Explore 102 historical events from 1780–1789.
Honora "Nano" Nagle was an Irish Catholic religious sister who served as a pioneer of Catholic education in Ireland despite legal prohibitions. She founded the Sisters of the Prese…
Nano Nagle, Irish nun and educator, founded the Presentation Sisters (born 1718)
Abraham Trembley was a Genevan naturalist. He is best known for being the first to study freshwater polyps or hydra and for being among the first to develop experimental zoology. H…
Abraham Trembley, Swiss zoologist and academic (born 1710)
Élisabeth Thible, or Elizabeth Tible, was the first woman to make a flight in an untethered hot air balloon. She was born in Lyon, France, on 8 March 1757. On 4 June 1784, eight mo…
Élisabeth Thible became the first woman to fly in an untethered hot air balloon, covering a distance of 4 km (2
Reginald Heber was an English Anglican bishop, a man of letters, and hymn-writer. After 16 years as a country parson, he served as Bishop of Calcutta until his death at the age of …
Reginald Heber, English priest (died 1821)
David Cox was an English landscape painter, one of the most important members of the Birmingham School of landscape artists and an early precursor of Impressionism.
David Cox, English landscape painter (died 1859)
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)
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
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
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)
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
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