Explore 263 historical events from 1780–1789.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a Classical composer and musician. He completed more than 800 works in his life—including outstanding examples of most of the genres of his time: sympho…
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail premiered in Vienna, after which Emperor Joseph II…
The Badge of Military Merit was an award for non-commissioned officers and soldiers of the Continental Army. It is considered America's first military decoration, and the second ol…
The Badge of Military Merit (pictured), the precursor to the U.S. Purple Heart, was established as a military…
Jack Jouett Jr. was an American farmer and politician in Virginia and Kentucky best known for his 40-mile (60 km) ride during the American Revolution in 1781. Sometimes called the …
Jack Jouett begins his midnight ride to warn Thomas Jefferson and the Virginia legislature of an impending British raid
The Fourth Anglo-Dutch War was a conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Dutch Republic. The war, contemporary with the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), broke …
Fourth Anglo-Dutch War, a fleet of six East India Company ships sets sail from Fort Marlborough to raid the Dutch VOC…
The American Revolutionary War, also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader Amer…
American Revolutionary War: British and French ships clash in the Battle of Fort Royal off the coast of Martinique
The Battle of Dogger Bank was a fleet action fought in the North Sea on 5 August 1781 during the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War. It occurred between a British fleet under Vice-Admiral of t…
The Battle of Dogger Bank takes place.
The Battle of Dogger Bank was a fleet action fought in the North Sea on 5 August 1781 during the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War. It occurred between a British fleet under Vice-Admiral of t…
British and Dutch ships engage in the second Battle of Dogger Bank.
Friedrich Ludwig Georg von Raumer was a German historian. He was the first scientific historian to popularise history in German. He travelled extensively and served in German legis…
Friedrich Ludwig Georg von Raumer, German historian and academic (died 1873)
Christian August Lobeck was a German classical scholar.
Christian Lobeck, German scholar and academic (died 1860)
George Stephenson was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer. Renowned as the "Father of Railways", Stephenson was considered by the Victorians as a great example of dil…
George Stephenson, English engineer, designed the Liverpool and Manchester Railway (died 1848)
Baron Siméon Denis Poisson was a French mathematician and physicist who worked on statistics, complex analysis, partial differential equations, the calculus of variations, analytic…
Siméon Denis Poisson, French mathematician and physicist (died 1840)
Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles was a British colonial official who served as the governor of the Dutch East Indies between 1811 and 1816 and lieutenant-governor of Bencoolen b…
Stamford Raffles, English politician, founded Singapore (died 1826)
The American Revolutionary War, also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence or simply the American Revolution, was the armed conflict that comprised the fin…
American Revolutionary War: A small force of Pennsylvania militia is ambushed and overwhelmed by an American Indian…
Karl Christian Friedrich Krause was a German philosopher whose doctrines became known as Krausism. Krausism, when considered in its totality as a complete, stand-alone philosophica…
Karl Christian Friedrich Krause, German philosopher and author (died 1832)
Mauro Giuseppe Sergio Pantaleo Giuliani was an Italian guitarist, cellist, singer, and composer. He was a leading guitar virtuoso of the early 19th century. One of his best known w…
Mauro Giuliani, Italian singer-songwriter and guitarist (died 1828)
Maria Aletta Hulshoff was a Dutch Patriot, feminist and pamphleteer.
Maria Aletta Hulshoff, Dutch feminist and pamphleteer (died 1846)
General James Abercrombie was a British Army officer and Whig politician who represented Banffshire in the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1734 to 1754. He served as Command…
James Abercrombie, Scottish general and politician (born 1706)
Cornelius Harnett was an American Founding Father, politician, merchant, plantation owner, and slaveholder from Wilmington, North Carolina. He was a leading American Revolutionary …
Cornelius Harnett, American merchant, farmer, and politician (born 1723)
Richard Jago was an English clergyman poet and minor landscape gardener from Warwickshire. Although his writing was not highly regarded by contemporaries, some of it was sufficient…
Richard Jago, English priest and poet (born 1715)
Túpac Amaru II was an Indigenous cacique who led a large Andean rebellion against the Spanish in Peru as self-proclaimed Sapa Inca of the new Inca Empire. He was later elevated to …
Túpac Amaru II, Peruvian indigenous rebel leader (born 1742)
Giovanni Battista Beccaria was an Italian physicist. A fellow of the Royal Society, he published several papers on electrical subjects in the Phil. Trans. Beccaria was one of Benja…
Giovanni Battista Beccaria, Italian physicist and academic (born 1716)
Reverend John Joachim Zubly, born Hans Joachim Züblin, was a Swiss-born American pastor, planter, and statesman during the American Revolution. Although a delegate for Georgia to t…
John Joachim Zubly, Swiss-American pastor and politician (born 1724)
Johann Kies was a German astronomer and mathematician. Born in Tübingen, Kies worked in Berlin in 1751 alongside Jérôme Lalande in order to make observations on the lunar parallax …
Johann Kies, German astronomer and mathematician (born 1713)
John Bligh, 3rd Earl of Darnley, styled The Honourable John Bligh between 1721 and 1747, lord of the Manor of Cobham, Kent, was a British parliamentarian.
John Bligh, 3rd Earl of Darnley, British parliamentarian (born 1719)