Born in 1787:
Died in 1787:
Events of 1787:
-
(January 15) Daniel Shays attempts to storm Springfield,
Massachusetts, but government soldiers put down the uprising.
-
(May 13) The first fleet of transportee convicts bound for Botany Bay in Australia leaves Portsmouth,
England.
-
(July 13) The Continental Congress passes the Northwest Ordinance laying out the future division of the Northwest Territory and making manifest the intent to settle this area.
-
Representatives from the thirteen United States meet in Philadelphia
assemble to work out a stronger form of central government than exists
under the Articles of Confederation, which is wreaking havoc on the states'
economies. the United States Constitution is passed on September
17.
-
Several states ratify the Constitution quickly:
-
Jeremy Bentham writes a Defence of Usury in a letter to a Russian colleague.
-
If the economy of the United States seems like a basket case, the finances
of France are little better. An Assembly of Notables convenes
to work out reforms, but this dissolves after failing to agree on anything.
In December, King Louis XVI takes the extreme measure of calling the Estates
General.
-
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera Le Nozze di
Figaro premieres in Vienna, but is pulled from the stage, reportedly
because of a prohibited ballet sequence in the third act.
-
Progressives in The Netherlands try to overthrow the oligarchy controlling
the country; however, a Prussian army invades and restores the status
quo.
-
Austria and Russia declare war on the Ottoman Empire.
-
William Herschel discovers two satellites orbiting the planet Uranus.
They are later named Oberon and Titania.
-
John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton publish a series of essays in the New York press under the pseudonym "Publius". These are collected in book form next year as the Federalist Papers.
- German bookseller Gottfried Grosse writes "Pandeism" in the margins of Pliny the Elder's Natural History to name to his interpretation of what Pliny was writing there (and inadvertenly coining Pandeism Fish's favorite word).
1786 - 1787 - 1788
How they Were Made - 18th Century