This Year in History:
1780
Discover what happened in this year with HISTORY’s summaries of major events, anniversaries, famous births and notable deaths.
British Admiral Sir George Rodney, with 18 ships‑of‑the‑line, engages an inferior Spanish squadron of 11 battleships commanded by Don Juan de Langara off the southwestern coast of Portugal at Cape…
In one of the most famous crimes of post‑Revolution America, Barnett Davenport commits a mass murder in rural Connecticut. Caleb Mallory, his wife, daughter‑in‑law, and two grandchildren were killed in…
After a siege that began on April 2, 1780, Americans suffer their worst defeat of the revolution on May 12, 1780, with the unconditional surrender of Major General Benjamin Lincoln…
On May 29, 1780, the treatment of Patriot prisoners by British Colonel Banastre Tarleton and his Loyalist troops leads to the coining of a phrase that comes to define British…
On this day in 1780, the reviled former royal governor of Massachusetts, Thomas Hutchinson, who served from 1771 to 1774, dies in Brompton, England. In one of American history’s great…
On this day in 1780, Philadelphia lawyer Captain Christian Huck and 130 Loyalist cavalry, belonging to British Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton’s legion, suffer defeat at the hands of 500 Patriot…
On this day in 1780, General “Mad Anthony” Wayne leads two brigades of Pennsylvania militia, supported by four artillery pieces, in an attempt to destroy a fortified blockhouse located approximately…
On this day in 1780, American General Horatio Gates takes command of the southern army from Major General Johann DeKalb at Coxe’s Mill, North Carolina. When Gates took command, the…
On this day in 1780, Colonel Isaac Shelby and 600 Patriots take Fort Anderson, also known as Fort Thicketty, located 10 miles southeast of Cowpens, South Carolina, and held by…
On August 15, 1780, American Lieutenant Colonel Francis Marion, the “Swamp Fox,” and his irregular cavalry force of 250 rout a party of Loyalists commanded by Major Micajah Gainey at…
On this day in 1780, American General Horatio Gates suffers a humiliating defeat at Camden, South Carolina. Despite the fact that his men suffered from diarrhea on the night of…
On this day in 1780, following the Continental Army’s disastrous loss two days earlier at the Battle of Camden, two bloody engagements leave the Loyalist and Patriot forces each with…
On this day in 1780, Patriot Francis Marion’s Carolina militia routs Loyalists at Blue Savannah, South Carolina, and in the process Marion wins new recruits to the Patriot cause. Following…
On September 21, 1780, during the American Revolution, American General Benedict Arnold meets with British Major John Andre to discuss handing over West Point to the British, in return for…
British spy John André is court‑martialed, found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging on September 29, 1780. André, an accomplice of Benedict Arnold, had been captured by Patriots John…
During the American War for Independence, British Major John AndrÉ is hanged as a spy by U.S. military forces in Tappan, New York. Ten days before, AndrÉ had been apprehended…
Thirty‑year‑old British Major John Andre is hanged as a spy by U.S. military forces in Tappan, New York, on October 2, 1780. Andre, an accomplice of Benedict Arnold, had been…
During the American Revolution, Patriot irregulars under Colonel William Campbell defeat Tories under Major Patrick Ferguson at the Battle of King’s Mountain. Major Ferguson’s Tory force, made up mostly of…
Patriot militia under Colonel William Campbell defeat Loyalist militia under Major Patrick Ferguson at the Battle of King’s Mountain in North Carolina near the border with Blacksburg, South Carolina, on…
A powerful storm slams the islands of the West Indies, killing more than 20,000 people, on this day in 1780. Known as the Great Hurricane of 1780, it was the…
