Year 1780 (MDCCLXXX) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Wednesday of the 11-day slower Julian calendar).

Events of 1780

January - June

• January 16 - American Revolutionary War: Battle of Cape St. Vincent.
• February - League of Armed Neutrality alliance formed between Denmark, Sweden, and Russia.
• February 29 - The Omicron Delta Omega co-ed fraternity founded by Benjamin Franklin.
• March 8 - Formation of the League of Armed Neutrality is soon followed by the start of the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War.
• March 26 - The British Gazette and Sunday Monitor, the first Sunday newspaper in Britain.
• April 16 - The University of Münster in Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany is founded.
• May 12 - American Revolutionary War: Charleston, South Carolina is taken by British forces.

May 29: Waxhaw Massacre in America.

• May 19 - New England's Dark Day
• May 29 - American Revolutionary War: Loyalist forces under Col. Banastre Tarleton kill surrendering American soldiers in the Waxhaw Massacre.
• June 2 - Gordon Riots in London, Great Britain. The Duke of Richmond calls, in the House of Lords, for manhood suffrage and annual parliaments.

July - December

• July 11 - French soldiers arrive in Newport, Rhode Island to reinforce colonists in the American Revolutionary War^[1]
• August 16 - American Revolutionary War: Battle of Camden - The British defeat the Americans near Camden, South Carolina.
• August 24 - Louis XVI of France abolishes the use of torture in extracting confessions.
• September 25 - Benedict Arnold flees to British-held New York.
• October 2 - American Revolutionary War: British spy John André is hanged by American forces.
• October 7 - Patriots defeat Loyalists under British Major Patrick Ferguson at the Battle of Kings Mountain.
• October 10-16 - The Great Hurricane flattens the islands of Barbados, Martinique and St. Eustatius: 22,000 dead.
• November 29 - Maria Theresa of Austria dies and her Habsburg dominions pass to her ambitious son, Joseph II, who has already been Holy Roman Emperor since 1765.
• December 16 - Emperor K?kaku accedes to the throne of Japan.

Undated

1780: Final volume, Diderot Encyclopédie.

• The original Craven Cottage is built by William Craven, 6th Baron Craven (it was located on the centre circle of the pitch).
• Jose Gabriel Kunturkanki, businessman and landowner, proclaims himself Inca Tupac Amaru II.
• Nikephoros Theotokis starts introducing Edinoverie, an attempt to integrate the Old Belevers into Russia's established church.
• West countries pay 16,000,000 ounces of silver for Chinese goods.
• c. 9 million population in Britain.

Ongoing

• American Revolutionary War

Births

• February 19 - Richard McCarty, American politician (d. 1844)
• April 29 - Charles Nodier, French author (d. 1844)
• May 21 - Elizabeth Fry, British humanitarian (d. 1845)
• June 1 - Carl von Clausewitz, Prussian military strategist (d. 1831)
• August 29 - Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, French painter (d. 1867)
• December 26 - Mary Fairfax Somerville, British mathematician (d. 1872)
• date unknown - John Bird Sumner, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1862)

Deaths

• February 14 - William Blackstone, English jurist (b. 1723)
• February 17 - Andreas Felix von Oefele, German historian and librarian (b. 1706)
• February 18 - Kristijonas Donelaitis, Lithuanian poet (b. 1714)
• March 26 - Charles I, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg (b. 1713)
• May 18 - Charles Hardy, British governor of Newfoundland (b. c. 1714)
• June 3 - Thomas Hutchinson, American colonial governor of Massachusetts (b. 1711)
• July 4 - Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine, Austrian military leader (b. 1712)
• July 14 - Charles Batteux, French philosopher (b. 1713)
• August 3 - Étienne Bonnot de Condillac, French philosopher (b. 1715)
• August 29 - Jacques-Germain Soufflot, French architect (b. 1713)
• September 4 - John Fielding, English magistrate and social reformer (b. 1721)
• September 8 - Enoch Poor, American Revolutionary general (b. 1736)
• October 2 - John André, British Army officer of the American Revolutionary War (executed) (b. 1750)
• October 17 - William Cookworthy, English chemist (b. 1705)
• November 26 - Sir James Denham Steuart, 4th Baronet, British economist (b. 1712)
• November 29 - Empress Maria Theresa of Austria (b. 1717)
• December 26 - John Fothergill, English physician (b. 1712)
• date unknown - Thomas Dilworth, British cleric and writer

Notes

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