Person report

★25 Aug 1758
Seven Years' War: Prussian forces engaged the Russians at the Battle of Zorndorf in present-day Sarbinowo, Poland.

★25 Dec 1758
Based on predictions by Edmond Halley in 1705, Johann Georg Palitzsch observed a comet that was later named Halley's Comet.

★21 Sep 1776
American Revolutionary War: The Great Fire of New York broke out during British occupation of New York City, destroying up to 1,000 buildings.

★02 Jan 1777
American Revolutionary War: American forces under the command of George Washington repulsed a British attack at the Battle of the Assunpink Creek near Trenton, New Jersey.

★19 Oct 1781
American Revolutionary War: British forces led by Lord Cornwallis officially surrendered to Franco-American forces under George Washington and the Comte de Rochambeau, ending the Siege of Yorktown.

★08 Jun 1783
Laki, a volcanic fissure in Iceland, began an eight-month eruption, triggering a major famine and causing massive fluoride poisoning.

★26 Jan 1788
Captain Arthur Phillip and the British First Fleet landed at Sydney Cove on the shore of Port Jackson in present-day Sydney, establishing the first permanent European settlement in Australia.

★14 Jul 1791
The Priestley Riots began, in which Joseph Priestley and other religious Dissenters were driven out of Birmingham, England.

★11 Jul 1801
French astronomer Jean-Louis Pons co-discovered the first of his 37 comets, more than any other person in history.

★02 Jul 1816
The French frigate Méduse ran aground off the coast of today's Mauritania, with the survivors escaping on a makeshift raft, which was depicted in Théodore Géricault's painting The Raft of the Medusa.

Historical data by Wikipedia Contributors CC BY-SA 3.0.