Person report

★01 Jan 1739
Bouvet Island in the South Atlantic Ocean, the most remote island in the world, was discovered by French explorer Jean-Baptiste Charles Bouvet de Lozier.

★19 Oct 1752
The Pennsylvania Gazette published a statement by Benjamin Franklin describing a kite experiment to determine the electrical nature of lightning.

★05 Aug 1772
Russia, Prussia and Habsburg Austria began the First Partition of Poland to help restore the regional balance of power in Eastern Europe among those three countries.

★23 Mar 1775
American Revolution: Patrick Henry made his "Give me liberty, or give me death!" speech to the House of Burgesses of Virginia, urging military action against the British Empire.

★04 Jul 1776
In Philadelphia, the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, announcing that the thirteen American colonies were no longer a part of the British Empire.

★16 Nov 1776
American Revolutionary War: British and Hessian units captured Fort Washington from the Patriots.

★07 Aug 1782
The Badge of Military Merit, the precursor to the United States' Purple Heart award, was established as a military decoration in the Continental Army.

★10 Jun 1786
A landslide dam on the Dadu River caused by an earthquake ten days earlier was destroyed by an aftershock, causing a flood that killed an estimated 100,000 people.

★21 Mar 1788
A large fire destroyed 856 of the 1,100 structures in New Orleans.

★14 Jul 1789
French Revolution: Parisians stormed the Bastille, freeing its inmates and taking the prison's large quantities of arms and ammunition.

Historical data by Wikipedia Contributors CC BY-SA 3.0.