1781 in Great Britain
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Events from the year 1781 in the Kingdom of Great Britain.
Contents |
Incumbents
- Monarch - George III of the United Kingdom
- Prime Minister - Frederick North, Lord North, Tory
Events
- 1 January - Industrial Revolution: The Iron Bridge opens across the River Severn.[1]
- 5 January - American Revolutionary War: Richmond, Virginia is burned by British naval forces led by Benedict Arnold.
- 6 January - British forces defeat the French at the Battle of Jersey.
- 17 January - American Revolutionary War: Americans under Daniel Morgan defeat British forces at the Battle of Cowpens.[2]
- January - William Pitt the Younger, later Prime Minister, enters Parliament.
- 3 February - American Revolutionary War: Admiral Rodney captures the island of Sint Eustatius.[1]
- 13 March - Sir William Herschel discovers the planet Uranus.[2]Originally he calls it Georgium Sidus (George's Star) in honour of King George III.
- 15 March - American Revolutionary War: American General Nathanael Greene loses Battle of Guilford Court House to British.[2]
- 1 July - Second Anglo-Mysore War: At the Battle of Porto Novo, the British defeat the Mysore ruler Hyder Ali.[1]
- 6 July - American Revolutionary War: At the Battle of Green Spring, the British led by Lord Cornwallis defeats the French led by marquis de La Fayette.[1]
- 27 July - French spy Francis Henry de la Motte executed in Tyburn prison in London for high treason.
- 30 August - American Revolutionary War: French fleet under Comte de Grasse enters Chesapeake Bay, cutting British General Charles Cornwallis off from escape by sea.
- 5 September - American Revolutionary War: In the Battle of the Chesapeake, a British fleet under Thomas Graves arrives and fights de Grasse, but to no effect.[1]
- 6 September - American Revolutionary War: The British army attacks a fort in Groton, Connecticut which became known as the Battle of Groton Heights.
- 19 October - American Revolutionary War: Following the Siege of Yorktown, General Charles Cornwallis surrenders to General George Washington at Yorktown, Virginia, ending the armed struggle of the American Revolutionary War.[1]
- 29 November
- Zong Massacre: A British slave-trader orders that 133 slaves be thrown overboard from his vessel and then attempts to reclaim their value from insurers.[3]
- Henry Hurle officially founds the Ancient Order of Druids(AOD) in London.
- 12 December - French and British fleets fight in the Second Battle of Ushant.
Publications
- Volumes 2 and 3 of Edward Gibbon's The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.[1]
Births
- 29 May - John Walker, inventor (died 1859)
- 9 June - George Stephenson, engineer (died 1848)
- 6 July - Thomas Stamford Raffles, founder of Singapore (died 1826)
- 6 November - Lucy Aikin, English writer (died 1864)
- 30 November - Alexander Berry, adventurer and Australian pioneer (died 1873)
- 11 December - Sir David Brewster, physicist (died 1868)
Deaths
- 12 January - Richard Challoner, English Catholic prelate (born 1691)
- 24 February - Edward Capell, critic (born 1713)
- 23 April - James Abercrombie, general (born 1706)
- 8 May - Richard Jago, poet (born 1715)
- 28 September - William Henry Nassau de Zuylestein, 4th Earl of Rochford, diplomat and statesman (born 1717)
- 16 October - Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke, naval officer (born 1705)
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Williams, Hywel (2005). Cassell's Chronology of World History. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp. 333–334. ISBN 0-304-35730-8.
- ^ a b c Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. 2006. ISBN 0-141-02715-0.
- ^ "BBC History British History Timeline". http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/launch_tl_british.shtml. Retrieved on 2007-09-03.
See also
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