1778 - Definition and Overview

Events

• "The term Thoroughbred was first used in the United States in an advertisement in a Kentucky gazette to describe a New Jersey stallion called Pilgarlick .
• January 18 - Third Pacific expedition of Capt. James Cook, with ships HMS Resolution and HMS Discovery, first view O'ahu then Kaua'i in the Hawaiian Islands, 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 recognition of the new republic.
• February 23 - American Revolutionary War: Baron von Steuben arrives at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania to help to train the Continental Army
• July 10 - American Revolutionary War: Louis XVI of France declares war on the Kingdom of Great Britain.
• July 27 - American Revolution: First Battle of Ushant - British and French fleets fight to a standoff.
• September - The Massachusetts Banishment Act, providing punishment for Loyalists, is passed.
• November 26 - In the Hawaiian Islands, Captain James Cook becomes the first European to discover Maui.
• France Introduced the first state-controlled brothel

Births

• February 22 - Rembrandt Peale, artist
• April 10 - William Hazlitt - English essayist
• September 19 - Henry Peter Brougham, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain
• November 1 - Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden
• December 17 - Sir Humphry Davy - English chemist
• Abd ar-Rahman, sultan of Morocco.

Deaths

• January 10 - Carolus Linnaeus
• May 30 - François-Marie Arouet dit Voltaire, French philosopher
• June 28 - Jean-Jacques Rousseau, philosopher
• July 3 - Anna Maria Mozart, mother of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
• November 9 - Giovanni Battista Piranesi, artist