1781
1781 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar).
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 - American Continental Congress implements the Articles of Confederation .
March 13 - Sir William Herschel discovers the planet Uranus . Originally he calls it Georgium Sidus (George's Star) in honour of King George III of England .
March 15 - American Revolutionary War : American General Nathanael 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 4 - Los Angeles is founded as El Pueblo de Nuestra Senora La Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula (City of the Queen of the Angels) by a group of 44 Spanish settlers.
September 5 - British fleet under Thomas Graves arrives and fights de Grasse, but to no effect.
September 6 - The British army attacks a fort in Groton, Connecticut which became known as the Battle of Groton Heights .
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 President of the Continental Congress .
December 12 - French and British fleets fight in the Second Battle of Ushant .
Bank of North America is chartered by the Continental Congress .
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.
Antonio Salieri selected as music teacher of Princess of Württemberg over Mozart .
Births
January 26 - Achim von Arnim , poet (+ 1831 )
January 30 - Adelbert von Chamisso , poet, botanist (+ 1838 )
February 17 - Rene Theophile Hyacinthe Laennec , French physician, inventor of stethoscope (+ 1826 )
March 4 - Rebecca Gratz , American educator, philanthropist (+ 1869 )
March 13 - Karl Friedrich Schinkel , master builder (+ 1841 )
April 2 - Bhagwan Shree Swaminarayan aka Shree Sahajanand Swami aka Ghanshyam Maharaj , manifestation of Almighty God (+ 1830 )
June 9 - George Stephenson (+ 1848 )
June 21 - Siméon-Denis 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
October 1 - James Lawrence , Captain of the United States Navy known for his success fulactivities during the War of 1812 .
November 6 - Lucy Aikin , English writer (+ 1864 )
November 20 - Karl Friedrich Eichhorn , German jurist (+ 1854 )
November 30 - Alexander Berry (d. 1873 ) Scottish adventurer, founder of Berry Australia
December 11 - Sir David Brewster , Scottish physicist (+ 1868 )
William Williams of Wern , minister (+ 1840 )
Deaths
