1788 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar).

Events

• January 1 - First edition of The Times, previously The Daily Universal Register, was published.
• January 2 - Georgia ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 4th U.S. state.
• January 9 - Connecticut ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 5th U.S. state.
• January 18 - Captain Arthur Phillip's ship arrives at Botany Bay
• January 22 - Cyrus Griffin becomes the tenth and last President of the United States in Congress Assembled.
• January 26 - Captain Arthur Phillip decides to make the permanent settlement at Sydney Cove
• January 26 - Australia Day: 11 ships of First Fleet from Botany Bay led by Arthur Phillip land in what would become Sydney, Australia. Great Britain establishes the prison colony of New South Wales, the first permanent European settlement on the continent.
• January 31 - Henry Benedict Stuart becomes the new Stuart claimant to the throne of Great Britain as King Henry IX and the figurehead of Jacobitism.
• February 1 - Isaac Briggs and William Longstreet patent the steamboat.
• February 6 - Massachusetts ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 6th U.S. state.
• February 9 - Austria enters the Russo-Turkish War of 1787-1792 and attacks Moldavia.
• 17 February - the uninhabited Lord Howe Island was discovered by the brig HMS Supply, commanded by Lieutenant Ball, who was on his way from Botany Bay to Norfolk Island with convicts to start a penal settlement there.
• March 14 - The Edinburgh Evening Courant carries a notice of £200 reward for capture of William Brodie, town councilor doubling as a burglar
• March 21 - A fire destroys 856 buildings in New Orleans leaving most of the town in ruins and twenty five percent of the population dead.
• April 28 - Maryland ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 7th U.S. state.
• May 23 - South Carolina ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 8th U.S. state.
• June 21 - New Hampshire ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 9th U.S. state. The Constitution then went into effect.
• June 25 - Virginia ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 10th U.S. state.
• July 26 - New York ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 11th U.S. state.
• August 8 - The French king agreed to convene the Estates-General meeting in May of 1789. It was the first time since 1614.
• August 27 - Trial of William Brodie begins in Edinburgh, Scotland. He is sentenced to death by hanging
• October 1 - William Brodie hanged
• December 6 - Russo-Turkish War, 1787-1792: The Ottoman fortress of Ochakov falls to the Russians after a prolonged siege and a murderous storm at the temperature of -23 C.
• December 14 - King Charles III of Spain dies and is succeeded by his son Charles IV of Spain.

• "Battle" of Karansebes - Forces of Joseph II of Austria marching against Turks rout for nothing in Karansebes

Births

• January 22 - George Gordon, Lord Byron, English poet (d. 1824)
• February 5 - Robert Peel, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1850)
• February 22 - Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher (d. 1860)
• March 10 - Joseph von Eichendorff, German poet (d. 1857)
• April 14 - David G. Burnet, President of the Republic of Texas (d, 1870)
• May 16 - Friedrich Rückert, German poet, translator, and professor of Oriental languages (d. 1866)
• May 22 - William Grant Broughton, First Anglican bishop in Australia (d. 1853)
• August 16 - Luigi Ciacchi, Italian cardinal (d. 1865)
• September 12 - Alexander Campbell, Irish/US founder of the Disciples of Christ (d. 1866)
• September 22 - Theodore Edward Hook, English author (d. 1841)
• October 11 - Simon Sechter, Austrian music teacher
• October 24 - Sarah Josepha Hale, American author (d. 1879)
• Juan Facundo Quiroga, Argentine federationalist

Deaths

• January 14 - François Joseph Paul, marquis de Grasetilly, comte de Grasse, French admiral (b. 1722)
• January 31 - Charles Edward Stuart, claimant to the British throne (b. 1720)
• February 18 - John Whitehurst, English clockmaker and scientist (b. 1713)
• February 21 - Johann Georg Palitzsch, German astronomer (b. 1723)
• February 28 - Thomas Cushing, American Continental Congressman (b. 1725)
• April 12 - Carlo Antonio Campioni, French-born composer (b. 1719)
• April 15 - Giuseppe Bonno, Austrian composer (b. 1711)
• April 16 - Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, French naturalist (b. 1707)
• May 8 - Giovanni Antonio Scopoli, Italian-born physician and naturalist (b. 1723)
• June 18 - Adam Gib, Scottish religious leader (b. 1714)
• August 2 - Thomas Gainsborough, British painter (b. 1727)
• October 13 - Robert Nugent, 1st Earl Nugent, Irish politician and poet (b. 1702)
• October 15 - Samuel Greig, Scottish-Russian Admiral (b. 1735)
• December 6 - Jonathan Shipley, English bishop and politician (b. 1714)
• December 14 - Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, German composer (b. 1714)
• December 14 - King Charles III of Spain (b. 1716)
• December 22 - Percivall Pott, English surgeon (b. 1714)

1788

1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788년 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788年 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | พ.ศ. 2331 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788 | 1788年