- 1787
Year 1787 (MDCCLXXXVII) was a
common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of theGregorian calendar (or acommon year starting on Friday of the 11-day slowerJulian calendar ).Events of 1787
January - June
*January 6 -ommissioners to purchase 100 acres of land for the county seat of Chatham County. The town is named Pittsborough (later shortened to Pittsboro) forWilliam Pitt the Younger .
*January 11 -William Herschel discovers Titania and Oberon, 2 moons of Uranus.
*February 4 -Shays' Rebellion fails.
*February 28 - A charter is granted establishing the institution known today as theUniversity of Pittsburgh .
*April 2 - A Charter of Justice is signed providing the authority for the establishment of the first New South Wales (ie Australian) Courts of Criminal and Civil Jurisdiction.
*May 13 - CaptainArthur Phillip leavesPortsmouth ,England with 11 ships full of convicts to establish apenal colony inAustralia .
*May 14 - InPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania , delegates begin arriving to write a new Constitution for theUnited States .
*May 25 - InPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania , delegates begin to convene a Constitutional Convention intended to amend theArticles of Confederation . However, a new Constitution for theUnited States is eventually produced.George Washington presides over the Convention.
*May -Orangist troops attackVreeswijk ,Harmelen andMaarssen ; civil war starts in theNetherlands .
*June 6 - Franklin College, named forBenjamin Franklin , opens inLancaster, Pennsylvania . It later merges with Marshall College to becomeFranklin and Marshall College .
*June 20 -Oliver Ellsworth moves at theFederal Convention that the government be called theUnited States .
*June 28 - Princess Wilhelmina of Orange, sister of Frederick, the king ofPrussia , is captured by patriots and taken toGoejanverwellesluis , and not allowed to travel tothe Hague .July - December
*July 13 - The U.S. Congress enacts theNorthwest Ordinance establishing governing rules for theNorthwest Territory . It also establishes procedures for the admission of new states and limits the expansion ofslavery .
*July 15 - Lord's cricket ground is established and the MCC incorporated.
*August 27 - Launching a 45-foot steam powered craft on the Delaware River, John Fitch demonstrates the first U.S. patent for his design.
*September 13 -Prussia n troops enter theNetherlands . Within a few weeks 40,000 Patriots (out of a population of 2,000,000) go into exile in France (and learn from observation the ideals of theFrench Revolution ).
*September 17 - TheUnited States Constitution is adopted by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.
*October 1 -Russo-Turkish War, 1787-1792 - Battle of Kinburn:Alexander Suvorov , though sustaining a wound, routs the Turks.
*October 27 - The first of the "Federalist Papers ", a series of essays calling for ratification of theU.S. Constitution , is published in aNew York paper.
*October 29 -Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 'sopera "Don Giovanni " (libretto byLorenzo da Ponte ) premieres in theEstates Theatre inPrague .
*December 7 -Delaware ratifies the Constitution and becomes the firstU.S. state .
*December 8 -Mission La Purisima Concepcion is founded by Father Fermín Francisco de Lasuén, becoming the 11 mission in theCalifornia mission chain.
*December 12 -Pennsylvania becomes the secondU.S. state .
*December 18 -New Jersey becomes the thirdU.S. state .Undated
* In Britain,
Thomas Clarkson andGranville Sharp found the "Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade" with support fromJohn Wesley ,Josiah Wedgwood and others.
* TheNorth Carolina General Assembly incorporates Waynesborough and designates it the county seat forWayne County, North Carolina .
* The elementSilicon is first identified byAntoine Lavoisier as a component of the Latin term "Wdy|silex" or "Flint s" (meaning "Hard Rocks").Births
*February 10 - William Bradley, Britain's tallest ever man (d.1820 )
*March 7 -George Bethune English , American explorer and writer (d.1828 )
*March 11 -Ivan Nabokov , Russian General
*March 17 -Edmund Kean , British actor (d.1833 )
*April 26 -Ludwig Uhland , German poet (d.1862 )
*December 10 -Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet , American educator (d.1851 )
*December 16 -Mary Russell Mitford , English novelist and dramatist (d.1855 )Deaths
*February 13
**Rudjer Boscovich , Croatian scientist and diplomat (b.1711 )
**Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes , French statesman and diplomat (b.1717 )
*April 1 -Floyer Sydenham , English classical scholar (b.1710 )
*April 2 -Thomas Gage , British general (b.1719 )
*May 10 - William Watson, English physician and scientist (b.1715 )
*May 28 -Leopold Mozart , Austrian composer (b.1719 )
*June 20 -Carl Friedrich Abel , German composer (b.1723 )
*July 4 -Charles de Rohan, prince de Soubise , Marshal of France (b.1715 )
*August 1 -Alphonsus Liguori , Italian founder of the Redemptionist order (b.1696 )
*October 7 -Henry Muhlenberg , German-born founder of the U.S. Lutheran Church (b.1711 )
*November 3 -Robert Lowth , English bishop and grammarian (b.1710 )
*November 15 -Christoph Willibald Gluck , German composer (b.1714 )
*December 18 -Francis William Drake , British admiral and Governor of Newfoundland (b.1724 )
*December 18 -Soame Jenyns , English writer (b.1704 )
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