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The 1780s

1,430 sourced entries across 10 years, inside the 18th century. Each year below opens its own page; the lines under it are that year’s highest-ranked entries.

1780 CE133 entries

  • 16 January – American Revolutionary War: British naval victory at the Battle of Cape St. Vincent led by Admiral Sir George Rodney over a Spanish squadron. The future William IV is present as a midshipman.
  • June 2 – An Anti-Catholic mob led by Lord George Gordon marches on the Parliament of Great Britain, leading to the outbreak of the Gordon Riots in London.
  • 2 June – an Anti-Catholic mob led by Lord George Gordon marches on Parliament leading to the outbreak of the Gordon Riots in London.

1781 CE126 entries

  • June 12 – Ohmiya (近江屋), as predecessor for Takeda, a major worldwide pharmaceutical brand, is founded in Doshomachi (道修町), Osaka, Japan.
  • August 30 – American Revolution: A French fleet under Comte de Grasse enters Chesapeake Bay, cutting British General Charles Cornwallis off from escape by sea.
  • December – A school is founded in Washington County, Pennsylvania that will later be known as Washington & Jefferson College.

1782 CE136 entries

  • January 15 – Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris goes before the United States Congress to recommend establishment of a national mint and decimal coinage.
  • 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.
  • April – James Townsend (Whig) is elected for Calne, becoming the first member of parliament of Black African descent.

1783 CE144 entries

  • February 3 – American Revolutionary War: Britain awards the United States independence. Spain refuses to grant diplomatic recognition to the United States.
  • 5 March – the Count de Belgioioso, bound from Liverpool to China, founders on the Kish Bank in Dublin Bay in a storm. On 2 June, Scottish diver Charles Spalding and his nephew Ebenezer Watson die in attempting to salvage the £150,000-worth of cargo from the ship using a diving bell of Spalding's design.
  • June 8 – The volcano Laki in Iceland begins an 8-month eruption, starting the chain of natural disasters known as the Móðuharðindin, killing tens of thousands throughout Europe, including up to 33% of Iceland's population, and causing widespread famine. It has been described as one of "the greatest environmental catastrophes in European history".

1784 CE135 entries

  • January 15 – Henry Cavendish's paper to the Royal Society of London, Experiments on Air, reveals the molecular composition of water.
  • February 28 – John Wesley ordains ministers for the Methodist Church in the United States.
  • April 23 – The Congress of the Confederation passes the Ordinance of Governance to set guidelines for adding to the original 13 states in the United States of America.

1785 CE139 entries

  • January 11 – The Confederation Congress reconvenes in New York City having previously convened in Trenton, New Jersey.
  • January 27 – The University of Georgia in the United States is chartered by the Georgia General Assembly meeting in Savannah. The first students are admitted in Athens, Georgia in 1801.
  • January 27 – The University of Georgia is granted a charter (written by Abraham Baldwin) by the Georgia General Assembly meeting in Savannah. The first students are admitted in Athens, Georgia in 1801.

1786 CE134 entries

  • July 14 – Convention of London between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Spain: British settlements on the Mosquito Coast of Central America are to be evacuated; Spain expands the territory available to the British in Belize on the Yucatán Peninsula, for cutting mahogany.
  • 14 July – Convention of London between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Spain: British settlements on the Mosquito Coast of Central America are to be evacuated; Spain expands the territory available to the British in Belize on the Yucatán Peninsula for cutting mahogany.
  • August 11 – Captain Francis Light acquires the island of Penang from the Sultan of Kedah on behalf of the British East India Company, renaming it Prince of Wales Island in honour of the heir to the British throne, and establishing the settlement of George Town. This is the first colony of the British Empire in Southeast Asia.

1787 CE144 entries

  • May 14 – In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, delegates begin arriving to write a new Constitution for the United States.
  • May 25 – In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, delegates begin to convene a Constitutional Convention intended to amend the Articles of Confederation. However, a new Constitution for the United States is eventually produced. George Washington presides over the Convention.
  • 19 August – John Butler, 12th Baron Dunboyne, having resigned as Roman Catholic Bishop of Cork and married a cousin, Maria, contrary to his vow of celibacy, swears oaths of allegiance, abjuration and Supremacy of the monarch as Supreme Governor of the Church of England in Clonmel, the only authenticated apostate in the Catholic hierarchy in Ireland.

1788 CE150 entries

  • February 6 – Massachusetts ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 6th U.S. state (see History of Massachusetts).
  • June 25 – Virginia ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 10th U.S. state under the new government (see History of Virginia).
  • December – Robert Burns writes his version of the Scots poem Auld Lang Syne.

1789 CE189 entries

  • February 4 – George Washington is unanimously elected the first president of the United States, by the United States Electoral College.
  • March 4 – At Federal Hall in New York City, the 1st United States Congress meets and declares the new United States Constitution to be in effect.
  • August 21 – A proposal for a Bill of Rights is adopted by the United States House of Representatives.