1778

Millennium:	2nd millennium
Centuries:	17th century – 18th century – 19th century
Decades:	1740s  1750s  1760s  – 1770s –   1780s   1790s   1800s
Years:	1775 1776 1777 – 1778 – 1779 1780 1781

1778 by topic:

Arts and Sciences

Archaeology – Architecture – Art – Literature ( Poetry) – Music – Science

Countries

Canada – Great Britain – United States

Lists of leaders

Colonial governors – State leaders

Birth and death categories

Births – Deaths

Establishments and disestablishments categories

Establishments – Disestablishments

Works category

Works

1778 in other calendars

Gregorian calendar	1778 MDCCLXXVIII
Ab urbe condita	2531
Armenian calendar	1227 ԹՎ ՌՄԻԷ
Assyrian calendar	6528
Bahá'í calendar	-66–-65
Bengali calendar	1185
Berber calendar	2728
British Regnal year	18 Geo. 3 – 19 Geo. 3
Buddhist calendar	2322
Burmese calendar	1140
Byzantine calendar	7286–7287
Chinese calendar	丁酉年十二月初三日 (4414/4474-12-3) — to — 戊戌年十一月十三日 (4415/4475-11-13)
Coptic calendar	1494–1495
Ethiopian calendar	1770–1771
Hebrew calendar	5538–5539
Hindu calendars
- Vikram Samvat	1834–1835
- Shaka Samvat	1700–1701
- Kali Yuga	4879–4880
Holocene calendar	11778
Igbo calendar
- Ǹrí Ìgbò	778–779
Iranian calendar	1156–1157
Islamic calendar	1191–1192
Japanese calendar	An'ei 7 (安永7年)
Juche calendar	N/A (before 1912)
Julian calendar	Gregorian minus 11 days
Korean calendar	4111
Minguo calendar	134 before ROC 民前134年
Thai solar calendar	2321

Year 1778 (MDCCLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Monday of the 11-day slower Julian calendar.

Events

January–June

• January 18 – Third voyage of James Cook: Captain James Cook, with ships HMS Resolution and HMS Discovery, first views Oahu then Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands of the Pacific Ocean, which he names the Sandwich Islands.
• February 5 – South Carolina becomes the first state to ratify the Articles of Confederation.
• February 6 – American Revolutionary War: In Paris the Treaty of Alliance and the Treaty of Amity and Commerce are signed by the United States and France, signaling official French recognition of the new republic.
• February 23 – American Revolutionary War: Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben arrives at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania and begins to train the American troops.
• March 6– October 24 – Captain Cook explores and maps the Pacific Northwest coast of North America from Cape Foulweather (Oregon) to the Bering Strait.
• March 10 – American Revolutionary War: George Washington approves the dishonorable discharge of Lieut. Frederick Gotthold Enslin for "attempting to commit sodomy, with John Monhort a soldier".
• May 30 – Benedict Arnold signs US oath of allegiance at Valley Forge
• June 24 – A total solar eclipse takes place across parts of USA from Texas to Virginia.
• June 28 – American Revolutionary War – Battle of Monmouth: George Washington's Continental Army battles the British general Sir Henry Clinton's army to a draw near Monmouth, New Jersey.

July–December

• July 3 – American Revolutionary War: the Wyoming Massacre takes place near Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, ending in a terrible defeat of the local colonists.
• July 4 – American Revolutionary War: George Rogers Clark takes Kaskaskia.
• July 10 – Louis XVI of France declares war on the Kingdom of Great Britain.
• July 27 – American Revolutionary War – First Battle of Ushant: British and French fleets fight to a standoff.
• August 26 – Triglav, at 2,864 meters above sea level the highest peak of Slovenia, is ascended for the first time by four men: Luka Korošec, Matevž Kos, Štefan Rožič, and Lovrenc Willomitzer on Sigmund Zois' initiative.
• August 29 – American Revolutionary War: The tactically inconclusive Battle of Rhode Island takes place, after which the Continental Army abandons its position on Aquidneck Island.
• September – The Massachusetts Banishment Act, providing punishment for Loyalists, is passed.
• September 17 – The Treaty of Fort Pitt is signed, the first formal treaty between the United States and a Native American tribe (the Lenape or Delaware).
• September 19 – The Continental Congress passes the first budget of the United States.
• November 26 – In the Hawaiian Islands, Captain James Cook becomes the first European to land on Maui.

Date unknown

• The first settlement is made in the area of what is now Louisville, Kentucky, by 13 families under Colonel George Rogers Clark.
• Phillips Academy, the most prestigious secondary boarding school in the United States, is founded by Samuel Phillips Jr.
• The term " thoroughbred" is first used in the United States in an advertisement in a Kentucky gazette to describe a New Jersey stallion called Pilgarlick.

Births

• January 3 – Antoni Melchior Fijałkowski, Polish bishop (d. 1861)
• January 27 – Andrew Sterett, American naval officer (d. 1807)
• February 14 – Fernando Sor, Spanish Composer & Guitarist (d. 1839)
• February 22 – Rembrandt Peale, American artist (d. 1860)
• March 19 – Edward Pakenham, British general (d. 1815)
• April 10 – William Hazlitt, English essayist (d. 1830)
• May 18 – Charles Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry, British politician (d. 1854)
• August 11 – Friedrich Ludwig Jahn, German patriot (d. 1852)
• September 8 – Clemens Brentano, German poet (d. 1842)
• September 19 – Henry Peter Brougham, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (d. 1868)
• October 11 – George Bridgetower, Afro-Polish violinist (d. 1860)
• November 1 – Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden (d. 1837)
• November 23 – Samuel Humphreys, American naval architect (d. 1846)
• November 25 – Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck, British Christian writer (d. 1856)
• December 17 – Sir Humphry Davy, English chemist (d. 1829)
• December 19 – Marie Thérèse Charlotte (d. 1851)
• December 28 – Franciszek Ksawery Drucki-Lubecki, Polish politician (d. 1846)
• date unknown – Sardar Fath 'Ali Khan, Wazir-i-azam of Kabul (d. 1818)

Deaths

• January 10 – Carl Linnaeus, Swedish botanist (b. 1707)
• February 18 – Joseph Marie Terray, French statesman (b. 1715)
• February 20 – Laura Bassi, Italian scholar (b. 1711)
• March 5 – Thomas Arne, English composer of Rule, Britannia! (b. 1710)
• March 7 – Charles De Geer, Swedish industrialist and entomologist (b. 1720)
• March 13 – Charles le Beau, French historian (b. 1701)
• April 22 – James Hargreaves, English weaver, carpenter, and inventor (b. 1720)
• May 11 – William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1708)
• May 16 – Robert Darcy, 4th Earl of Holderness, English diplomat and politician (b. 1718)
• May 30 – Voltaire, French philosopher (b. 1694)
• June 12 – Philip Livingston, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1716)
• June 16 – Konrad Ekhof, German actor (b. 1720)
• June 24 – Pieter Burman the Younger, Dutch philologist (b. 1714)
• July 2 – Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Swiss philosopher (b. 1712)
• July 2 – Bathsheba Spooner, American murderer (b. c. 1746)
• July 3 – Anna Maria Mozart, Austrian mother to the Mozarts (b. 1720)
• July 5 – James Townley, English dramatist (b. 1714)
• August 5 – Charles Clémencet, French historian (b. 1703)
• August 12 – Peregrine Bertie, 3rd Duke of Ancaster and Kesteven, British general and politician (b. 1714)
• November 9 – Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Italian artist (b. 1720)
• November 20 – Francesco Cetti, Italian Jesuit scientist (b. 1726)
• date unknown – Tomas Johnson, furniture maker (b. 1714)