Directory

1784 CE

Henry Cavendish's paper to the Royal Society of London, Experiments on Air, reveals the molecular composition of water. John Wesley ordains ministers for the Methodist Church in the United States. The Congress of the Confederation passes the Ordinance of Governance to set guidelines for adding to the original 13 states in the United States of America.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 6 – Treaty of Constantinople: The Ottoman Empire agrees to Russia's annexation of the Crimea.source
  • January 14 – The Congress of the United States ratifies the Treaty of Paris with Great Britain to end the American Revolution, with the signature of President of Congress Thomas Mifflin.source
  • March 1 – The Confederation Congress accepts Virginia's cession of all rights to the Northwest Territory and to Kentucky (Illinois County).source
  • April 23 – The Congress of the Confederation passes the Ordinance of Governance to set guidelines for adding to the original 13 states in the United States of America.source
  • May 12 – The Treaty of Paris (signed on September 3 the previous year, officially ending the War of American Independence) comes into effect.source
  • May 20 – A treaty is signed in Paris between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Dutch Republic, formally ending the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War.source
  • July 29 – The United States and the Kingdom of France sign a convention for establishing diplomatic relations and "determining the functions and prerogatives of their respective consuls, vice consuls, agents, and commissaries".source
  • August 13 – Parliament of Great Britain passes Pitt's India Act (An Act for the better Regulation and Management of the Affairs of the East India Company and of the British Possessions in India). It requires the governor-general to be chosen from outside the Company and makes company directors subject to parliamentary supervision.source
  • August 16 – Britain creates the colony of New Brunswick.source
  • September 22 – Russia establishes a colony at Kodiak, Alaska.source
  • October 22 – North Carolina rescinds its resolution ceding its western territory (Washington District, modern-day Tennessee) to the United States, after earlier giving Congress two years to accept the terms.source
  • November 26 – The Roman Catholic Apostolic Prefecture of the United States is established.source
  • November 30 – Richard Henry Lee of Virginia is selected as the new President of the Confederation Congress.source
  • King Charles III of Spain authorizes land grants in Alta California.source
  • The North Carolina General Assembly changes the name of Kingston, North Carolina, originally named for King George III of Great Britain, to Kinston.source
  • Britain receives its first bales of imported American cotton.source

Conflict & Security

  • February 24 – The Captivity of Mangalorean Catholics at Seringapatam begins.source
  • October 8 – "Kettle War", a 1-day action on the Scheldt in which a ship of the Dutch Republic repels forces of the Holy Roman Empire.source
  • October 31–December 14 – The Revolt of Horea, Cloșca and Crișan in Transylvania causes Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor to suspend the Hungarian Constitution.source
  • Benjamin Franklin tries in vain to persuade the French to alter their clocks in winter to take advantage of the daylight.source

Religion & Belief

  • February 28 – John Wesley ordains ministers for the Methodist Church in the United States.source
  • March 22 – The Emerald Buddha is installed at the Wat Phra Kaew, on the grounds of the Grand Palace in Bangkok (or in 1785).source
  • December 25 – The Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States is officially formed at the "Christmas Conference", led by Thomas Coke and Francis Asbury.source

Economy & Finance

  • July 9 – The Bank of New York opens as the first in New York state and continues to operate under that name for almost 223 years until being acquired by Mellon Financial and becoming BNY Mellon.source

Science & Discovery

  • January 15 – Henry Cavendish's paper to the Royal Society of London, Experiments on Air, reveals the molecular composition of water.source
  • September 19 – In France, the Robert brothers (Anne-Jean Robert and Nicolas-Louis Robert) and a Mr. Collin-Hullin (whose first name is lost to history) become the first people to fly more than 100 km or 100 miles in the air, lifting off from Paris and landing 6 hours and 40 minutes later near Bethune after a journey of 186 km.source
  • November 27 – The phenomenon of black holes is first posited in a paper by John Michell, in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London.source
  • Antoine Lavoisier pioneers quantitative chemistry.source
  • Carl Friedrich Gauss pioneers the field of summation with the formula summing at the age of 7.source
  • Benjamin Franklin invents bifocal spectacles.source

Health & Medicine

  • Madame du Coudray, pioneer of modern midwifery, retires.source
  • A huge locust swarm hits South Africa.source

Climate & Environment

  • Great Tenmei famine in Edo period Japan continues, as 300,000 die of starvation.source

Culture & Society

  • April 27 – The Marriage of Figaro, written by playwright Pierre Beaumarchais as a sequel to The Barber of Seville, premieres at the Comédie-Française in Paris.source
  • June 4 – Élisabeth Thible is the first woman to ascend in a hot-air balloon, at Lyon, France.source
  • December – Immanuel Kant's essay "Answering the Question: What Is Enlightenment?" is published.source
  • The North Carolina General Assembly incorporates the town of Morgansborough, named for Daniel Morgan. The town is designated as the county seat for Burke County, North Carolina and is subsequently renamed Morgan, later shortened to Morganton.source
  • Princess Yekaterina Vorontsova-Dashkova is named first president of the newly created Russian Academy.source
  • Foundation of the first theater in Estonia, the Tallinna saksa teater.source

Births

  • January 28 – George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1860)source
  • February 5 – Nancy Hanks, mother of Abraham Lincoln (d. 1818)source
  • February 20 – John E. Wool, general officer in the United States Army, who served during the War of 1812, Mexican–American War, and the American Civil War (d. 1869)source
  • March 12 – William Buckland, English geologist, paleontologist (d. 1856)source
  • March 27 – Jonathan Jennings, American politician and the first governor of Indiana (d. 1834)source
  • April 13 – Friedrich Graf von Wrangel, Prussian field marshal (d. 1877)source
  • April 24 – Peter Vivian Daniel, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1860)source
  • July 22 – Friedrich Bessel, German mathematician, astronomer (d. 1846)source
  • August 18 – Robert Taylor, British Radical writer, freethought advocate (d. 1844)source
  • October 15 – Thomas Robert Bugeaud, Marshal of France and duke of Isly (d. 1849)source
  • October 19 – Leigh Hunt, British critic, essayist (d. 1859)source
  • October 19 – John McLoughlin, Canadian fur trader (d. 1857)source
  • October 20 – Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1865)source
  • November 24 – Zachary Taylor, 12th President of the United States (d. 1850)source

Deaths

  • February 4 – Princess Friederike Luise of Prussia, Prussian princess (b. 1714)source
  • February 27 – Count of St. Germain, French philosopher, adventurer (b. 1710)source
  • May 3 – Anthony Benezet, French-born American abolitionist and educator (b. 1713)source
  • June 11 – Lê Quý Đôn, Vietnamese philosopher, poet, encyclopedist, and government official (b. 1726)source
  • June 13 – Henry Middleton, American president of the Continental Congress (b. 1717)source
  • June 26 – Caesar Rodney, American lawyer, signer of the United States Declaration of Independence (b. 1728)source
  • July 1 – Wilhelm Friedemann Bach, German composer (b. 1710)source
  • July 31 – Denis Diderot, French philosopher, encyclopedist (b. 1713)source
  • August 10 – Allan Ramsay, Scottish portrait-painter (b. 1713)source
  • September 4 – César-François Cassini de Thury, French astronomer (b. 1714)source
  • September 8 – Ann Lee, American religious leader (b. 1736)source
  • November 1 – Jean-Jacques Lefranc, Marquis de Pompignan, French polymath, author and poet (b. 1709)source
  • December 5 – Phillis Wheatley, first published African-American author (b. 1753)source
  • December 26 – Seth Warner, American revolutionary leader (b. 1743)source