1781

Centuries: 17th century - 18th century - 19th century

Decades: 1730s 1740s 1750s 1760s 1770s - 1780s - 1790s 1800s 1810s 1820s 1830s

Years: 1776 1777 1778 1779 1780 - 1781 - 1782 1783 1784 1785 1786

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 - Articles of Confederation go into effect, Samuel Huntington becomes first President of the United States in Congress assembled.
• March 13 - William Herschel discovers the planet Uranus.
• March 15 - American Revolutionary War: American General Nathaniel 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 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 as President of the United States in Congress assembled.
• December 12 - French and British fleets fight the Battle of Ushant[?].
• Bank of North America is chartered by the Continental Congress.
• Los Angeles, California is founded.
• Sir William Herschel discovers the planet Uranus, originally calling it Georgium Sidus (George's Star) in honour of King George III of England.
• 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.

Births:

• January 26 - Achim von Arnim[?], poet (+ 1831)
• January 30 - Adelbert von Chamisso, poet, botanist (+ 1838)
• March 4 - Rebecca Gratz, American educator, philanthropist (+ 1869)
• March 13 - Karl Friedrich Schinkel[?], master builder (+ 1841)
• June 21 - Simeon 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
• November 6 - Lucy Aikin, English writer (+ 1864)
• November 20 - Karl Friedrich Eichhorn, German jurist (+ 1854)
• Sir David Brewster, Scottish physicist (+ 1868)
• Rene Theophile Hyacinthe Laennec, physician, inventor of stethoscope (+ 1826)
• William Williams of Wern, minister (+ 1840)

Deaths:

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