1788

• English poet George Gordon, Lord Byron
• French mathematician Jean Victor Poncelet.
• German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer.
• Margaret Mackall Smith, later wife of president Zachary Taylor.
• English architect Thomas Cubitt.
• English writer Richard Barham.
• David G. Burnet, first president of the Republic of Texas.
• French physicist Augustin Fresnel, inventor of the predominant type of lighthouse lens.
• South Carolina journalist and playwright Isaac Harby, one of the founders of American Reform Judaism.
• French archaeologist Jacques de Perthes.
• American architect William Strickland.
• Norwegian painter Johan Christian Dahl.
• German poet Joseph Eichendorff.
• American journalist Sarah Josepha Hale, author of "Mary Had a Little Lamb".
• English politician Robert Peel, prime minister (1834-1835), (1841-1846),

• French mathematician Comte Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon
• English painter Thomas Gainsborough.
• English author Mary Delany.
• German composer Carl Philip Emmanuel Bach.
• English hymnist Charles Wesley, brother of John Wesley.
• Carlos III, king of Spain.
• French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
• English politician George Montagu, champion ofthe American colonies in Parliament.
• Infamous Japanese politician Tanuma Okitsugu.
• English novelist Eliza Haywood.

• A fleet carrying convicts arrives at Botany Bay in Australia.
• Poland convenes an assembly of "Sejm" to reform the government, in hopes of preventing further dismemberment by Prussia, Austria, and Russia.
• Food riots in France.  The Estates-General meets for the first time since 1614.
• A large (~8.0) earthquake strikes southern Alaska.  The resulting tsunami kills an unknown (but large) number of people.
• A fire destroys most of New Orleans.
• Several states ratify the United States Constitution:
• (January 9) Connecticut
• (February 6) Massachusetts
• (April 28) Maryland
• (May 23) South Carolina
• (June 21) New Hampshire
• (June 25) Virginia
• (July 26) New York
• George Washington is elected the first President of the United States. Washington receives 69 electoral votes to John Adams' 34.  Adams becomes the first vice-president.
• A settlement which will later become Cincinnati is founded in Ohio.

1787 - 1788 - 1789