1782 CE
Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris goes before the United States Congress to recommend establishment of a national mint and decimal coinage. Rama I overthrows King Taksin of Siam (now Thailand) in a coup d'état, and moves the political capital from Thonburi, across the Chao Phraya River to Rattanakosin Island, the historic center of Bangkok. American Revolutionary War: Action of 12 December 1782: A naval engagement off Ferrol, Spain, in which the British ship commanded by James Luttrell successfully attacks a convoy of French and American ships attempting to supply the United States.
Geopolitics & Diplomacy
- February 27 – The British House of Commons votes against further war in America, paving the way for the Second Rockingham ministry and the Peace of Paris.source
- March 27 – Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham becomes Prime Minister of Great Britain.source
- April 19 – John Adams secures recognition of the United States as an independent government by the Dutch Republic. During this visit, he also negotiates a loan of five million guilders, financed by Nicolaas van Staphorst and Wilhelm Willink.source
- May 17 – The Parliament of Great Britain passes the Repeal of Act for Securing Dependence of Ireland Act, a major component of the reforms collectively known as the Constitution of 1782, which restore legislative independence to the Parliament of Ireland.source
- June 20 – The bald eagle is chosen as the emblem of the United States of America. On the same day, the Confederation Congress adopts the design for the Great Seal of the United States.source
- October 18 – John Adams returns to Paris as the first United States Minister to France.source
- November 4 – Elias Boudinot of New Jersey is elected the new President of the Congress of the Confederation.source
- November 30 – American Revolutionary War: In Paris, representatives from the United States and the Kingdom of Great Britain sign preliminary peace articles (later formalized in the Treaty of Paris).source
- The North Carolina General Assembly incorporates Washington, North Carolina.source
Conflict & Security
- February 5 – The Spanish defeat British forces and capture Menorca.source
- March 8 – Gnadenhutten massacre: In Ohio, 29 Native American men, 27 women, and 34 children are killed by colonial militiamen in retaliation for raids carried out by another Native American group.source
- April 6 – Rama I overthrows King Taksin of Siam (now Thailand) in a coup d'état, and moves the political capital from Thonburi, across the Chao Phraya River to Rattanakosin Island, the historic center of Bangkok.source
- April 12 – Battle of the Saintes: A British fleet under Admiral Sir George Rodney defeats a French fleet under the Comte de Grasse, in the West Indies.source
- July 1 – Raid on Lunenburg: American privateers attack the British settlement at Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.source
- August 7 – George Washington orders the creation of the Badge of Military Merit (or the Order of the Purple Heart) to honor soldiers' merit in battle (reinstated later by Franklin D. Roosevelt, and renamed to the more poetic "Purple Heart", to honor soldiers wounded in action).source
- August 19 – A combined British and Native American force defeat Kentucky militiamen in the Battle of Blue Licks in the last major battle of the American Revolutionary War.source
- December 12 – American Revolutionary War: Action of 12 December 1782: A naval engagement off Ferrol, Spain, in which the British ship commanded by James Luttrell successfully attacks a convoy of French and American ships attempting to supply the United States.source
- December 16 – East India Company: Hada and Mada Miah lead a rebellion in the Indian subcontinent against East India Company officer Robert Lindsay and his troops in Sylhet Shahi Eidgah.source
- Chief Kamehameha I of Hawaii gains control of the northern part of the island of Hawaii, after defeating his cousin Kīwalaʻō.source
Exploration & Expansion
- February 18 – Fourth Anglo-Dutch War: Shirley's Gold Coast expedition lands at Elmina on the Dutch Gold Coast. The British expedition fails to take the fort here but over the next several weeks seizes, with minimal resistance, four small Dutch forts.source
Religion & Belief
Economy & Finance
Technology & Infrastructure
- April 21 – A Lak Mueang (city pillar) is erected on Rattanakosin Island, located on the eastern bank of the Chao Phraya River, by order of King Rama I, an act considered the founding of the capital city of Bangkok.source
- October 18 – The first franking privilege is granted for official correspondence to be sent at no charge to and from members of the Confederation Congress, at government expense, during periods when the Congress is in session.source
- The British Parliament extends James Watt's patent for the steam engine to the year 1800.source
Science & Discovery
Health & Medicine
- Saint Petersburg, Russia has 300,000 inhabitants.source
Crime & Justice
- January 23 – The Laird of Johnstone (George Ludovic Houston) invites people to buy marked plots of land which, when built upon, form the planned town of Johnstone, Scotland, to provide employment for his thread and cotton mills.source
- February 6 – Singu Min is overthrown as king of Myanmar by his cousin Phaungka Min and would be executed eight days later by his uncle Bodawpayar.source
- June 18 – In Switzerland, Anna Göldi is sentenced to death for witchcraft (the last legal witchcraft sentence).source
- London creates the Foot Patrol for public security.source
Culture & Society
- July 16–August 29 – The Masonic Congress of Wilhelmsbad, Germany, one of the most important secret society congresses in history, takes place. High-degree Freemasons from the whole of Europe spend the time deliberating the fate of the rite of Strict Observance, and hierarchy of the governing bodies of world Freemasonry, at the Hanau-Wilhelmsbad spa.source
- July 16 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail premieres at the Burgtheater in Vienna.source
- August 7 – Étienne Maurice Falconet's Bronze Horseman statue of Tsar Peter the Great is unveiled in Saint Petersburg.source
- October 10 – Welsh actress Sarah Siddons, the pre-eminent star of the English stage, makes a triumphant return to the theatre in the title role of David Garrick's new play, Isabella, or The Fatal Marriage.source
- The first theater in the Baltic, the Riga City Theater, is founded.source
- In China, the Complete Library of the Four Treasuries is completed, the largest literary compilation in China's history (surpassing the Yongle Encyclopedia of the 15th century). The books are bound in 36,381 volumes (册) with more than 79,000 chapters (卷), comprising about 2.3 million pages, and approximately 800 million Chinese characters.source
Births
- January 14 – Stephen Lushington, British judge and Member of Parliament (d. 1873)source
- January 22 – Philip Hamilton, son of American Founding Father, Alexander Hamilton (d. 1801)source
- March 17 – Billy Caldwell, British-Potawatomi and American fur trader (d. 1841)source
- March 18 – John C. Calhoun, vice president of the United States (d. 1850)source
- March 20 – James Tod, English officer of the British East India Company, oriental scholar (d. 1835)source
- April 26 – Maria Amalia of Naples and Sicily, Queen of France (d. 1866)source
- August 10 – Charles James Napier, Governor of Sindh, Commander-in-Chief in British India (d. 1853)source
- September 3 – Benedict Joseph Fenwick, American Catholic bishop (d. 1846)source
- September 16 – Daoguang Emperor, Qing-dynasty Chinese emperor (d. 1850)source
- October 9 – Lewis Cass, American military officer, politician, statesman (d. 1866)source
- October 27 – Niccolò Paganini, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1840)source
- November 1 – F. J. Robinson, 1st Viscount Goderich, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1859)source
- November 2 – Eustoquio Díaz Vélez, Spanish-Argentine general (d. 1856)source
- December 23 – William Armstrong, American lawyer, civil servant, politician, businessperson (d. 1865)source
Deaths
- February 10 – Friedrich Christoph Oetinger, German theologian (b. 1702)source
- March 17 – Daniel Bernoulli, Dutch-born mathematical physicist (b. 1700)source
- April 7 – Taksin the Great, King of Siam (Thonburi Kingdom) (b. 1734)source
- April 28 – William Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot, English politician (b. 1710)source
- May 8 – Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, 1st Marquis of Pombal, Portuguese statesman (b. 1699)source
- June 11 – William Crawford, American soldier and surveyor (burned at the stake by Native Americans) (b. 1732)source
- July 1 – Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, British statesman, 2-time Prime Minister of Great Britain (b. 1730)source
- July 15 – Farinelli, Italian castrato (b. 1705)source
- August 31 – George Croghan, American colonist (b. c. 1718)source
- September 5 – Bartolina Sisa, Bolivian indigenous Aymara heroine, rebel leader (b. c. 1750)source
- September 6 – Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson, wife of Thomas Jefferson (b. 1748)source
- September 14 – Nicholas Cooke, first Governor of Rhode Island (b. 1717)source
- October 2 – Charles Lee, Continental Army general during the American War of Independence (b. 1732)source
- December 7 – Hyder Ali, Indian general, Sultan of Mysore (b. 1720)source