1781

Events 
 March 13 – Uranus.
 End of the American Revolutionary War

 Births 
 January 26 – Achim von Arnim, German writer (d. 1831)
 January 30 – Adelbert von Chamisso, German writer (d. 1838)
 February 17 – Rene Theophile Hyacinthe Laennec, French physician and inventor (d. 1826)
 March 4 – Rebecca Gratz, American educator and philanthropist (d. 1869)
 March 13 – Karl Friedrich Schinkel, German architect and painter (d. 1841)
 June 9–  George Stephenson, English engineer (d. 1848)
 June 21 – Siméon-Denis Poisson, French mathematician and physicist (d. 1840)
 July 6 – Thomas Stamford Raffles, English founder of Singapore (d. 1826)
  July 6   – John D. Sloat, American naval officer (d. 1867)
 July 27 – Mauro Giuliani, Italian composer (d. 1828)
 September 3 – Eugène de Beauharnais, French nobleman, son of Napoleon's wife Josephine (d. 1824)
September 6 – Anton Diabelli, Austrian music publisher, editor, and composer (d. 1858)
October 1 – James Lawrence, U.S. Navy officer (d. 1813)
November 6 – Lucy Aikin, English writer (d. 1864)
November 20 – Karl Friedrich Eichhorn, German jurist (d. 1854)
November 29 – Andrés Bello, Venezuelan poet, lawmaked, teacher, philosopher and sociologist (d. 1865)
November 30 – Alexander Berry, Scottish adventurer and Australian pioneer (d. 1873)
 December 11 – Sir David Brewster, Scottish physicist (d. 1868)
William Williams of Wern, minister (d. 1840)