* 1724 – John Joachim Zubly, Swiss-American pastor, planter, and statesman ( d. 1781 )

The movement was particularly dominated by François Quesnay ( 1694 – 1774 ) and Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot ( 1727 – 1781 ).

* 1781 – American Revolutionary War: British and French ships clash in the Battle of Fort Royal off the coast of Martinique.

His sister was Lucy Aikin ( 1781 – 1864 ), a historical writer.

* 1781 – Bhagwan Swaminarayan, Indian religious leader ( d. 1830 )

* 1781 – The Battle of Dogger Bank takes place.

* 1858 – Anton Diabelli, Austrian music publisher, editor, and composer ( b. 1781 )

In his 1781 book General History of Connecticut, the Reverend Samuel Peters ( 1735 – 1826 ) used it to describe various laws first enacted by Puritan colonies in the 17th century that prohibited various activities, recreational as well as commercial, on Sunday ( Saturday evening through Sunday night ).

By the charter renewal in 1781 it was also the bankers ' bank – keeping enough gold to pay its notes on demand until 26 February 1797 when war had so diminished gold reserves that the government prohibited the Bank from paying out in gold.

Le Plat, Monumentorum ad historicam Concilii Tridentini collectio ( 7 vols., Leuven, 1781 – 87 ).

* Salons, critique d ' art ( 1759 – 1781 )

* Histoire philosophique et politique des deux Indes, in collaboration with Raynal ( 1772 – 1781 )

* 1781 – Sir David Brewster, Scottish physicist ( d. 1868 )

Sir David Brewster ( 11 December 1781 – 10 February 1868 ) was a Scottish physicist, mathematician, astronomer, inventor, writer and university principal.

* 1781 – American Revolutionary War: Second Battle of Ushant – A

* 1705 – Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke, British naval officer ( d. 1781 )

* 1781 – John Keane, 1st Baron Keane, British noble and officer ( d. 1844 )

* 1781 – American Revolutionary War: British forces seize the Dutch-owned Caribbean island Sint Eustatius.

* 1781 – Josef Mysliveček, Czech composer ( b. 1737 )

* 1781 – Johann Baptist von Spix, German scientist ( d. 1826 )

* 1781 – Fourth Anglo-Dutch War: Captain Thomas Shirley opened his expedition against Dutch colonial outposts on the Gold Coast of Africa ( present-day Ghana ).

In 1775 – 77, and again in 1781 he led his men against the main British forces.

George Stephenson ( 9 June 1781 – 12 August 1848 ) was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer who built the first public railway line in the world to use steam locomotives.

Her crew then went ashore and Rathbun served as an artilleryman until the city fell in May 1781.

Because of his strategy, Revolutionary forces captured two major British armies at Saratoga in 1777 and Yorktown in 1781.

The great successes, at Boston ( 1776 ), Saratoga ( 1777 ) and Yorktown ( 1781 ), came from trapping the British far from base with much larger numbers of troops.

The Continental Army having been funded by $ 20, 000 in French gold, Washington delivered the final blow to the British in 1781, after a French naval victory allowed American and French forces to trap a British army in Virginia.

* 1781 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Cowpens – Continental troops under Brigadier General Daniel Morgan defeat British forces under Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton at the battle in South Carolina.

* 1781 – In the Battle of Jersey, the British defeat the last attempt by France to invade Jersey.

* 1781 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Guilford Courthouse – Near present-day Greensboro, North Carolina, 1, 900 British troops under General Charles Cornwallis defeat an American force numbering 4, 400.

* 1781 – Ebenezer Elliott, British poet ( d. 1849 )

* 1781 – American Revolutionary War: British General Lord Charles Cornwallis surrenders at the Siege of Yorktown.

* 1781 – At Yorktown, Virginia, representatives of British commander Lord Cornwallis handed over Cornwallis ' sword and formally surrendered to George Washington and the comte de Rochambeau.

The celebrated march of 1781 to Yorktown, Virginia that ended with the defeat of the British at the Siege of Yorktown and the Battle of the Chesapeake began in Newport, Rhode Island under the joint command of General George Washington who led American troops and the Comte de Rochambeau who led French soldiers sent by King Louis XVI.

* George Stephenson ( 1781 – 1848 ), British mechanical engineer who created Stephenson's Rocket

* 1781 – The Battle of Groton Heights takes place, resulting a British victory.

* 1781 – Battle of the Chesapeake in the American Revolutionary War: the British Navy is repelled by the French Navy, contributing to the British surrender at Yorktown.

* 1781 – American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Eutaw Springs in South Carolina, the war's last significant battle in the Southern theater, ends in a narrow British tactical victory.

In early June 1781, Cornwallis dispatched a 250-man cavalry force commanded by Banastre Tarleton on a secret expedition to capture Governor Jefferson and members of the Assembly at Monticello but Jack Jouett of the Virginia militia, thwarted the British plan by warning them.

As governor of Virginia ( 1780 – 1781 ) during the Revolutionary War, Jefferson recommended forcibly moving Cherokee and Shawnee tribes that fought on the British side to lands west of the Mississippi River.

In 1781, the combined action of Continental and French land and naval forces trapped the British army on the Virginia Peninsula, where troops under George Washington and Comte de Rochambeau defeated British General Cornwallis in the Siege of Yorktown.