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Year 1788 (MDCCLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Saturday of the 11-day slower Julian calendar).

Events of 1788

January - June

• 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 under the new government.
• 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 1: First edition in London of The Times.

• 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: Fire in New Orleans requires rebuilding Jackson Square area.

• March 21 - A fire in New Orleans kills 25% of the population and destroys 856 buildings, including St. Louis Cathedral and the Cabildo, leaving most of the town in ruins.

• April 13 - Americas first recorded riot, the Doctors' Mob, begins. Residents of Manhattan were angry about grave robbers stealing bodies for doctors to dissect. The rioting was suppressed on the 15th.
• April 28 - Maryland ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 7th U.S. state.
• May 10 - The Royal Dramatic Theatre, Sweden's national stage, is founded.

• May 23 - South Carolina ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 8th U.S. state.

• June 7 - France: Day of the Tiles, which some consider the beginning of the French Revolution
• June 9 - England: founding of the African Association, a exploration group dedicated to plotting the Niger River and finding Timbuktu.
• June 21 - New Hampshire ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 9th U.S. state. The Constitution then went into effect.
• June 25 - The Virginia Ratifying Convention? ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 10th U.S. state under the new government.
• June 26 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, in Vienna, completes his antepenultimate symphony, now called the Symphony No. 39 (Mozart) in E-flat. He completed the 40th and 41st in July and August.

July - December

• July - Louis XVI of France calls for a spring session of the Estates General.
• July 24 - Governor General Lord Dorchester by proclamation issued from Castle of St. Louis in the City of Quebec divided the Canadas into five Districts, namely: Gaspe, Lunenburg, Meckleburg, Nassau and Hesse.
• July 26 - New York ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 11th U.S. state.
• July 28- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, in Vienna, completes his penultimate symphony, now called the Symphony No. 40 (Mozart) in G Minor.

• August 8 - The French king Louis XVI agreed to convene the Estates-General meeting in May of 1789. It was the first time since 1614.
• August 10 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, in Vienna, completes his final symphony, now called the Symphony No. 41 (Mozart) in C Major, and nicknamed (after Mozart's death) "The Jupiter."
• August 27 - Trial of William Brodie begins in Edinburgh, Scotland: he is sentenced to death by hanging.

• September 17 - "Battle" of Karansebes - Forces of Joseph II of Austria marching against Turks, believing themselves attacked, starting firing at each other causing up to 10,000 casualties.

• October 1 - William Brodie was 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.
• Annual British iron production - 68,000 tons.

Births

• January 22 - George Byron, 6th Baron Byron, English poet (d. 1824)
• February 5 - Robert Peel, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1850)
• February 10 - Johann Peter Pixis, German pianist and composer (d. 1874)
• February 22 - Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher (d. 1860)
• March 10 - Joseph von Eichendorff, German poet (d. 1857)
• April 2 - Francisco Balagtas, Filipino poet (d. 1862)
• 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)
• June 21 - Princess Augusta of Bavaria, Duchess of Leuchtenberg (d. 1851)
• August 16 - Luigi Ciacchi, Italian cardinal (d. 1865)
• September 12 - Alexander Campbell, Irish-born founder of the Disciples of Christ (d. 1866)
• September 15 - Gerard C. Brandon, American politician (d. 1850)
• September 22 - Theodore Edward Hook, English author (d. 1841)
• October 9. (towards) - József Kossics, catholics priest, writer, etnologhist (d. 1867)
• October 11 - Simon Sechter, Austrian music teacher
• October 24 - Sarah Josepha Hale, American author (d. 1879)
• Juan Facundo Quiroga, Argentine federationalist
• Jakob Walter, stonemason and common draftee (d. 1864).

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)
• March 29 - Charles Wesley: Co-founder (with brother, John Wesley) of the religious movement now known as Methodism (b. 1707)
• 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)

Miscellaneous

• 2008 - There were 1788 entries to the Android Developer Challenge I from 70 countries.

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