Discovery of Hawaii
Discovers Hawaii, names them the Sandwich Islands after Lord Sandwich
Permanent historical records · Updated 2026-11-03
1778 in Great Britain
Explore 22 historical events and records for Great Britain in 1778.
Historical records for Great Britain in 1778
Sorted by month and day. Records with no month are shown last. Showing 22 of 22 unique records.
22Unique records
1 of 1Page
20Named events on this page
16Named people on this page
8Places on this page
January
May
General
Appointed Commander of the British forces in America
General
Appointed Commander of the British forces in America
June
Peace
Congress rejects offers of a British Peace Commission & insists on independence
Battle of Plymouth
Fights General Washington to a stand off
July
Battle of Levant
Commands the Foudroyant
Other events (month unknown)
American Crisis and Military Morale
Paine continued writing American Crisis essays during the struggle for independence, combining political argument with morale building.
Burial
Buried in Westminster Abbey
Captain
Appointed Captain of HMS Serapis
Commission
Appointed Commissioner of the dockyard at Portsmouth and governor of the Naval Academy
Companion to Sarah Dawson
Wollstonecraft worked as a companion in Bath, gaining experience later reflected in her critique of women's employment.
Death of William Pitt the Elder
Death of William Pitt
Declaration of War
France declares war on Britain & sends an army to north America
Defense of Irish Trade
Burke supported freer trade arrangements for Ireland, challenging commercial restrictions within the British political system.
Governor
Appointed Commissioner of the dockyard at Portsmouth and governor of the Naval Academy
HMS Bristol
Serves under Sir Peter Parker at Jamaica during the American war.
Industrial Revolution
Coke pig iron becomes cheaper than charcoal pig iron & since cast iron was becoming cheaper and more plentiful, it began being a structural material following the building of the innovative Iron Bridge in 1778 by Abraham Darby III
Industrial Revolution
A fundamental change in working principles In close collaboration with Englishman Matthew Boulton, succeeded in perfecting his steam engine, which incorporated a series of radical improvements, notably the closing off of the upper part of the cylinder thereby making the low pressure steam drive the top of the piston instead of the atmosphere, use of a steam jacket and the celebrated separate steam condenser chamber
Invention of Steam Engine
A fundamental change in working principles In close collaboration with Englishman Matthew Boulton, succeeded in perfecting his steam engine, which incorporated a series of radical improvements, notably the closing off of the upper part of the cylinder thereby making the low pressure steam drive the top of the piston instead of the atmosphere, use of a steam jacket and the celebrated separate steam condenser chamber
Jamaica Station
Commands at Jamaica and becomes an important patron of Nelson.
Protestant Association
The ostensible intention of the Papists Act of 1778 was, as its preamble states, to mitigate some of the more extreme manifestations of official discrimination against Roman Catholics in the Kingdom of Great Britain at the time
Royal Society
Appointed President of the Royal Society
How these records were prepared
Generated from the World History Database historical_events table. Identical display records are collapsed; descriptions otherwise retain the stored text. Coverage and source quality vary. Check primary and specialist sources before citing individual historical claims.