- 1781 in Great Britain
Events from the year
1781 in theKingdom of Great Britain .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 theRiver Severn .cite book|last=Williams|first=Hywel|title=Cassell's Chronology of World History|publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson|year=2005|isbn=0-304-35730-8|pages=333–334]
*5 January -American Revolutionary War :Richmond, Virginia is burned by British naval forces led byBenedict Arnold .
*6 January - British forces defeat the French at theBattle of Jersey .
*17 January - American Revolutionary War: Americans underDaniel Morgan defeat British forces at theBattle of Cowpens .cite book|title=Penguin Pocket On This Day|publisher=Penguin Reference Library|isbn=0-141-02715-0|year=2006]
* January -William Pitt the Younger , later Prime Minister, enters Parliament.
*3 February - American Revolutionary War: Admiral Rodney captures the island ofSint Eustatius .
*13 March - SirWilliam Herschel discovers theplanet Uranus.Originally he calls it "Georgium Sidus" (George's Star) in honour of King George III.
*15 March - American Revolutionary War: American GeneralNathanael Greene losesBattle of Guilford Court House to British.
*1 July -Second Anglo-Mysore War : At the Battle ofPorto Novo , the British defeat the Mysore rulerHyder Ali .
*6 July - American Revolutionary War: At theBattle of Green Spring , the British led by Lord Cornwallis defeats the French led by marquis de La Fayette.
*27 July - Frenchspy Francis Henry de la Motte executed in Tyburn prison inLondon forhigh treason .
*30 August - American Revolutionary War: French fleet underComte de Grasse entersChesapeake Bay , cutting British GeneralCharles Cornwallis off from escape by sea.
*5 September - American Revolutionary War: In theBattle of the Chesapeake , a British fleet underThomas Graves arrives and fights de Grasse, but to no effect.
*6 September - American Revolutionary War: The British army attacks a fort inGroton, Connecticut which became known as theBattle of Groton Heights .
*19 October - American Revolutionary War: Following theSiege of Yorktown , GeneralCharles Cornwallis surrenders to GeneralGeorge Washington atYorktown, Virginia , ending the armed struggle of the American Revolutionary War.
*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. [cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/launch_tl_british.shtml|title=BBC History British History Timeline|accessdate=2007-09-03]
** Henry Hurle officially founds theAncient Order of Druids (AOD) in London.
*12 December - French and British fleets fight in theSecond Battle of Ushant .Publications
* Volumes 2 and 3 of
Edward Gibbon 's "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire ".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 - SirDavid 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
ee also
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