1787

File:Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States.jpg

September 17: The United States Constitution is signed by delegates of the 13 member states in Philadelphia.

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Events

January–March

January 9 – The North Carolina General Assembly authorizes nine commissioners to purchase Template:Convert of land for the seat of Chatham County. The town is named Pittsborough (later shortened to Pittsboro), for William Pitt the Younger.
January 11 – William Herschel discovers Titania and Oberon, two moons of Uranus.
January 19 – Mozart's Symphony No. 38 is premièred in Prague.
February 2 – Arthur St. Clair of Pennsylvania is chosen as the new President of the Congress of the Confederation.^[1]
February 4 – Shays' Rebellion in Massachusetts fails.
February 21 – The Confederation Congress sends word to the 13 states that a convention will be held in Philadelphia on May 14 to revise the Articles of Confederation.^[1]
February 28 – A charter is granted, establishing the institution which will become the University of Pittsburgh.
March 3 – By a vote of 33 to 29, Harrisburg is approved as the new capital of Pennsylvania.^[2]
March 17 – The Bank of North America, the central bank of the United States government under the Articles of Confederation, is re-incorporated after its charter had expired in 1786.^[2]^[3]
March 28 – In the British House of Commons, Henry Beaufoy files the first motion to repeal the Test Act 1673, which restricts the rights of non-members of the Church of England.;^[4] Beaufoy's motion is rejected, and the Act is not repealed until 1829.
March 30 – Biblical theology becomes a separate discipline from biblical studies, as Johann Philipp Gabler delivers his speech "On the proper distinction between biblical and dogmatic theology and the specific objectives of each" upon his inauguration as the professor of theology at the University of Altdorf in Germany.^[5]

April–June

April 2 – A Charter of Justice is signed, providing the authority for the establishment of the first New South Wales (i.e. Australian) Courts of Criminal and Civil Jurisdiction.
May 7 – The New Church (Swedenborgian) is founded in England.
May 13 – Captain Arthur Phillip leaves Portsmouth, England, with the 11 ships of the First Fleet, carrying around 700 convicts and at least 300 crew and guards to establish a penal colony in Australia.
May 14 – In Philadelphia, delegates begin arriving for a Constitutional Convention.^[1]
May 22 – In Britain, Thomas Clarkson and Granville Sharp found the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade, with support from John Wesley, Josiah Wedgwood and others.
May 25 – In Philadelphia, delegates begin to convene the Constitutional Convention, intended to amend the Articles of Confederation (however, a new United States Constitution is eventually produced). George Washington presides over the Convention.
May – Orangist troops attack Vreeswijk, Harmelen and Maarssen; civil war starts in the Dutch Republic.
May 31 – The original Lord's Cricket Ground in London holds its first cricket match;^[6] Marylebone Cricket Club founded.^[7]
June 20 – Oliver Ellsworth moves at the Federal Convention that the government be called the United States.
June 28 – Princess Wilhelmina of Orange, sister of King Frederick William II of Prussia, is captured by Dutch Republican patriots, taken to Goejanverwellesluis and not allowed to travel to The Hague.

July–September

July 13 – The Congress of the Confederation enacts the Northwest Ordinance, establishing governing rules for the Northwest Territory (the future states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin). It also establishes procedures for the admission of new states, and limits the expansion of slavery.^[1]
July 18 – The United States ratifies its first treaty with the Sultanate of Morocco.^[1]
August 9 – South Carolina cedes to the United States its claims to a 12-mile wide strip of land that runs across northern Alabama and Mississippi.^[1]
August 10 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composes his famous Eine kleine Nachtmusik.
August 27 – Launching a Template:Convert steam powered craft on the Delaware River, John Fitch demonstrates the first U.S. patent for his design.
September 13 – Prussian troops invade the Dutch Republic; two days later the Rhinegrave Salm gave up Utrecht. Within a few weeks 40,000 Patriots (out of a population of 2,000,000) go into exile in Northern France.
September 17 – The United States Constitution is signed by the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.^[1]
September 24 – Washington Academy (later Washington & Jefferson College) is chartered by the Pennsylvania General Assembly.^[8]