    __notoc__ year 1788 (mdcclxxxviii) was a leap year starting on tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the gregorian calendar and a leap year starting on saturday of the 11-day slower julian calendar. == events == === january&ndash;june === * january 1 &ndash; the first edition of the times, previously the daily universal register, is published in london. * january 2 &ndash; georgia ratifies the united states constitution and becomes the fourth u.s. state under the new government. * january 9 &ndash; connecticut ratifies the united states constitution and becomes the fifth u.s. state. * january 18 &ndash; the leading ship (armed tender hms supply) in captain arthur phillip's first fleet arrives at botany bay to colonise australia. * january 22 &ndash; the continental congress, effectively a caretaker government, elects cyrus griffin as its last president. * january 24 &ndash; the la perouse expedition in the astrolabe and boussole arrives off botany bay just as captain arthur phillip is attempting to move his colony from there to sydney cove in port jackson. * january 26 &ndash; australia day: eleven ships of the first fleet from botany bay, led by captain arthur phillip, land at sydney cove (which will become sydney), australia, where he determines to establish the british prison colony of new south wales, the first permanent european settlement on the continent. * january 31 &ndash; 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 &ndash; isaac briggs and william longstreet patent a steamboat. * february 6 &ndash; massachusetts ratifies the united states constitution and becomes the sixth u.s. state. * february 9 &ndash; austria enters the russo-turkish war of 1787â1792 and attacks moldavia. * february 17 &ndash; the uninhabited lord howe island is discovered by the brig hms supply, commanded by lieutenant ball, who is on his way from botany bay to norfolk island with convicts to start a penal settlement there. they arrive at norfolk island on march 6. * march 10 &ndash; the la perouse expedition leaves sydney cove for new caledonia, never to be seen again. 
1788