1782

Events 
January 7 – The first American commercial bank opens (Bank of North America).
January 15 – Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris goes before the United States Congress to recommend establishment of a national mint and decimal coinage
February 5 – Spanish defeat British forces and capture Minorca.
March 8 – In Ohio the Gnadenhutten massacre of Native Americans takes place in which 29 men, 27 women, and 34 children were killed by white militiamen in retaliation for raids carried out by another Native American group.
April 6 – Rama I succeeded King Taksin of Thailand who was overthrown in an coup d'état.
April 12 – A British fleet under Admiral Sir George Rodney defeats a French fleet under the Comte de Grasse at the Battle of the Saintes in the West Indies.
June 18 – In Switzerland, Anna Goldi in sentenced to death for witchcraft – the last legal witchcraft sentence
August 7 – George Washington orders the creation of the Badge of Military Merit to honor soldiers wounded in battle.  It is later renamed to the more poetic "Purple Heart".
November 30 – American Revolutionary War: In Paris, representatives from the United States and the United Kingdom of Great Britain sign preliminary peace articles (later formalized in the Treaty of Paris).
London creates Foot Patrol for public security
Jean-Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries try to cross the English Channel with a hot-air balloon
The Parliament of Great Britain extends James Watt's copyright for the steam engine to the year 1800

Births
March 18 - John C. Calhoun, seventh Vice President of the United States (d. 1850)

December 5 - Martin Van Buren, eighth President of the United States (d. 1862)

Deaths