1781

Years: 1778 1779 1780 - 1781 - 1782 1783 1784
Decades: 1750s 1760s 1770s - 1780s - 1790s 1800s 1810s
Centuries: 17th century - 18th century - 19th century 1781 in art 1781 in literature 1781 in music 1781 in science List of state leaders in 1781 List of religious leaders in 1781

Table of contents

1 Events
2 Births
3 Deaths

Events

January 5 - American Revolutionary War: Richmond, Virginia 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.
March 15 - American Revolutionary War: American General Nathanael Greene loses Battle of Guilford Court House to British.
August 30 - American Revolutionary War: French fleet under Comte de Grasse enters Chesapeake Bay, cutting British General Charles Cornwallis off from escape by sea.
September 4 - Los Angeles is founded as El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora La Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula (City of the Queen of the Angels) by a group of 44 Spanish settlers.
September 5 - British fleet under Thomas Graves arrives and fights de Grasse, but to no effect.
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.
November 5 - John Hanson is elected President of the Continental Congress.
December 12 - French and British fleets fight the Battle of Ushant.
Bank of North America is chartered by the Continental Congress.
Charles Messier publishes final catalog of Messier objects.
Carl Wilhelm Scheele discovers tungsten.
Immanuel Kant publishes Critique of Pure Reason.
Jeremy Bentham formulates utilitarian ethics.
Reverend Samuel Peters publishes General History of Connecticut, using the term blue law for the first time.
Antonio Salieri selected as music teacher of Princess of Württemberg over Mozart.

Births

January 26 - Achim von Arnim, poet (+ 1831)
January 30 - Adelbert von Chamisso, poet, botanist (+ 1838)
February 17 - Rene Theophile Hyacinthe Laennec, French physician, inventor of stethoscope (+ 1826)
March 4 - Rebecca Gratz, American educator, philanthropist (+ 1869)
March 13 - Karl Friedrich Schinkel, master builder (+ 1841)
June 9- George Stephenson (+ 1848)
June 21 - Siméon-Denis Poisson, French mathematician, physicist (+ 1840)
July 6 - Thomas Stamford Raffles, founder of Singapore (+ 1826)
July 6 - John D. Sloat, American naval officer (+ 1867)
September 3 - Eugène de Beauharnais, son of Napoleon’s wife, Josephine
September 6 - Anton Diabelli, music publisher, editor, composer
October 1 - James Lawrence, Captain of the United States Navy known for his success fulactivities during the War of 1812.
November 6 - Lucy Aikin, English writer (+ 1864)
November 20 - Karl Friedrich Eichhorn, German jurist (+ 1854)
November 30 - Alexander Berry (d. 1873) Scotish adventurer, founder of Berry Australia
December 11 - Sir David Brewster, Scottish physicist (+ 1868)
William Williams of Wern, minister (+ 1840)

Deaths

March 18 - Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, Baron de Laune, French statesman, economist
Peter Scheemakers, Flemish sculptor