1782
1782 was a
common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar).
*
London creates
Foot Patrol for public security.
*
Jean-Pierre Blanchard and
John Jeffries try to cross the
English Channel with a
hot-air balloon.
*
British parliament extends
James Watt's
copyright for the
steam engine to the year
1800.
* The
North Carolina General Assembly incorporates
Washington,
North Carolina.
January
*
January 7 - The first
American commercial bank opens (
Bank of North America).
*
January 15 -
Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris goes before the
U.S. Congress to recommend establishment of a national
mint and decimal
coinage.
February
*
February 5 -
Spanish defeat
British forces and capture
Minorca. In
Ohio the
Gnadenhutten massacre of
Native Americans takes place in which 29 men, 27 women, and 34 children were killed by white militiamen in retaliation for raids carried out by another Native American group.
March
*
March 27 -
Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham becomes
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
April
*
April 6 -
Rama I succeeded
King Taksin of
Thailand who was overthrown in an
coup d'etat.
*
April 12 - A
British fleet under
Admiral Sir George Rodney defeats a
French fleet under the
Comte de Grasse at the
Battle of the Saintes in the
West Indies.
May
June
*
June 18 – In
Switzerland,
Anna Goldi in sentenced to death for
witchcraft – the last legal witchcraft sentence.
July
July 1 -
American privateers attack
Lunenburg,
Nova Scotia.
August
*
August 7 -
George Washington orders the creation of the
Badge of Military Merit to honor soldiers wounded in battle. It is later renamed to the more poetic "
Purple Heart".
September
October
November
*
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).
December
*
January 18 -
Daniel Webster, American statesman (d.
1852)
*
March 4 -
Johann Rudolf Wyss, Swiss folklorist/writer,
Swiss Family Robinson (d.
1830)
*
March 18 -
John Calhoun,
Vice President of the United States (d.
1850)
*
July 3 -
Pierre Berthier, French geologist (d.
1861)
*
July 26 -
John Field, Irish composer (d.
1837)
*
October 27 -
Nicolò Paganini, Italian violinist and composer (d.
1840)
*
December 5 -
Martin Van Buren, 8th
President of the United States (d.
1862)
*
Charlotte Dacre, English author (d.
1842)
*
William Miller, American preacher (d.
1849)
*
January 1 -
Johann Christian Bach, German composer (b.
1735)
*
January 4 -
Ange-Jacques Gabriel, French architect (b.
1698)
*
February 9 -
Joseph Aloysius Assemani, Syrian orientalist (b.
1710)
*
February 10 -
Friedrich Christoph Oetinger, German theologian (b.
1702)
*
March 17 -
Daniel Bernoulli, Dutch-born mathematical physicist (b.
1700)
*
April 12 -
Metastasio, Italian poet and librettist (b.
1698)
*
April 27 -
William Talbot, 1st Earl Talbot, English politician (b.
1710)
*
May 15 -
Marquis of Pombal, Portuguese prime minister (b.
1699)
*
May 16 -
Daniel Solander, Swedish botanist (b.
1736)
*
May 20 -
William Emerson, English mathematician (b.
1701)
*May -
Richard Wilson, Welsh painter (b.
1714)
*
July 1 -
Charles Watson-Wentworth, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham,
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b.
1730)
*
July 15 -
Farinelli, Italian castrato (b.
1705)
*
August 31 -
George Croghan, American colonist
*
December 27 -
Henry Home, Lord Kames, Scottish advocate and philosopher (b.
1697)
*December -
Hyder Ali, Indian general and Sultan of Mysore
