1988, pp. 575)(SFEC, 1/4/98, p.T4)(AP, 1/18/98)(Econ, 5/7/05,
Survey p.14)

1788        Jan 20, The pioneer African Baptist church was organized in
Savannah, Ga.
    (MC, 1/20/02)

1788        Jan 22, George Gordon (d.1824), (6th Baron Byron) aka Lord
Byron, English poet, was born with a deformed foot. His work included
"Lara," "Childe Harold?s Pilgrimage" and "Don Juan." He died in Greece
at Missolonghi on the gulf of Patras preparing to fight for Greek
independence. In 1997 the biography: "Byron: The flawed Angel" by
Phyllis Grosskurth was published.
    (WUD, 1994, p.204,917)(SFC, 6/9/97, p.D3)(SFEC, 11/15/98, Z1
p.10)(HN, 1/22/99)

1788        Jan 26, The 1st fleet of ships carrying 736 convicts from
England landed at Sydney Cove, New South Wales, Australia. The first
European settlers in Australia, led by Capt. Arthur Phillip, landed in
present-day Sydney. The day is since known as Australia?s national day.
In 2006 Thomas Keneally authored ?The Commonwealth of Thieves: The Story
of the Founding of Australia.?
    (AP, 1/26/98)(HN, 1/26/99)(WSJ, 9/19/00, p.A1)(Econ, 7/15/06, p.83)

1788          Jan 31, Charles Edward Stuart (67), The Young Pretender,
died.
     (HN, 1/31/99)(MC, 1/31/02)

1788        Feb 1, Isaac Briggs and William Longstreet patented the
steamboat on this day.
    (440 Int'l, 2/1/1999)

1788        Feb 5, Sir Robert Peel (d.1850), British prime minister
through the early 1800s, was born. He founded the Conservative Party and
the London Police Force whose officers were called "bobbies."
    (HN, 2/5/99)(Econ, 6/30/07, p.93)

1788        Feb 6, Massachusetts became the sixth state to ratify the
U.S. Constitution.
    (AP, 2/6/97)(HN, 2/6/99)

1788        Feb 22, Arthur Schopenhauer (d.1860), German philosopher
(Great Pessimist), was born: "Hatred comes from the heart; contempt from
the head; and neither feeling is quite within our control."
    (AP, 12/9/99)(MC, 2/22/02)

1788        Mar 7, Alexander Hamilton published his Federalist Paper 65
in the New York Packet. It discussed the subject of impeachment.
    (USAT, 9/14/98, p.4A)

1788        Mar 21, Almost the entire city of New Orleans, Louisiana,
was destroyed by fire. 856 buildings were burned.
    (HN, 3/21/99)(MC, 3/21/02)

1788        Mar 29, Charles Wesley, hymn writer and brother of John
Wesley, died.
    (MC, 3/29/02)(WSJ, 6/13/03, p.W19)

1788        Apr 4, Last of the Federalist essays was published. The
series of 85 letters were written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison,
and John Jay urging ratification of the US Constitution. Defects in the
Articles of Confederation became apparent, such as the lack of central
authority over foreign and domestic commerce and the inability of
Congress to levy taxes, leading Congress to endorse a plan to draft a
new constitution.
    (MC, 4/4/02)

1788        Apr 5, Franz Pforr, German painter, cartoonist (Lukasbund),
was born.
    (MC, 4/5/02)

1788        Apr 12, Carlo Antonio Campioni (67), composer, died.
    (MC, 4/12/02)

1788        Apr 15, Mary Delany (b.1700), English artist and writer,
died. She became known for her ?Flora Delanica,? a collection of 985
botanically accurate portraits of flowers in bloom. In 2011 Molly
Peacock authored ??The Paper Garden: An Artist Begins Her Life?s work at
72.?
    (Econ, 6/11/11, p.86)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Delany)

1788        Apr 28, Maryland became the seventh state to ratify the US
constitution, but on condition that a Bill of Rights be added.
    (AP, 4/28/07)(WSJ, 9/20/08, p.A21)

1788        May 10, Augustin-Jean Fresnel, optics pioneer, physicist,
was born.
    (MC, 5/10/02)

1788        May 18, Hugh Clapperton, African explorer, was born in
Annan, Scotland.
    (SC, 5/18/02)

1788        May 23, South Carolina became the eighth state to ratify the
U. S. Constitution.
    (AP, 5/23/97)(HN, 5/23/98)

1788        May 29, Jacques Aliamet (61), French etcher, engraver, died.
    (SC, 5/29/02)

1788        Jun 11, The 1st British ship to be built on Pacific coast
was begun at Nootka Sound, BC.
    (SC, 6/11/02)

1788        Jun 21, The U.S. Constitution went into effect as New
Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify it.
    (AP, 6/21/97)

1788        Jun 25, Virginia ratified the U.S. Constitution.
    (AP, 6/25/97)

1788        Jul 6, Ten thousand troops were called out in Paris as
unrest mounted in the poorer districts over poverty and lack of food.
    (HN, 7/6/98)

1788        Jul 15, Louis XVI jailed 12 deputies who protest new
judicial reforms.
    (HN, 7/15/98)

1788        Jul 19, Prices plunged on the Paris stock market.
    (HN, 7/19/98)

1788        Jul 20, The governor of the French colony of Pondicherry,
Vietnam, abandoned plans to place King Nhuyen Anh back on the throne.
    (HN, 7/20/98)

1788        Jul 26, New York became the 11th state to ratify the
Constitution.
    (AP, 7/26/97)

1788        Aug 2, Thomas Gainsborough (61), English painter, died. His
work included the 1771 portraits of the Viscount and Viscountess
Ligonier and "Blue Boy."
    (HN, 5/14/01)(AAP, 1964)(MC, 5/14/02)(WSJ, 12/19/02, p.D10)(MC, 8/2/02)

1788        Aug 8, King Louis XVI called the French States and Generals
together.
    (MC, 8/8/02)
1788        Aug 8, Louis FAD Duke de Richelieu (92), French marshal, died.
    (MC, 8/8/02)

1788        Aug 27, Jacques Neeker was named French minister of Finance.
    (MC, 8/27/01)

1788         Sep 13, The Congress of the Confederation authorized the
first national election, and declared New York City the temporary
national capital. The Constitutional Convention authorized the first
federal election resolving that electors (electoral college) in all the
states will be appointed on January 7, 1789. The Convention decreed that
the first federal election would be held on the first Wednesday in
February of the following year.
    (AP, 9/13/97)(HN, 9/13/00)

1788        Sep 15, An alliance between Britain, Prussia and the
Netherlands was ratified at the Hague.
    (HN, 9/15/99)

1788        Sep 19, Charles de Barentin became lord chancellor of France.
    (HN, 9/19/98)

1788        Sep 22, Theodore Hook, English novelist best known for
"Impromptu at Fulham," was born.
    (HN, 9/22/98)

1788        Sep 23, Louis XVI of France declared the Parliament restored.
    (HN, 9/23/98)

1788        Sep 24, After having been dissolved, the French Parliament
of Paris reassembled in triumph.
    (HN, 9/24/98)

1788        Oct 6, The Polish Diet decided to hold a four year session.
    (HN, 10/6/98)

1788        Oct 24, Sarah Josepha Hale, magazine editor and poet whose
book Poems for Our Children included "Mary Had a Little Lamb" (the first
words to be recorded in sound), was born.
    (HN, 10/24/98)

1788        Dec 18, Camille Pleyel, Austrian piano builder and composer,
was born.
    (MC, 12/18/01)

1788        Dec 23, Maryland voted to cede a 100-square-mile area for
the seat of the national government; about two-thirds of the area became
the District of Columbia.
    (AP, 12/23/97)

1788        Dec 30, Francesco Zuccarelli (86), Italian rococo painter
and etcher, died.
    (MC, 12/30/01)

1788        Pierre-Paul Prud?hon (1758-1823), French artist, painted
"Love Seduces Innocence, Pleasure Entraps, and Remorse Follows."
    (WSJ, 4/8/98, p.A20)

1788        John Adams published "A Defense of the Constitutions."
    (WSJ, 12/22/98, p.A16)

1788        "The Narrative of John Blanchford" was published. Blanchford
(15), a Massachusetts cabin-boy, had been captured by the British and
sent to prison in Halifax and later to Sumatra from where he escaped
after a 6 year ordeal.
    (ON, 1/00, p.5)

1788        ?The Art of Cookery, Made Plain and Easy? by Hannah Glasse
was published in London.
    (SFC, 5/4/05, p.G10)

1788        Mozart?s Don Giovanni was performed in conservative Vienna
but was not a success.
    (V.D.-H.K.p.236)

1788        Mozart composed his 41st symphony titled by his publisher as
the Jupiter.
    (T&L, 10/80, p. 103)

1788        Rules were set for the game of cricket.
    (Econ, 4/24/04, p.81)

1788        "Buffalo clover... nearly knee-high... afforded a rich
pasture." An image of the fertile frontier penned by historian S.P.
Hildreth. After 1907 the clover was unseen until 1989 when it emerged in
some topsoil delivered to a botanist?s backyard.       
    (NG, Jan. 94, p.144)

1788        As British settlers arrived in Australia the native
Aborigines are believed to have numbered about 750,000, and to have
inhabited Australia for up to 70,000 years.
    (AP, 1/30/08)

1788        A botanical garden opened in Puerto de la Cruz on Tenerife
Island (Canary Islands).
    (SSFC, 4/16/06, p.F7)

1788        A great fire destroyed much of the wooden city of Kyoto, Japan.
    (WSJ, 1/25/06,
p.D10)(www.city.kyoto.jp/koho/eng/historical/chronology.html)

1788        A salon from Paris of this time was later transferred
[c1993] to the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco, Ca.
    (WSJ, 11/16/95, p.A-18)

1788-1789    King George III suffered a mental breakdown.
    (WSJ, 1/29/03, p.A1)

1780-1800    In 2007 Jay Winik authored ?The Great Upheaval: America and
the Birth of the Modern World, 1788-1800.?
    (WSJ, 9/14/07, p.W5)

1788-1865    C.J. Thomson, Danish museum curator, contributed to the
Three Age System classification of early man from stone to bronze to iron.
    (RFH-MDHP, 1969, p.25)

1789        Jan 7, The first U.S. presidential election was held.
Americans voted for electors who, a month later, chose George Washington
to be the nation's first president.
    (AP, 1/7/98)

1789        Jan 21, Baron Paul Thierry d?Holbach (b.1723), a
French-German author, philosopher, encyclopedist and a prominent figure
in the French Enlightenment, died. In 2010 Philipp Blom authored ?A
Wicked Company: The Forgotten Radicalism of the European Enlightenment,?
the story of the Paris salon run by Baron Paul Thierry d?Holbach.
    (Econ, 10/30/10, p.90)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baron_d%27Holbach)

1789        Jan 23, Georgetown University was established by Jesuits in
present-day Washington, D.C., as the 1st US Catholic college.
    (AP, 1/23/98)(MC, 1/23/02)

1789        Feb 2, Armand-Louis Couperin (63), French composer, organist
at Notre Dame, died.
    (MC, 2/2/02)

1789         Feb 4, Electors unanimously chose George Washington to be
the first  president of the United States and John Adams as
vice-president. The results of the balloting were not counted in the US
Senate until two months later. Washington accepted office at the Federal
Building of New York. His first cabinet included Thomas Jefferson,
Alexander Hamilton as first secretary of the Treasury, Henry Knox, and
Edmund Randolph.
    (A & IP, ESM, p.10)(WSJ, 3/12/97, p.A18)(AP, 2/4/07)

1789        Feb 8, Ludwig Wilhelm Maurer, composer, was born.
    (MC, 2/8/02)

1789        Mar 2, Pennsylvania ended the prohibition of theatrical
performances.
    (SC, 3/2/02)

1789        Mar 4, The Constitution of the United States, framed in
1787, went into effect as the first  Federal Congress met in New York
City. Lawmakers then adjourned for the lack of a quorum (9 senators, 13
representatives). In 2006 Robert V. Remini, historian of the US House of
Representatives, authored ?The House.?
    (WUD, 1994, p.314)(AP, 3/4/98)(HN, 3/4/98)(SC, 3/4/02)
1789        Mar 4, Pavel P. Gagarin, Russian monarch, was born.
    (SC, 3/4/02)

1789        Mar 16, George S. Ohm (d.1854), German scientist,  was born.
He gave his name to the ohm unit of electrical resistance. [WUD says Mar
16, 1787]
    (HN, 3/16/02)(WUD, 1994 p.1001)

1789        Apr 1, The U.S. House of Representatives held its first full
meeting, in New York City. Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania was
elected the first House Speaker.
    (AP, 4/1/98)

1789        Apr 6, The first US Congress began regular sessions at
Federal Hall on Wall Street, NYC.
    (HN, 4/6/98)(MC, 4/6/02)

1789        Apr 8, The U.S. House of Representatives held its first meeting.
    (HN, 4/8/98)

1789        Apr 16, George Washington left Mount Vernon, Va., for the
first presidential inauguration in New York.
    (AP, 4/16/97)(HN, 4/16/98)

1789        Apr 21, John Adams was sworn in as the first vice president
of the United States.
    (AP, 4/21/97)(HN, 4/21/98)

1789        Apr 23, President-elect Washington and his wife moved into
the first executive mansion, the Franklin House, in New York. George
Washington was inaugurated at Federal Hall and lived at 3 Cherry Street
in New York City. In 1790, with construction on the new federal capital
underway, the government was moved temporarily to Philadelphia, where
Washington served out his two terms. He is the only president who never
resided in the White House.
    (AP, 4/23/97)(HNPD, 12/22/98)

1789        Apr 28, Fletcher Christian lead a mutiny on the Bounty as
the crew of the British ship set Captain William Bligh and 18 sailors
adrift in a launch in the South Pacific. Richard Hough later authored:
"Captain Bligh and Mr. Christian."
    http://www.visi.com/~pjlareau//bounty1.html
    (AP, 4/28/97)(HN, 4/28/98)(SFC, 10/9/99, p.A20)(MC, 4/28/02)

1789        Apr 30, George Washington was inaugurated and took office in
New York as the first president of the United States. He took his oath
of office on the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street and spoke the
words ?So help me God,? which all future US presidents have repeated.
The oath as prescribed by the Constitution makes no mention of God of
the Bible.
    (AP, 4/30/97)(HN, 4/30/98)(SSFC, 1/18/09, p.W4)(AH, 4/07, p.31)

1789        May 5, In France the Estates General, summoned by King Louis
XVI, convened to repair the national finances. It sat for several weeks
in May and June, but came to an impasse as the three Estates clashed
over their respective powers. It was brought to an end when many members
of the Third Estate formed themselves into a National Assembly,
signaling the outbreak of the French Revolution.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estates-General_of_1789)

1789        May 7, The first inaugural ball was held in New York in
honor of President and Mrs. George Washington.
    (AP, 5/7/97)

1789        May 10, Joaquim Jose da Silva Xavier, Tiradentes, rebel for
Independence, was arrested. He was betrayed by Joaquim Silverio dos
Reis, a participant of the movement, in exchange of waiving of his due
taxes; Silverio?s name is carved in Brazilian History as The Betrayer.
    (SFC, 2/26/99,
p.E2)(www.v-brazil.com/culture/historic-characters/tiradentes.html)

1789        May 12, The Society of St. Tammany was formed by
Revolutionary War soldiers. It later became an infamous group of NYC
political bosses.
    (SC, internet, 5/12/97)
1789        May 12, In England William Wilberforce laid out his case for
the abolition of slavery to the House of Commons. This speech directly
led to Britain?s abolition of slavery in 1807.
    (WSJ, 5/12/07, p.P14)

1789         Jun 1, Congress passed its first act which mandated the
procedure for administering oaths of public office.
    (DTnet 6/1/97)(HN, 6/1/98)

1789        Jun 4, The US constitution, enacted as sovereign law, went
into effect.
    (V.D.-H.K.p.300)(MC, 6/4/02)

1789        Jun 10, Bernard-Jordan de Launay, military governor of the
Bastille, suspended the prisoners? daily supervised walks outside the
Bastille walls.
    (ON, 4/01, p.1)

1789        Jun 14, Captain William Bligh of the HMS Bounty arrived in
Timor in a small boat.
    (HN, 6/14/98)

1789        Jun 17, The Third Estate in France declared itself a
national assembly, and undertook to frame a constitution.
    (AP, 6/17/97)

1789        Jun 20, Oath on the Tennis Court in Versailles, France,
bonded members of the Third Estate to resist eviction until they have a
new constitution.
    (MC, 6/20/02)

1789        Jul 4, The US passed its first tariff which included a 15%
duty on imported nails among other things.
    (Maggio)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R50)

1789        Jul 9, In Versailles, the French National Assembly declared
itself the Constituent Assembly and began to prepare a French constitution.
    (HN, 7/9/98)

1789        cJul 11, In France just days before the Bastille was taken
the tavern keepers and wine merchants of Belleville, angered by levies
on food and drink, sacked the local tax collector?s office.
    (SFEC, 6/28/98, p.T8)

1789        Jul 13, Parisians rioted over an increase in price of grain.
The mob plundered the armories and opened the prison gates of St.
Lazare. The King at Versailles refused to withdraw his troops from Paris.
    (MC, 7/13/02)

1789        July 14    , Bastille Day. Tens of thousands of the citizens
of Paris stormed the Bastille, the Paris fortress used as a prison to
hold political prisoners, and released the seven prisoners inside at the
onset of the French Revolution. Over 100 rioters were killed or wounded.
The average Frenchman was 5 foot 2 and weighed 105 pounds. France?s
Louis XIV made a diary entry that read ?Rien? (nothing). Historian
Francois Furet (1927-1997), a leading writer on the French Revolution,
was best known for his work: "Critical Dictionary of the French
Revolution." He refuted Marxist interpretations of the events that
preceded and followed the fall of the monarchy. In 1939 W. Higgins
edited "The French Revolution Told by Contemporaries."
    (AP, 7/14/97)(HN, 7/14/98)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R12)(ON, 4/01, p.1)(Econ,
6/25/05, p.52)(SFC, 7/15/97, p.A18)
1789        Jul 14, The French Revolution. "It was not the literate and
cultured minority of Frenchmen who brought down the government, as had
been the case in England and America. Instead it was the common people,
who marched upon the king and queen in their palace at Versailles. The
Jacobins promulgated a Declaration of Rights of Man and of the Citizen
that went beyond the American Bill of Rights in affirming, "Nothing that
is not forbidden by Law may be hindered, and no one may be compelled to
do what the Law does not ordain," for "Liberty consists in being able to
do anything that does not harm others."
    (V.D.-H.K.p.230-231)(SFC, 6/23/96, Z1 p.2)

1789        Jul 15, The electors of Paris set up a "Commune" to live
without the authority of the government.
    (HN, 7/15/98)

1789        Jul 18, Robespierre, a deputy from Arras, France, decided to
back the French Revolution.
    (HN, 7/18/98)

1789        Jul 22, Thomas Jefferson became the first head of the U.S.
Department of Foreign Affairs.
    (HN, 7/22/98)

1789        Jul 23, The Great Fear swept through France as the
Revolution continued.
    (MC, 7/23/02)

1789        Jul 27, President Washington signed a measure establishing
the Department of Foreign Affairs, forerunner of the Department of State.
    (AP, 7/27/08)

1789        Aug 4, The Constituent Assembly in France dissolved feudal
system by abolishing the privileges of nobility.
    (HN, 8/4/98)(MC, 8/4/02)

1789        Aug 7, The U.S. War Department was established by Congress.
    (AP, 8/7/97)

1789        Aug 21, Augustin-Louis Baron Cauchy, French mathematician,
was born.
    (SC, 8/21/02)

1789        Aug 25, Mary Ball Washington, mother of George, died.
    (MC, 8/25/02)

1789        Aug 26, The Constituent Assembly in Versailles, France,
approved the final version of the Declaration of Human Rights.
    (HN, 8/26/99)

1789        Aug 27, French National Assembly issued "Declaration of
Rights of Man and Citizen."
    (MC, 8/27/01)

1789        Sep 1, Lady Marguerite Blessington, beautiful English
socialite and author, was born. She wrote a biography of Lord Byron.
    (HN, 9/1/99)

1789        Sep 2, The Treasury Department, headed by Alexander
Hamilton, was created in New York City and housed in Fraunces Tavern at
54 Pearl St.
    (AP, 9/2/97)(HN, 9/2/98)(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R43)

1789        Sep 11, Alexander Hamilton was appointed the first U.S.
secretary of the treasury. During his tenure, Hamilton established the
National Bank, introduced an excise tax, suppressed the Whiskey
Rebellion and spearheaded the effort for the federal government to
assume the debts of the states. In the presidential election of 1800,
Hamilton broke the deadlock between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr by
supporting Jefferson. The enmity between Hamilton and his longtime
political enemy Burr grew worse during the 1804 campaign for governor of
New York.
    (AP, 9/11/97)(HNPD, 1/11/99)

1789        Sep 12, Franz Xaver Richter, composer, died at 79.
    (MC, 9/12/01)

1789        Sep 13, Start of the US National Debt as the government took
out its first loan, borrowed from the Bank of North America (NYC) at 6
percent interest. The US debt had reached $77 million when Washington
became president.
    (MC, 9/13/01)(WSJ, 10/1/03, p.B1)
1789        Sep 13, Guardsmen in Orleans, France, opened fire on rioters
trying to loot bakeries, killing 90.
    (HN, 9/13/98)

1789        Sep 15, James Fenimore Cooper (d.1851), American novelist,
was born in Burlington, NJ. He is best known for "The Pioneers" and
"Last of the Mohicans." "The press, like fire, is an excellent servant,
but a terrible master."
    (AP, 6/25/97)(HN, 9/15/99)   
1789        Sep 15, The U.S. Department of Foreign Affairs was renamed
the Department of State.
    (AP, 9/15/97)

1789        Sep 16, Jean-Paul Marat set up a new newspaper in France,
L'Ami du Peuple (The Friend of the People).
    (HN, 9/16/98)(ON, SC, p.7)

1789        Sep 18, The 1st loan was made to pay salaries of the US
president & Congress. [see Sep 13]
    (MC, 9/18/01)

1789        Sep 22, The US Act 1 Stat. 70 temporarily established a post
office and created the Office of the Postmaster General.
    (AP, 9/22/97)(www.usps.com/history/his1_5.htm)
1789        Sep 22, Russian forces under Aleksandr Suvorov drove the
Turkish army under Yusuf Pasha from the Rymnik River, upsetting the
Turkish invasion of Russia.
    (HN, 9/22/99)

1789        Sep 24, President George Washington appointed John Jay as
the 1st Chief Justice.
    (MC, 9/24/01)
1789        Sep 24, The US Federal Judiciary Act was passed. It created
a six-person Supreme Court and provided for an Attorney General.
    (AP, 9/24/97)(AH, 10/04, p.14)

1789        Sep 25, The first United States Congress [proposed] adopted
12 amendments to the Constitution and sent them to the states for
ratification. Ten of the amendments became the Bill of Rights. 14 copies
were hand written and 13 were sent to the individual states.
    (WUD, 1994, p.1703)(AP, 9/25/97)(HN, 9/25/98)(SFC, 1/20/02, p.A11)

1789        Sep 26, Thomas Jefferson was appointed America's first
Secretary of State; John Jay the first chief justice of the United
States; Samuel Osgood the first Postmaster-General; and Edmund Jennings
Randolph the first Attorney General.
    (AP, 9/26/97)(SFC, 8/16/99, p.A21)

1789        Sep 28, Richard Bright, physician (Bright's Disease,
nephritis), was born in England.
    (MC, 9/28/01)

1789        Sep 29, The U.S. War Department established a regular U.S.
army with a strength of several hundred men.
    (AP, 9/29/97)(HN, 9/29/98)

1789        Sep, Fletcher Henderson left Tahiti with the Bounty with a
light crew. 16 men were left abandoned.
    (ON, 3/04, p.9)

1789        Oct 3, George Washington proclaimed the 1st national
Thanksgiving Day to be Nov 26.
    (MC, 10/3/01)
    Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence
of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and
humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of
Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me to "recommend to
the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer,
to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal
favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity
peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:"
    Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of
November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the
service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of
all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all
unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind
care and protection of the people of this country previous to their
becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable
interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the
late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which
we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we
have been enable to establish constitutions of government for our safety
and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted
for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the
means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in
general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased
to confer upon us. And also that we may then unite in most humbly
offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of
Nations and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions;
to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our
several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our
National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a
Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and
faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and
nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless
them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge
and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science
among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind such a
degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.
    (Ihub, 11/27/03)

1789        Oct 10, In Versailles France, Joseph Guillotin said the most
humane way of carrying out a death sentence is decapitation by a single
blow of a blade.
    (HN, 10/10/98)
1789        Oct 10, Pierre-Louis Couperin, composer, died at 34.
    (MC, 10/10/01)

1789        Oct 15, George Washington went to New England on the 1st
presidential tour.
    (MC, 10/15/01)

1789        Nov 2, The property of the Church in France was taken away
by the state.
    (HN, 11/2/98)

1789        Nov 5, French National Assembly declared all citizens equal
under law.
    (MC, 11/5/01)

1789        Nov 8, Bourbon Whiskey, 1st distilled from corn, was made by
Elijah Craig in  Bourbon, Ky.
    (MC, 11/8/01)

1789        Nov 13, Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter to a friend in
which he said, "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except
death and taxes."
    (AP, 11/13/97)

1789        Nov 18, Louis Jacques Daguerre (d.1851), French painter,
physicist and photography pioneer, was born. He invented the process of
setting the impression on a light-sensitive, silver-coated metallic
plate and developed by mercury vapor. See contrasting info 1765-1833,
Nicephore Niepce, French lithographer.
    (AHD, 1971, p.332)(HN, 11/18/00)   

1789        Nov 20, New Jersey became the first state to ratify the Bill
of Rights.
    (HFA, '96, p.18)(AP, 11/20/97)

1789        Nov 21, North Carolina became the 12th state to ratify the
U.S. Constitution.
    (AP, 11/21/97)

1789        Nov 26, George Washington proclaimed on Oct 3 that Nov 26 be
a National Thanksgiving Day in honor of the new Constitution. He made it
clear that the day should be one of prayer and giving thanks to God, to
be celebrated by all the religious denominations. In 1863 Pres. Lincoln
designated the last Thursday of November as Thanksgiving Day.
    (HFA, '96, p.42)(AP, 11/26/97)(HN, 11/26/98)

1789        Dec 3, Claude-Joseph Vernet, French seascape painter, died.
    (MC, 12/3/01)

1789        Dec 13, The National Guard was created in France.
    (HN, 12/13/98)

1789        Dec 28, Lydia Darrragh (b.1729), American spy, died in
Philadelphia. Her exploits in 1777 did not become public until the
publication of an anonymous article in 1827.
    (ON, 8/07, p.8)(www.lexidigital.com/bcdarwomen4.htm)

1789        Dec, In India?s city of Coringa 3 tidal waves caused by a
cyclone destroyed the harbor city at the mouth of the Ganges river. Most
ships were sunk and some 20,000 people drowned.
    (www.emergency-management.net/cyclone.htm)

1789        Johann Friedrich Overbeck (d.1869), German Nazarene artist,
was born.
    (SSFC, 1/27/02, p.C7)

1789        The ballet "La fille mal gardee" had its premiere. It
included dialogue and singing as well as dancing.
    (SFEC, 8/25/96, DB p.37)

1789        William Blake published his "Songs of Innocence."
    (WSJ, 4/23/97, p.A16)

1789        Rev. Gilbert White (1720-1793) authored ?The Natural History
and Antiquities of Selborne, in the County of Southampton.? One chapter
was about a local tortoise named Timothy. In 2006 Verlyn Klinkenborg
authored ?Timothy; Or, Notes Of an Abject Reptile,? a look at the parson
from the point of view of the tortoise.
    (WSJ, 2/11/06, p.P11)

1789        In 1999 Rachel Wright authored "Paris: 1789," an informative
children's book of Parisian life on the eve of the Revolution.
    (SFEC, 5/9/99, Par p.8)

1789        Tammany Hall was a powerful Democratic political
organization in NYC, founded as a fraternal benevolent society. The name
was based after a Delaware Indian Chief, Tamanen or Temmenund, later
facetiously canonized as patron saint of the US. The Tammany Hall
officials lost on Nov. 6, 1894.
    (HFA, '96, p.42)

1789        In the US the Church of England Episcopal Church fomally
separated from the Church of England became the Protestant Episcopal
Church of the USA.
    (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Episcopal_Church_%28United_States%29))

1789        Congress introduced paid chaplains. In 1983 the Supreme
Court ruled in Marsh vs. Chambers that it is not a violation of the
Establishment Clause to have paid legislative chaplains. In 2002 Michael
Newdow filed suit contending that taxpayer-funded chaplains was
unconstitutional.
    (SFC, 8/31/02, p.A2)

1789        The US Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) was meant to combat
piracy. The Alien Tort Stature (ATS) was intended to be used to
prosecute pirates for crimes committed outside the US.
    (SFC, 8/11/00, p.A13)(SFC, 3/13/02, p.A8)(WSJ, 10/6/03, p.A1)(WSJ,
7/12/04, p.A16)

1789        The first tobacco advertisement came out in the US. It
depicted an Indian smoking a long clay pipe.
    (SFEC, 5/24/98, Z1 p.10)

1789        Georgetown College was founded in Washington DC.
    (WSJ, 3/28/96,p.A-15)

1789        Massachusetts commenced work on the Middlesex Canal. It was
completed in 1808.
    (Panic, p.12)

1789        The University of North Carolina was chartered. It was the
first state university in the U.S. to begin instruction, in 1795. The
University of Georgia was the first state university chartered, in 1785,
but was not established until 1801.
    (HNQ, 12/3/01)

1789        Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794), French nobleman and
chemist, presented a paper on the geology of the Earth that proposed
that sea level had oscillated over time, as opposed to a stationary sea
with linear sedimentation.
    (NH, 12/98, p.14)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine_Lavoisier)

1789        Martin Klaproth, German chemist, discovered Uranium. It
named after the planet Uranus discovered 8 years earlier.
    (NH, 7/02, p.36)(WSJ, 3/18/05, p.C1)

1789        The HMS Bounty made a brief stop at the Cook Island of
Rarotonga before moving on to Pitcairn Island.
    (SFEC, 1/5/97, p.T6)

1789        The flower China Rose was introduced to Europe.
    (TGR, 1995, p.4)

1789        Ethan Allen (b.1738), leader of Vermont?s Green Mountain
Boys, died. In 1949 Stewart H. Holbrook authored "Ethan Allen." In 1969
Charles A. Jellison authored "Ethan Allen: Frontier Rebel."
    (WUD, 1994 p.39)(ON, 3/00, p.6)

1789        The prison ship Lady Julian delivered over 200 women to the
penal colony at Sydney harbor. In 2002 Sian Rees authored "The Floating
Brothel: The Extraordinary True Story of an Eighteenth-Century Ship and
Its Cargo of Female Convicts."
    (SSFC, 3/3/02, p.M3)

1789        Smallpox was introduced to Australia and caused devastation
among the aborigines.
    (SFC, 10/19/01, p.A17)

1789        In Brazil poet and dentist Joaquim Jose da Silva Xavier
helped launch the first Brazilian rebellion against the country's
Portuguese rulers.
    (AP, 4/19/03)

1789        English Thomas Clarkson and his fellow abolitionists
published 700 posters with the image of the slave ship Brookes loaded
with 482 slaves. The ship, owned by the Brookes family of Liverpool,
operated between the Gold Coast of Africa and Jamaica.
    (Econ, 2/24/07, p.72)
1789        Thomas Stokes built clocks in London.
    (SFC, 11/13/96, z-1 p.6)
1789        In England part of the art collection, 181 paintings, of Sir
Robert Walpole was sold by his heirs to Catherine the Great for 40,000
Pounds.
    (WSJ, 3/3/97, p.A16)
1786        William Playfair, Scottish draughtsman for James Watt,
produced an ?atlas? of Britain using 44 charts and no maps.
    (Econ, 1/8/05, p.75)

c1789        The Marquis de Lafayette wrote the original version of the
Declaration of the Rights of Man. He was appalled by the excesses of the
revolution and fled to Austria where he was imprisoned for 5 years.
    (WSJ, 1/15/97, p.A12)
1789        A French decree allowed wine and coffee to be served on the
same premises.
    (Econ, 10/22/11, p.105)
1789        Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyes, a delegate to the Estates General,
said the third estate is everything, has nothing  but wants to be something.
    (Econ, 6/12/10, p.65)
1789        The French dwarf Richeborg stood 23 inches and was costumed
as a baby in diapers during the French Revolution. In the arms of
innocent girls he could eavesdrop on sensitive conversations and carried
secret dispatches in and out of Paris.
    (SFC, 6/23/96, Z1 p.2)
1789        The bankruptcy of the French government brought banks across
Europe to their knees.
    (WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R48)

1789        Tobias Schmidt, a German piano maker, built the first
guillotine.
    (SFC, 5/2/98, p.E4)
1789        In Germany the Brandenburg Gate of Berlin was built.
    (SFEC, 7/27/97, p.T5)

1789        Russian soldiers under the leadership of Jose Pascual
Domingo de Ribas y Boyons (aka Osip Deribas) chased Ottoman forces from
the barracks hamlet of Khadjibey. He recognized the site?s potential for
a military base to control the mouths of the Danube, Dniester, Dnieper
and Bug rivers. Odessa became the name of the city built there.
    (Econ, 2/26/11, p.91)

1789-1793    Alexander Mackenzie, Scottish-born fur trader, became the
1st European to cross the North American continent.
    (SFC, 1/31/04, p.D12)

1789-1795    John Jay served as the first chief justice of the US
Supreme Court.
    (WUD, 1994, p.764)(WSJ, 8/7/98, p.W13)

1789-1807    Selim III succeeded Abdul Hamid I in the Ottoman House of
Osman.
    (Ot, 1993, xvii)

1789-1837    Ben Wilson covered this period in his 2007 book ?The Making
of Victorian Values: Decency and Dissent in Britain, 1789-1837.?   
    (WSJ, 3/24/07, p.P12)(Econ, 4/7/07, p.81)

1789-1854    John Martin, British artist. He was known as "Mad Martin"
for his paintings of monumental disasters. His work included "Assuaging
of the Waters" (1840), "The Eve of the Deluge," and "The Deluge."
    (SFEC, 5/4/97, DB p.9)(SFEM, 5/11/97, p.6)

1789-1914    In 2006 Michael Burleigh authored ?Earthly Powers: The
Clash of Religion and Politics in Europe from the French Revolution to
the Great War.?
    (Econ, 2/25/06, p.87)

Go to 1790-1799 <http://timelines.ws/1790_1799.HTML>