Eighteenth-Century Chronology: 1787

This page in the Eighteenth-Century Chronology is maintained by Jack Lynch. Please send suggestions and corrections to jlynch@andromeda.rutgers.edu.

Literature

Russia and Austria, under Catherine the Great, declare war on Turkey (through 1792)
Edmund Burke takes a leading role in the trial to impeach Warren Hastings; Richard Brinsley Sheridan makes a famous speech against Hastings
The U.S. Constitution is ratified by Delaware (the first state to do so), Pennsylvania (second), and New Jersey (third)
William Wilberforce agitates against slavery in the British colonies
October: James Madison and Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers begin
The Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade is founded