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| align="center" colspan=2 | Years:
1778 1779 1780 - 1781 - 1782 1783 1784
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| align="center" colspan=2 | 1760s 1770s - 1780s ''' - 1790s 1800s 1810s
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| align="center" | - 18th Century ''' - 19th Century
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1781 was a Common Year Starting On Monday (see link for calendar).
Events
- is burned by British naval forces led by Benedict Arnold .
- January 30 - Articles Of Confederation ratified by 13th state, Maryland .
- January - William Pitt The Younger , later Prime Minister, enters Parliament.
- March 1 - American Continental Congress implements the Articles Of Confederation .
- March 13 - Sir William Herschel discovers the Planet Uranus . Originally he calls it ''Georgium Sidus'' (George's Star) in honour of King George III of England .
- loses Battle Of Guilford Court House to British.
- July 27 - French Spy Francis Henry De La Motte executed in Tyburn prison in England for High Treason
- enters Chesapeake Bay , cutting British General Charles Cornwallis off from escape by sea.
- September 4 - Los Angeles is founded as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora La Reina de Los Ángeles de Porciuncula (City of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels of Porciuncula) by a group of 44 Spanish settlers.
- September 5 - British fleet under Thomas Graves arrives and fights de Grasse, but to no effect.
- September 6 - The British army attacks a fort in Groton, Connecticut which became known as the Battle Of Groton Heights .
- September 10 - Graves gives up trying to break through the now-reinforced French fleet and returns to New York , leaving Cornwallis to his fate.
- October 19 - General Charles Cornwallis surrenders at Yorktown, Virginia , ending the armed struggle of the American Revolutionary War .
- October 20 - Patent of Tolerance, providing limited Freedom Of Worship , was approved in Habsburg Monarchy .
- November 5 - John Hanson is elected President Of The Continental Congress .
- November 29 - The slave ship Zong dumps its living cargo into the sea in order to claim insurance.
- November 29 - Henry Hurle officially founds the Ancient Order Of Druids (AOD) in London , England .
- December 12 - French and British fleets fight in the Second Battle Of Ushant .
Births
- January 26 - Achim Von Arnim , German writer (d. 1831 )
- January 30 - Adelbert Von Chamisso , German writer (d. 1838 )
- February 17 - Rene Theophile Hyacinthe Laennec , French physician and inventor (d. 1826 )
- March 4 - Rebecca Gratz , American educator and philanthropist (d. 1869 )
- March 13 - Karl Friedrich Schinkel , German architect and painter (d. 1841 )
- June 9 - George Stephenson , English engineer (d. 1848 )
- June 21 - Siméon-Denis Poisson , French mathematician and physicist (d. 1840 )
- July 6 - Thomas Stamford Raffles , English founder of Singapore (d. 1826 )
- July 6 - John D. Sloat , American naval officer (d. 1867 )
- July 27 - Mauro Giuliani , Italian composer (d. 1828 )
- September 3 - Eugène De Beauharnais , French nobleman, son of Napoleon's wife Josephine (d. 1824 )
- September 6 - Anton Diabelli , Austrian music publisher, editor, and composer (d. 1858 )
- October 1 - James Lawrence , U.S. Navy officer (d. 1813 )
- November 6 - Lucy Aikin , English writer (d. 1864 )
- November 20 - Karl Friedrich Eichhorn , German jurist (d. 1854 )
- November 29 - Andrés Bello , Venezuelan poet, lawmaked, teacher, philosopher and sociologist (d. 1865 )
- November 30 - Alexander Berry , Scottish adventurer and Australian pioneer (d. 1873 )
- December 11 - Sir David Brewster , Scottish physicist (d. 1868 )
- William Williams Of Wern , minister (d. 1840 )
- Shaka Zulu King of the Zulu people. (d. circa 22 september 1828)
Deaths
- January 12 - Richard Challoner , English Catholic prelate (b. 1691 )
- January 15 - Marianne Victoria Of Borbón , queen regent of Portugal (b. 1718 )
- February 15 - Gotthold Ephraim Lessing , German author and philosopher (b. 1729 )
- February 23 - George Taylor , American signer of the Declaration of Independence
- February 24 - Edward Capell , English critic (b. 1713 )
- March 18 - Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, Baron De Laune , French statesman and economist (b. 1727 )
- April 23 - James Abercrombie , British general (b. 1706 )
- April 28 - Cornelius Harnett , American delegate to the Continental Congress (b. 1723 )
- May 8 - Richard Jago , English poet (b. 1715 )
- May 27 - Giovanni Battista Beccaria , Italian physicist (b. 1716 )
- July 18 - Padre Francisco Garcés , Spanish missionary (killed) (b. 1738 )
- July 23 - John Joachim Zubly , Swiss-born Continental Congressman (b. 1724 )
- September 28 - William Henry Nassau De Zuylestein, 4th Earl Of Rochford , British diplomat and statesman (b. 1717 )
- October 16 - Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke , British naval officer (b. 1705 )
- November 4 - Johann Nikolaus Götz , German poet (b. 1721 )
- Peter Scheemakers , Flemish sculptor (b. 1691 )
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