Explore 131 historical events from 1780–1789.
Phoebe Hinsdale Brown was one of the first notable American woman hymnwriters. She was a frequent contributor to the periodical press. Brown was the first American woman to write a…
Phoebe Hinsdale Brown, American hymnwriter (died 1861)
William Sturgeon was an English electrical engineer and inventor who made the first electromagnet and the first practical electric motor.
William Sturgeon, English physicist and inventor, invented the electromagnet and electric motor (died 1850)
Philip Pendleton Barbour was the tenth speaker of the United States House of Representatives and an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He is the only indi…
Philip P
Friedrich Wilhelm Adam Sertürner was a German pharmacist and a pioneer of alkaloid chemistry. He is best known for his discovery of morphine, which he isolated from opium in 1804, …
Friedrich Sertürner, German chemist and pharmacist (died 1841)
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: Colbert's Raid: A Spanish garrison under Captain Jacobo du Breuil defeat British irregulars
The Three-fifths Compromise, also known as the Constitutional Compromise of 1787, was an agreement reached during the 1787 United States Constitutional Convention over the inclusio…
Three-Fifths Compromise: The first instance of black slaves in the United States of America being counted as three-fifth
Christian Mayer was a Moravian-German Catholic priest, astronomer and teacher.
Christian Mayer, Czech astronomer and educator (born 1719)
James Otis Jr. was an American lawyer, politician, and activist who was an early supporter of patriotic causes in the Province of Massachusetts Bay at the beginning of the American…
James Otis Jr
United Empire Loyalist is an honorific title which was first given by the 1st Lord Dorchester, the governor of Quebec and governor general of the Canadas, to American Loyalists who…
First United Empire Loyalists reach Parrtown (later called Saint John, New Brunswick), Canada, after leaving the United
A Great Jubilee Day, first held on Monday, May 26, 1783, in North Stratford, now Trumbull, Connecticut, commemorated the end of fighting in the American Revolutionary War. This cel…
A Great Jubilee Day held at North Stratford, Connecticut, celebrates the end of fighting in the American Revolutionary W
The Montgolfier brothers – Joseph-Michel Montgolfier and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier – were aviation pioneers, balloonists and paper manufacturers from the commune Annonay in Ardèc…
The Montgolfier brothers publicly demonstrate their montgolfière (hot air balloon)
Laki or Lakagígar is a volcanic fissure in the western part of Vatnajökull National Park, Iceland, not far from the volcanic fissure of Eldgjá and the small village of Kirkjubæjark…
Laki, a volcano in Iceland, begins an eight-month eruption which kills over 9,000 people and starts a seven-year famine
José Mariano de la Cruz de la Riva Agüero y Sánchez Boquete was a Peruvian soldier and politician who was the first president of Peru and the second president of North Peru, a cons…
José de la Riva Agüero, Peruvian soldier and politician, 1st President of Peru and 2nd President of North Peru (died 185
The Mechanical Turk, also known as the Automaton Chess Player or simply the Turk, was a chess-playing machine first displayed in 1770, which appeared to be able to play a strong ga…
The Mechanical Turk (pictured), a fraudulent chess-playing "machine" by Wolfgang von Kempelen that was secretly controll
The Second Anglo-Mysore War was a conflict between the Kingdom of Mysore and the British East India Company from 1780 to 1784. At the time, Mysore was a key French ally in India, a…
Second Anglo-Mysore War: British troops surrendered the fortress of Bednore in southwestern India to French and Mysorean
Laki or Lakagígar is a volcanic fissure in the western part of Vatnajökull National Park, Iceland, not far from the volcanic fissure of Eldgjá and the small village of Kirkjubæjark…
Laki, a volcanic fissure in Iceland (pictured), began an eight-month eruption, triggering a major famine and causing wid
Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily was Queen of the French by marriage to Louis Philippe I, King of the French. She was the last Queen of the French.
Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily, Queen of France (died 1866)
Hirose Tanso was a neo-Confucian scholar, teacher and writer in late Edo Period Japan.
Hirose Tansō, Japanese neo-Confucian scholar, teacher, writer (died 1856)
William Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot, PC, styled as Lord Talbot from 1737 to 1761, was an English peer and Whig politician. Talbot was a notable figure among opposition Whig politicians…
William Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot, English politician, Lord Steward of the Household (born 1710)
Christine Kirch, was a German astronomer.
Christine Kirch, German astronomer and academic (born 1696)
Daniel Carlsson Solander or Daniel Charles Solander was a Swedish naturalist and an apostle of Carl Linnaeus. Solander was the first university-educated scientist to set foot on Au…
Daniel Solander, Swedish-English botanist and phycologist (born 1736)
John Adams was a Founding Father and the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before his presidency, he was a leader of the American Revolution that achieved in…
John Adams secures Dutch recognition of the United States as an independent government
Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies 1,568.7 square kilo…
The city of Rattanakosin, now known internationally as Bangkok, is founded on the eastern bank of the Chao Phraya River
The Grand Palace is a complex of buildings at the heart of Bangkok, Thailand. The palace has been the official residence of the Kings of Siam since 1782. The king, his court, and h…
Construction begins on the Grand Palace, the royal residence of the King of Siam in Bangkok, at the command of King Budd