Events
- 18 January - The Third Pacific expedition of James Cook, with ships HMS Resolution (1771) and HMS Discovery (1774), first views Oahu then Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands, which he names the "Sandwich Islands".
- 6 February - American Revolutionary War: Britain declares war on France, for aiding the Americans.
- 17 & 23 April - American Revolutionary War: John Paul Jones in USS Ranger (1777) attempts to raid Whitehaven.
- 24 April - American Revolutionary War: North Channel Naval Duel: John Paul Jones in USS Ranger captures HMS Drake (1777) in the North Channel.
- May - HMS Victory is commissioned and remains in active service for the following 32 years, most notably at the Battle of Trafalgar (1805).
- 16 June - American Revolutionary War: Spain declares war on Britain.
- 28 June - American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Monmouth takes place in Monmouth, New Jersey.
- 3 July - American Revolutionary War: The Wyoming Valley battle and massacre takes place near Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, ending in a defeat of the local colonists.
- 10 July - American Revolutionary War: Louis XVI of France declares war on Great Britain.
- 27 July - American Revolution: First Battle of Ushant - British and French fleets fight to a standoff.
- September - First St. Leger Stakes horse race held at its present location, Town Moor, Doncaster.
- 26 November - In the Hawaiian Islands, James Cook becomes the first European to discover Maui.
Read more about this topic: 1778 In Great Britain
Famous quotes containing the word events:
“One thing that makes art different from life is that in art things have a shape ... it allows us to fix our emotions on events at the moment they occur, it permits a union of heart and mind and tongue and tear.”
—Marilyn French (b. 1929)
“When the world was half a thousand years younger all events had much sharper outlines than now. The distance between sadness and joy, between good and bad fortune, seemed to be much greater than for us; every experience had that degree of directness and absoluteness which joy and sadness still have in the mind of a child”
—Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)
“I have no time to read newspapers. If you chance to live and move and have your being in that thin stratum in which the events which make the news transpire—thinner than the paper on which it is printed—then these things will fill the world for you; but if you soar above or dive below that plane, you cannot remember nor be reminded of them.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)