Directory

1787 CE

Princess Wilhelmina of Orange, sister of King Frederick William II of Prussia, is captured by Dutch Republican patriots, taken to Goejanverwellesluis and not allowed to travel to The Hague. Prussian troops invade the Dutch Republic; two days later the Rhinegrave Salm gives up Utrecht. Within a few weeks 40,000 Patriots (out of a population of 2,000,000) go into exile in Northern France. Treaty of Versailles (1787) signed, forming an alliance between the Kingdom of France and the Lord Nguyễn Phúc Ánh, future Emperor of Vietnam.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 9 – The North Carolina General Assembly authorizes nine commissioners to purchase 100 acre km2 of land for the seat of Chatham County. The town is named Pittsborough (later shortened to Pittsboro), for William Pitt the Younger.source
  • February 2 – Arthur St. Clair of Pennsylvania is chosen as the new President of the Congress of the Confederation.source
  • February 21 – The Confederation Congress sends word to the 13 states that a convention will be held in Philadelphia on May 14 to revise the Articles of Confederation.source
  • March 3 – By a vote of 33 to 29, Harrisburg is approved as the new capital of Pennsylvania.source
  • April 2 – A Charter of Justice is signed, providing the authority for the establishment of the first New South Wales (i.e. Australian) Courts of Criminal and Civil Jurisdiction.source
  • May 14 – In Philadelphia, delegates begin arriving for a Constitutional Convention.source
  • May 22 – In Britain, Thomas Clarkson and Granville Sharp found the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade, with support from John Wesley, Josiah Wedgwood and others.source
  • May 25 – In Philadelphia, delegates begin to convene the Constitutional Convention, intended to amend the Articles of Confederation (however, a new United States Constitution is eventually produced). George Washington presides over the Convention.source
  • June 20 – Oliver Ellsworth moves at the Federal Convention that the government be called the United States.source
  • July 13 – The Congress of the Confederation enacts the Northwest Ordinance, establishing governing rules for the Northwest Territory (the future states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin). It also establishes procedures for the admission of new states, and limits the expansion of slavery.source
  • July 18 – The United States ratifies its first treaty with the Sultanate of Morocco.source
  • August 9 – South Carolina cedes to the United States its claims to a 12-mile wide strip of land that runs across northern Alabama and Mississippi.source
  • September 17 – The United States Constitution is signed by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.source
  • November 21 – Treaty of Versailles (1787) signed, forming an alliance between the Kingdom of France and the Lord Nguyễn Phúc Ánh, future Emperor of Vietnam.source
  • December 7 – Delaware ratifies the Constitution, and becomes the first U.S. state.source
  • December 12 – Pennsylvania becomes the second U.S. state.source
  • December 18 – New Jersey becomes the third U.S. state.source

Conflict & Security

  • February 4 – Shays' Rebellion in Massachusetts fails.source
  • May – Orangist troops attack Vreeswijk, Harmelen and Maarssen; civil war starts in the Dutch Republic.source
  • June 28 – Princess Wilhelmina of Orange, sister of King Frederick William II of Prussia, is captured by Dutch Republican patriots, taken to Goejanverwellesluis and not allowed to travel to The Hague.source
  • September 13 – Prussian troops invade the Dutch Republic; two days later the Rhinegrave Salm gives up Utrecht. Within a few weeks 40,000 Patriots (out of a population of 2,000,000) go into exile in Northern France.source
  • October 1 – Russo-Turkish War (1787–1792): Battle of Kinburn – Alexander Suvorov, though sustaining a wound, routs the Turks.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • May 13 – Captain Arthur Phillip leaves Portsmouth, England, with the 11 ships of the First Fleet, carrying around 700 convicts and at least 300 crew and guards to establish a penal colony in Australia.source
  • December 23 – Captain William Bligh sets sail from England for Tahiti, on .source

Religion & Belief

  • March 28 – In the British House of Commons, Henry Beaufoy files the first motion to repeal the Test Act 1673, which restricts the rights of non-members of the Church of England; Beaufoy's motion is rejected, and the Act is not repealed until 1829.source
  • March 30 – Biblical theology becomes a separate discipline from biblical studies, as Johann Philipp Gabler delivers his speech "On the proper distinction between biblical and dogmatic theology and the specific objectives of each" upon his inauguration as the professor of theology at the University of Altdorf in Germany. Craig Bartholomew, Out of Egypt: Biblical Theology and Biblical Interpretation (Zondervan, 2011) p2source
  • May 7 – The New Church (Swedenborgian) is founded in England.source
  • December 8 – La Purisima Mission is founded by Padre Fermín Lasuén as the eleventh of the Spanish missions in California.source

Economy & Finance

  • March 17 – The Bank of North America, the central bank of the United States government under the Articles of Confederation, is re-incorporated after its charter had expired in 1786.source
  • April 25 – The Customs and Excise Act 1787 receives Royal assent. It replaced all customs duties, which included poundage, by a system where individual tariffs would be applied to importations.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • August 27 – Launching a 45 ft m steam powered craft on the Delaware River, John Fitch demonstrates the first U.S. patent for his design.source
  • December 3 – James Rumsey demonstrates his water-jet propelled boat on the Potomac River.source

Science & Discovery

  • January 11 – William Herschel discovers Titania and Oberon, two moons of Uranus.source
  • April 19 – British astronomer Sir William Herschel notices three red glowing spots on the dark part of the Moon.source
  • August 10 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composes his famous Eine kleine Nachtmusik.source
  • Antoine Lavoisier is the first to suggest that silica is an oxide of a hitherto unknown metallic chemical element, later isolated and named silicon.source
  • Caroline Herschel is granted an annual salary of £50, by King George III of Great Britain, for acting as assistant to her brother William in astronomy.source
  • A fossil bone recovered from Cretaceous strata at Woodbury, New Jersey is discussed by the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia.source

Climate & Environment

  • The North Carolina General Assembly incorporates Waynesborough, and designates it the seat for Wayne County, North Carolina. The town becomes extinct after 1865.source

Culture & Society

  • January 19 – Mozart's Symphony No. 38 is premièred in Prague.source
  • February 28 – A charter is granted, establishing the institution which will become the University of Pittsburgh.source
  • May 31 – The original Lord's Cricket Ground in London holds its first cricket match; Marylebone Cricket Club founded.source
  • September 4 – The first secondary school open to girls in Denmark, J. Cl. Todes Døtreskole, is founded in Copenhagen.source
  • September 24 – Washington Academy (later Washington & Jefferson College) is chartered by the Pennsylvania General Assembly.source
  • October 27 – The first of The Federalist Papers, a series of essays calling for ratification of the U.S. Constitution, is published in The Independent Journal, a New York newspaper.source
  • October 29 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera Don Giovanni (libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte) premieres in the Estates Theatre in Prague.source
  • November 1 – The first secondary school open to girls in Sweden, Societetsskolan, is founded in Gothenburg.source

Births

  • January 1 – Manuel José Arce, Revolutionary General and first President of The Federal Republic of Central America (d. 1847)source
  • February 10 – William Bradley, Britain's tallest man ever at 7 ft 9 in. (d. 1820)source
  • February 23 – Emma Willard, American educator (d. 1870)source
  • March 6 – Joseph von Fraunhofer, German optician (d. 1826)source
  • March 10 – Francisco de Paula Martínez de la Rosa y Berdejo, Prime Minister of Spain (d. 1862)source
  • March 18 – Pieter Merkus, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (d. 1844)source
  • June 28 – Sir Harry Smith, English soldier, military commander (d. 1860)source
  • August 24 – James Weddell, British sailor known for discovering the Weddell Sea (d. 1834)source
  • October 4, – François Guizot, Prime Minister of France (d. 1874)source
  • November 4 – Edmund Kean, English actor (d. 1833)source
  • November 7 – Vuk Stefanović Karadžić, Serbian linguist, major reformer of the Serbian language (d. 1864)source
  • November 21 – Samuel Cunard, Canadian businessman, prominent Nova Scotian, founder of the Cunard Line (d. 1865)source
  • December 16 – Mary Russell Mitford, English novelist and dramatist (d. 1855)source
  • December 17 – Jan Evangelista Purkyne, Czech anatomist, botanist (d. 1869)source

Deaths

  • January 4 – Prince Joseph of Saxe-Hildburghausen, German prince (b. 1702)source
  • February 4 – Pompeo Batoni, Italian painter (b. 1708)source
  • February 13 – Rudjer Boscovich, Croatian scientist, diplomat (b. 1711)source
  • February 13 – Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes, French statesman, diplomat (b. 1717)source
  • March 8 – Samuel Graves, British Royal Navy admiral (b. 1713)source
  • April 2 – Thomas Gage, British general (b. 1719)source
  • June 14 – Johann Georg Dominicus von Linprun, German scientist (b. 1714)source
  • June 17 – José de Gálvez, Spanish politician (b. 1720)source
  • July 25 – Arthur Devis, British artist (b. 1712)source
  • August 1 – Alphonsus Liguori, Italian founder of the Redemptorist Order (b. 1696)source
  • August 7 – Francis Blackburne, English Anglican churchman, activist (b. 1705)source
  • October 7 – Henry Muhlenberg, German-born founder of the U.S. Lutheran Church (b. 1711)source
  • October 28 – Johann Karl August Musäus, German author and collector of folk tales (b. 1735)source
  • November 15 – Christoph Willibald Gluck, German composer (b. 1714)source