This Year in History:
1783
Discover what happened in this year with HISTORY’s summaries of major events, anniversaries, famous births and notable deaths.
The estimated 7.5 to 8.0‑magnitude quake struck at about 1 p.m. in the Calabria province. Within a minute, over 100 villages were leveled throughout the region. In several cases, communities…
On the morning of March 15, 1783, General George Washington makes a surprise appearance at an assembly of army officers at Newburgh, New York, to calm the growing frustration and…
On this day in 1783, the Continental Congress of the United States officially ratifies the preliminary peace treaty with Great Britain that was signed in November 1782. The congressional move…
About 2 a.m. on the morning of April 17, 1783, British Captain James Colbert, along with a group of 82 British partisans, launches a surprise attack on the Arkansas post…
On May 18, 1783, the first United Empire Loyalists, known to American Patriots as Tories, arrive in Canada to take refuge under the British crown in Parrtown, Saint John, Nova…
Hearing arguments in the case of the Zong, a slave ship, the Chief Justice of the King’s Bench in London states that a massacre of enslaved African “was the same…
The American Revolution officially comes to an end when representatives of the United States, Great Britain, Spain and France sign the Treaty of Paris on September 3, 1783. The signing…
On November 15, 1783, John Hanson, the first president of the Continental Congress under the Articles of Confederation, dies in his home state of Maryland. Hanson is sometimes called the…
French physician Jean‑François Pilatre de Rozier and François Laurent, the marquis d’ Arlandes, make the first untethered hot‑air balloon flight, flying 5.5 miles over Paris in about 25 minutes. Their…
On November 25, 1783, nearly three months after the Treaty of Paris was signed ending the American Revolution, the last British soldiers withdraw from New York City, the last British…
Nearly three months after the Treaty of Paris was signed ending the American Revolution, the last British soldiers withdraw from New York City, their last military position in the United…
On December 4, 1783, future President George Washington, then commanding general of the Continental Army, summons his military officers to Fraunces Tavern in New York City to inform them that…
On this day in 1783, Virginia cedes the vast territory it had previously claimed by right of colonial charter to the federal government of the United States. The Ohio Valley…
On December 23, 1783, following the signing of the Treaty of Paris, General George Washington resigns as commander in chief of the Continental Army and retires to his home at…
