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. July 27 - French spy Francis Henry de la Motte executed in Tyburn prison in England for High treason 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 . Births January 26 - Achim von Arnim , German writer (d. 1831 ) January 30 - Adelbert von Chamisso , German writer (d. 1838 ) February 17 - Rene Theophile Hyacinthe Laennec , French physician and inventor (d. 1826 ) March 4 - Rebecca Gratz , American educator and philanthropist (d. 1869 ) March 13 - Karl Friedrich Schinkel , German architect and painter (d. 1841 ) June 9 - George Stephenson , English engineer (d. 1848 ) June 21 - Siméon-Denis Poisson , French mathematician and physicist (d. 1840 ) July 6 - Thomas Stamford Raffles , English founder of Singapore (d. 1826 ) July 6 - John D. Sloat , American naval officer (d. 1867 ) July 27 - Mauro Giuliani , Italian composer (d. 1828 ) September 3 - Eugène de Beauharnais , French nobleman, son of Napoleon's wife Josephine (d. 1824 ) September 6 - Anton Diabelli , Austrian music publisher, editor, and composer (d. 1858 ) October 1 - James Lawrence , U.S. Navy officer (d. 1813 ) November 6 - Lucy Aikin , English writer (d. 1864 ) November 20 - Karl Friedrich Eichhorn , German jurist (d. 1854 ) November 29 - Andrés Bello , Venezuelan poet, lawmaked, teacher, philosopher and sociologist (d. 1865 ) November 30 - Alexander Berry , Scottish adventurer and Australian pioneer (d. 1873 ) December 11 - Sir David Brewster , Scottish physicist (d. 1868 ) William Williams of Wern , minister (d. 1840 ) Deaths January 12 - Richard Challoner , English Catholic prelate (b. 1691 ) January 15 - Marianne Victoria of Borbón , queen regent of Portugal (b. 1718 ) February 15 - Gotthold Ephraim Lessing , German author and philosopher (b. 1729 ) February 23 - George Taylor , American signer of the Declaration of Independence February 24 - Edward Capell , English critic (b. 1713 ) March 18 - Anne Robert Jacques Turgot, Baron de Laune , French statesman and economist (b. 1727 ) April 23 - James Abercrombie , British general (b. 1706 ) May 8 - Richard Jago , English poet (b. 1715 ) May 27 - Giovanni Battista Beccaria , Italian physicist (b. 1716 ) July 18 - Padre Francisco Garcés , Spanish missionary (killed) (b. 1738 ) September 28 - William Henry Nassau de Zuylestein, 4th Earl of Rochford , British diplomat and statesman (b. 1717 ) October 16 - Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke , British naval officer (b. 1705 ) November 4 - Johann Nikolaus Götz , German poet (b. 1721 ) Peter Scheemakers , Flemish sculptor (b. 1691 )