1787

Article Index for
1787

Articles about
1787

Information About

1787

Year 1787 (''' MDCCLXXXVII ''') was a Common Year Starting On Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common Year Starting On Friday of the 11-day slower Julian Calendar ).

EVENTS OF 1787

January - June

January 6 - The North Carolina General Assembly authorizes nine commissioners to purchase 100 acres of land for the county seat of Chatham County . The town is named Pittsborough (later shortened to Pittsboro ) for William Pitt The Younger .

January 11 - William Herschel discovers Titania and Oberon , two Moon s of Uranus .

February 4 - Shays' Rebellion fails.

''': Herschel discovers Titania and Oberon orbit Uranus .]]

February 28 - Charter granted establishing the institution known today as the University Of Pittsburgh .

May 13 - Captain Arthur Phillip leaves Portsmouth , England with eleven ships full of convicts to establish a Penal Colony in Australia .

May 14 - In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania , delegates begin to meet 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 was eventually produced. George Washington presided over the Convention.

May - Orangist troops attack Vreeswijk , Harmelen and Maarssen . Civil war starts in the Netherlands .

June 6 - Franklin College, named for Benjamin Franklin , opens in Lancaster, Pennsylvania . It later merges with Marshall College to become Franklin And Marshall College .

June 28 - Princess Wilhelmina of Orange, sister of the king of Prussia is captured by patriots at Goejanverwellesluis .

July - December

July 13 - The U.S. Congress enacts the Northwest Ordinance establishing governing rules for the Northwest Territory . It also establishes procedures for the admission of new states and limits the expansion of Slavery .

August 27 - Launching a forty-five-foot steam powered craft on the Delaware River, John Fitch demonstrates the first US patent for his design.

September 13 - Prussian troops enter the Netherlands . More than 100,000 (out of a population of 2,000,000) patriots must go into exile for eight years.

September 17 - United States Constitution is adopted by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia .

, though sustaining a wound, routs the Turks in the Battle Of Kinburn .

October 27 - the first of the Federalist Papers , a series of essays calling for ratification of the U.S. Constitution , was published in a New York paper.

October 29 - Premiere of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 's Opera Don Giovanni ( Libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte ) in the Estates Theatre in Prague .

December 7 - Delaware ratifies the Constitution and becomes the first U.S. State .

December 8 - The Mission La Purisima Concepcion is founded by Father Fermín Francisco De Lasuén , becoming the eleventh mission in the California Mission chain.

December 12 - Pennsylvania becomes the second U.S. State .

December 18 - New Jersey becomes the third U.S. State .

Undated

In Britain, Thomas Clarkson and Granville Sharp found the "''Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade''" with support from John Wesley , Josiah Wedgwood and others.

The North Carolina General Assembly incorporates Waynesborough and designates it the county seat for Wayne County , North Carolina .

BIRTHS

February 10 - William Bradley , Britain's tallest ever man (d. 1820 )

March 17 - Edmund Kean , British actor (d. 1833 )

April 26 - Ludwig Uhland , German poet (d. 1862 )

December 10 - Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet , American educator (d. 1851 )

December 16 - Mary Russell Mitford , English novelist and dramatist (b. 1855 )

Unknown dates

The Element Silicon was first identified by Antoine Lavoisier as a component of the Latin Term '''' or " Flint s" (meaning "Hard Rocks").

: ''See also .''

'''DEATHS

February 13 - Rudjer Boscovich , Croatian scientist and diplomat (b. 1711 )

February 13 - Charles Gravier, Comte De Vergennes , French statesman and diplomat (b. 1717 )

April 1 - Floyer Sydenham , English classical scholar (b. 1710 )

April 2 - Thomas Gage , British general (b. 1719 )

May 10 - William Watson , English physician and scientist (b. 1715 )

May 28 - Leopold Mozart , Austrian composer (b. 1719 )

June 20 - Karl Friedrich Abel , German composer (b. 1723 )

July 4 - Charles De Rohan, Prince De Soubise , Marshal of France (b. 1715 )

August 1 - Alphonsus Liguori , Italian founder of the Redemptionist order (b. 1696 )

October 7 - Henry Muhlenberg , German-born founder of the U.S. Lutheran Church (b. 1711 )

November 3 - Robert Lowth , English bishop and grammarian (b. 1710 )

November 15 - Christoph Willibald Gluck , German composer (b. 1714 )

December 18 - Francis William Drake , British admiral and Governor of Newfoundland (b. 1724 )

December 18 - Soame Jenyns , English writer (b. 1704 )

Unknown dates

(none)

: ''See also .''