1782 CE

Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris goes before the United States Congress to recommend establishment of a national mint and decimal coinage. A British fleet under Admiral Sir George Rodney defeats a French fleet under the Comte de Grasse in the West Indies at the Battle of the Saintes. James Townsend (Whig) is elected for Calne, becoming the first member of parliament of Black African descent.

In the 1780s, the 18th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

15 February – at a convention held in Dungannon, delegates from a number of Ulster Volunteer corps pledge support for resolutions advocating legislative independence for Ireland.Ireland source
February 22 – Vermont accepts the prescribed delimitation.Canada source
February 27 – The British House of Commons votes against further war in America, paving the way for the Second Rockingham ministry and the Peace of Paris.source
March 27 – Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham becomes Prime Minister of Great Britain.source
27 March – Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, becomes Prime Minister for the second time. His new Whig administration opens peace talks with the Americans, with Thomas Grenville being sent to Paris to negotiate with Benjamin Franklin.United Kingdom source
April 19 – John Adams secures recognition of the United States as an independent government by the Dutch Republic. During this visit, he also negotiates a loan of five million guilders, financed by Nicolaas van Staphorst and Wilhelm Willink.source
April – James Townsend (Whig) is elected for Calne, becoming the first member of parliament of Black African descent.United Kingdom source
May 17 – The Parliament of Great Britain passes the Repeal of Act for Securing Dependence of Ireland Act, a major component of the reforms collectively known as the Constitution of 1782, which restore legislative independence to the Parliament of Ireland.source
27 May - Jewish immigration to Sweden is legalized.Sweden source
June 20 – The bald eagle is chosen as the emblem of the United States of America. On the same day, the Confederation Congress adopts the design for the Great Seal of the United States.source
June 20 – Congress accepts Charles Thomson's design for the Great Seal of the United States. The bald eagle becomes the national bird of the United States.United States source
October 18 – John Adams returns to Paris as the first United States Minister to France.source
November 4 – Elias Boudinot of New Jersey is elected the new President of the Congress of the Confederation.source
November 30 – American Revolutionary War: In Paris, representatives from the United States and the Kingdom of Great Britain sign preliminary peace articles (later formalized in the Treaty of Paris).source
The North Carolina General Assembly incorporates Washington, North Carolina.source
Councillor Finlay proposes to establish English schools in Canadian parishes, and to prohibit using the French language in the Law Courts after a certain time.Canada source
President of the Confederation Congress: John Hanson (until November 4), Elias Boudinot (starting November 4)United States source

Conflict & Security

January 1 – Threatened by three hostile forces, Vermont is advised by Gen. George Washington, a skilled surveyor, to limit jurisdiction to undisputed territory.Canada source
February 5 – The Spanish defeat British forces and capture Menorca.source
17 February – Battle of Sadras (Anglo-French War (1778–1783)): A French fleet under the Baillie de Suffren clashes with the British in the Bay of BengalFrance source
20 February – the phrase "Protestant Ascendancy" is first used by Sir Boyle Roche (in passing) in a speech to the Irish House of Commons.Ireland source
March 1 – It is proposed, in Congress, to treat Vermont as hostile, failing submission to the terms of 20 August 1781, and to divide it between New York and New Hampshire, along the ridge of the Green Mountains; and that the Commander-in-chief employ the Congressional forces to further this resolution.Canada source
April 6 – Rama I overthrows King Taksin of Siam (now Thailand) in a coup d'état, and moves the political capital from Thonburi, across the Chao Phraya River to Rattanakosin Island, the historic center of Bangkok.source
April 12 – Battle of the Saintes: A British fleet under Admiral Sir George Rodney defeats a French fleet under the Comte de Grasse, in the West Indies.source
12 April – A British fleet under Admiral Sir George Rodney defeats a French fleet under the Comte de Grasse in the West Indies at the Battle of the Saintes.United Kingdom source
12 April - In the Battle of the Saintes, the British fleet defeat the French after a campaign in which Admiral Sir Thomas Foley has played a major part.Wales source
July 1 – Raid on Lunenburg: American privateers attack the British settlement at Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.source
July 1 – American privateers attack Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.United States source
August 7 – George Washington orders the creation of the Badge of Military Merit (or the Order of the Purple Heart) to honor soldiers' merit in battle (reinstated later by Franklin D. Roosevelt, and renamed to the more poetic "Purple Heart", to honor soldiers wounded in action).source
August 19 – A combined British and Native American force defeat Kentucky militiamen in the Battle of Blue Licks in the last major battle of the American Revolutionary War.source
September 14 – American Revolutionary War: Review of the French troops under General Rochambeau by General George Washington at Verplanck's Point, New York.United States source
December 12 – American Revolutionary War: Action of 12 December 1782: A naval engagement off Ferrol, Spain, in which the British ship HMS Mediator commanded by James Luttrell successfully attacks a convoy of French and American ships attempting to supply the United States.source
December 16 – East India Company: Hada and Mada Miah lead a rebellion in the Indian subcontinent against East India Company officer Robert Lindsay and his troops in Sylhet Shahi Eidgah.source
Chief Kamehameha I of Hawaii gains control of the northern part of the island of Hawaii, after defeating his cousin Kīwalaʻō.source

Exploration & Expansion

February 18 – Fourth Anglo-Dutch War: Shirley's Gold Coast expedition lands at Elmina on the Dutch Gold Coast. The British expedition fails to take the fort here but over the next several weeks seizes, with minimal resistance, four small Dutch forts.source
May 25–June 12 – American Revolutionary War: Crawford expeditionUnited States source
25 May–12 June – American Revolutionary War – Crawford expedition.United Kingdom source
Montreal Upper Yellowstone, on old Indian trail along east slope of the mountains, challenging Spanish trade goods.Canada source
Arrival of a French fleet under Admiral Suffren.India source
Muslin first woven in Scotland by James Monteith at Anderston.Scotland source
David Davis (Castellhywel) settles in Castellhywel.Wales source
Thomas Pennant - Journey to Snowdon, volume 1Wales source

Religion & Belief

March 31 (Easter Sunday) – Mission San Buenaventura is founded in Las Californias, part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain.source
July – Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, receives a visit from Pope Pius VI.source
Repeal of the Education Act 1695: Roman Catholics may now send their children abroad to be educated; they may also now teach classes within Ireland.Ireland source
Greek Church and Greek School (Taganrog) - church consecratedRussia source
Jesuit priest Robert Molyneux establishes the first parochial school in the United States in Philadelphia.United States source
William Williams Pantycelyn - Rhai Hymnau Newyddion (second in a series of hymn collections)Wales source
John Walters - Translated Specimens of Welsh PoetryWales source

Economy & Finance

January 7 – The first American commercial bank (Bank of North America) opens.source
January 7 – The first American commercial bank (Bank of North America) opens in Philadelphia.United States source
January 15 – Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris goes before the United States Congress to recommend establishment of a national mint and decimal coinage.source
Siberia Governorate, Orenburg Governorate, and others dissolved as part of a general administrative reorganizationRussia source
Summer – Dutch banker Nicolaas van Staphorst leads discussions with John Adams over a loan to the United States of five million guilders, at that time a considerable sum.United States source

Technology & Infrastructure

23 January – local Laird George Ludovic Houston invites purchase of marked plots of land which, when built upon, form the planned town of Johnstone, to provide employment for his thread and cotton mills, and one of the latter is erected by Corse, Burns & Co.Scotland source
April 21 – A Lak Mueang (city pillar) is erected on Rattanakosin Island, located on the eastern bank of the Chao Phraya River, by order of King Rama I, an act considered the founding of the capital city of Bangkok.source
27 September - Francis Homfray leases a mill from Anthony Bacon of Cyfarthfa ironworks. (Under the terms of the new House of Commons (Disqualification) Act 1782 (22 Geo. 3. c. 45), Bacon, as an MP, is disqualified from holding government munitions contracts.)Wales source
October 18 – The first franking privilege is granted for official correspondence to be sent at no charge to and from members of the Confederation Congress, at government expense, during periods when the Congress is in session.source
The British Parliament extends James Watt's patent for the steam engine to the year 1800.source
In the course of this year John Molson, the future pioneer of Canadian steam navigation, arrives in Canada.Canada source
Ironworks at Le Creusot established; first smelting with coke in FranceFrance source
The first Landpóstur services began, introducing the first postal services to Iceland.Iceland source
Oxenfoord Castle is rebuilt to designs by Robert Adam.Scotland source
In the case of Folkes v. Chadd, litigation regarding the silting of Wells Harbour in Norfolk, Lord Mansfield, Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench, allows leading civil engineer John Smeaton, to provide scientific evidence, origin of modern rules on acceptance of expert witnesses.United Kingdom source
Parliament extends James Watt's patent for the steam engine to the year 1800.United Kingdom source

Science & Discovery

22 June – HDMS Det Store Bælt is launched at Bodenhoffs Plads in Copenhagen.Denmark source
December 14 – The Montgolfier brothers first test fly a hot air balloon in France; it floats nearly 2 km.source
14 December – The Montgolfier brothers first test fly a hot air balloon in France; it floats nearly 2 kmFrance source
Princess Yekaterina Vorontsova-Dashkova is the first woman in the world to direct a scientific academy, the Imperial Academy of Arts and Sciences.source
William Gilpin's Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, etc. relative chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; made in the summer of the year 1770.United Kingdom source
Edmund Malone's Cursory Observations on the Poems Attributed to Thomas Rowley (debunking Chatterton's hoax).United Kingdom source
William Gilpin - Observations on the River Wye and several parts of South Wales, etc. relative chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; made in the summer of the year 1770Wales source

Health & Medicine

May – first patient admitted to Montrose Lunatic Asylum, the first such institution to be founded in Scotland, largely due to Susan Carnegie of Charleton.Scotland source
September – Nottingham General Hospital opens to patients.United Kingdom source
Saint Petersburg, Russia has 300,000 inhabitants.source
1782–83: A smallpox epidemic hits the Sanpoil of Washington.Canada source
Relief of the Poor Act ("Gilbert's Act") provides for organisation of poor relief on a county basis, coming into effect 25 March 1783.United Kingdom source

Crime & Justice

January 23 – The Laird of Johnstone (George Ludovic Houston) invites people to buy marked plots of land which, when built upon, form the planned town of Johnstone, Scotland, to provide employment for his thread and cotton mills.source
February 6 – Singu Min is overthrown as king of Myanmar by his cousin Phaungka Min and would be executed eight days later by his uncle Bodawpayar.source
March - Lloyd Kenyon is appointed Attorney-General.Wales source
June 18 – In Switzerland, Anna Göldi is sentenced to death for witchcraft (the last legal witchcraft sentence).source
London creates the Foot Patrol for public security.source
William Cowper's comic ballad The Diverting History of John Gilpin (anonymously in the Public Advertiser).United Kingdom source

Disasters & Accidents

6 February – The collapse of a floor due to a rotten beam at Neale's Musick Hall, Dublin leaves many people injured, 11 of whom die shortly afterwards due to their injuries.Ireland source
29 August – HMS Royal George capsizes at Spithead with the loss of 800 lives.United Kingdom source

Climate & Environment

17 September – 1782 Central Atlantic hurricane devastates a Royal Navy fleet off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland with the loss of 3,500 lives.United Kingdom source

Culture & Society

1 July – Act of Proscription 1746 (including Dress Act) repealed, permitting wearing of Highland dress and arms.Scotland source
July 16–August 29 – The Masonic Congress of Wilhelmsbad, Germany, one of the most important secret society congresses in history, takes place. High-degree Freemasons from the whole of Europe spend the time deliberating the fate of the rite of Strict Observance, and hierarchy of the governing bodies of world Freemasonry, at the Hanau-Wilhelmsbad spa.source
July 16 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail premieres at the Burgtheater in Vienna.source
16 July - Premiere of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail at the Burgtheater, ViennaAustria source
August 7 – Étienne Maurice Falconet's Bronze Horseman statue of Tsar Peter the Great is unveiled in Saint Petersburg.source
30 September - The Royal Swedish Opera relocates from Bollhuset to a new modern opera house, which is inaugurated with Cora och Alonzo by Johann Gottlieb Naumann.Sweden source
October 10 – Welsh actress Sarah Siddons, the pre-eminent star of the English stage, makes a triumphant return to the theatre in the title role of David Garrick's new play, Isabella, or The Fatal Marriage.source
10 October – Sarah Siddons makes a triumphant return to the Drury Lane Theatre in London in the title role of Garrick's adaptation of Thomas Southerne's Isabella, or, The Fatal Marriage.United Kingdom source
The first theater in the Baltic, the Riga City Theater, is founded.source
In China, the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries is completed, the largest literary compilation in China's history (surpassing the Yongle Encyclopedia of the 15th century). The books are bound in 36,381 volumes (册) with more than 79,000 chapters (卷), comprising about 2.3 million pages, and approximately 800 million Chinese characters.source
Egil's saga was first published in print.Iceland source
The anti-union song «Norges Skaal» is first published. It was first written in 1771 by Johan Nordahl Brun.Norway source
Bronze Horseman, sculpture of Peter the Great, unveiled in St. PetersburgRussia source
William Owen Pughe and Robert Hughes (Robin Ddu yr Ail o Fôn) meet in London.Wales source

Births

January 5 – Robert Morrison, British evangelist and first Protestant missionary in China (died 1834)source
January 18 – Daniel Webster, 14th and 19th United States Secretary of State (died 1852)source
7 March – Franz Sartori, Austrian writer (died 1832)Austria source
March 14 – Thomas Hart Benton, State Senator from Tennessee (died 1858)source
March 18 – John C. Calhoun, vice president of the United States (died 1850)source
March 18 – John C. Calhoun, seventh vice president of the United States from 1825 to 1832 (died 1850)United States source
March 20 – James Tod, English officer of the British East India Company, oriental scholar (died 1835)source
March 31: Jesse Ketchum, tanner, politician, and philanthropist (d.1867)Canada source
July 6 – Maria Luisa, Duchess of Lucca, Spanish Royal (died 1824)source
August 10 – Vicente Guerrero, 2nd President of Mexico (died 1831)source
August 10 – Charles James Napier, Governor of Sindh, Commander-in-Chief in British India (died 1853)source
September 3 – Benedict Joseph Fenwick, American Catholic bishop (died 1846)source
October 9 – Lewis Cass, American military officer, politician, statesman (died 1866)source
October 27 – Niccolò Paganini, Italian violinist and composer (died 1840)source
November 1 – F. J. Robinson, 1st Viscount Goderich, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (died 1859)source
November 2 – Eustoquio Díaz Vélez, Spanish-Argentine general (died 1856)source
December 5 – Martin Van Buren, 8th president of the United States (died 1862)source
Fyodor Ivanovich Tolstoy - nobleman and travellerRussia source

Deaths

March 8 – Gnadenhutten massacre: In Ohio, 29 Native American men, 27 women, and 34 children are killed by colonial militiamen in retaliation for raids carried out by another Native American group.source
March 8 – American Revolutionary War: In Ohio, the Gnadenhutten massacre of Native Americans takes place in which 29 men, 27 women and 34 children are killed by white militiamen in retaliation for raids carried out by another Native American group.United States source
March 17 – Daniel Bernoulli, Dutch-born mathematical physicist (born 1700)source
April 7 – Taksin the Great, King of Siam (Thonburi Kingdom) (born 1734)source
April 13 – Metastasio, Italian poet, librettist (born 1698)source
May 8 – Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, 1st Marquis of Pombal, Portuguese statesman (born 1699)source
May 21: Robert Monckton, army officer and colonial administrator (born 1726)Canada source
June 11 – William Crawford, American soldier and surveyor (burned at the stake by Native Americans) (born 1732)source
July 1 – Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, British statesman, 2-time Prime Minister of Great Britain (born 1730)source
July 15 – Farinelli, Italian castrato (born 1705)source
20 July – Karl Joseph von Firmian, Austrian nobleman and Plenipotentiary of Lombardy (born 1716)Austria source
August 27 – John Laurens, American soldier (born 1754)source
August 31 – George Croghan, American colonist (born c. 1718)source
September 6 – Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson, wife of Thomas Jefferson (born 1748)source
September 14 – Nicholas Cooke, first Governor of Rhode Island (born 1717)source
October 2 – Charles Lee, Continental Army general during the American War of Independence (born 1732)source
December 7 – Hyder Ali, Indian general, Sultan of Mysore (born 1720)source
Vasily Dolgorukov-Krymsky - general and Governor-General of MoscowRussia source