istoryworld
Events relating to america
British army officer John André is executed in New York as a spy
Maryland, ratifies the Articles of Confederation (the last state to do so), completing 'the Confederation of the United States'
The Bank of North America is established by the Continental Congress to lend money to the fledgling Revolutionary government
US poet Philip Freneau describes in The British Prison Ship the horrors of his experiences as a prisoner
Ann Lee leads her Shaker colleagues in a missionary tour of New England lasting two years
The British general Charles Cornwallis, isolated at Yorktown, is forced to surrender in the final engagement of the Revolutionary War
Some 40,000 Loyalists flee from British America to the previously French colonies, in particular Nova Scotia
US lexicographer Noah Webster publishes a Spelling Book for American children that eventually will sell more than 60 million copies
20-year-old John Jacob Astor emigrates from Germany to America and sets up in the fur trade
In the Treaty of Paris, negotiated by Adams, Franklin and Jay, the British government recognizes US independence
Benjamin Franklin, irritated at needing two pairs of spectacles, commissions from a lens-grinder the first bifocals
French sculptor Jean Antoine Houdon crosses the Atlantic to sculpt a statue of George Washington from the life at Mount Vernon
US author Philip Freneau publishes his first collection of poems, dating back to 1771
Daniel Shays is the most prominent figure in a violent protest movement by farmers against the government of Massachusetts
The Continental Congress passes the Northwest Ordinance, a plan for the establishment of new states north and west of the Ohio river
Delegates meeting in Philadelphia agree a final draft for a US consitution, to be submitted to the states for ratification
The Federalist Papers, in support of the Constitution and mainly written by Alexander Hamilton, begin appearing in New York
The constitution of the United States is ratified by the states, but it is immediately agreed that amendments will be desirable
Tiradentes (the 'puller of teeth') leads the first rebellion against Portuguese rule in Brazil
George Washington, unanimously elected first president of the United States, is inaugurated on Wall Street in New York
Alexander Hamilton becomes secretary of the treasury in the administration of George Washington, whose federalist views he shares
The autobiography of Olaudah Equiano, a slave captured as a child in Africa, becomes a best-seller on both sides of the Atlantic
Alexander Mackenzie explores by canoe from central Canada through the Great Slave Lake to the Arctic Ocean
US painter and author William Dunlap has great success with his comedy The Father; or, American Shandyism
A second great revivalist movement sweeps northeast America, inspired by the earlier example of Jonathan Edwards
