January 28 » Sir Horace Walpole coins the word serendipity in a letter to a friend.
May 28 » French and Indian War: In the first engagement of the war, Virginia militia under the 22-year-old Lieutenant colonel George Washington defeat a French reconnaissance party in the Battle of Jumonville Glen in what is now Fayette County in southwestern Pennsylvania.
July 3 » French and Indian War: George Washington surrenders Fort Necessity to French forces.
Day of marriage February 3, 1774
The temperature on February 3, 1774 was about -1.0 °C. Wind direction mainly northeast. Weather type: zeer betrokken. Special wheather fenomena: ijs. Source: KNMI
March 31 » American Revolutionary War: The Kingdom of Great Britain orders the port of Boston, Massachusetts closed pursuant to the Boston Port Act.
June 2 » Intolerable Acts: The Quartering Act is enacted, allowing a governor in colonial America to house British soldiers in uninhabited houses, outhouses, barns, or other buildings if suitable quarters are not provided.
July 4 » Orangetown Resolutions are adopted in the Province of New York, one of many protests against the British Parliament's Coercive Acts.
August 1 » British scientist Joseph Priestley discovers oxygen gas, corroborating the prior discovery of this element by German-Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele.
September 1 » Massachusetts Bay colonists rise up in the bloodless Powder Alarm.
September 4 » New Caledonia is first sighted by Europeans, during the second voyage of Captain James Cook.
Day of death November 5, 1781
The temperature on November 5, 1781 was about 7.0 °C. There was 22 mm of rainWind direction mainly south. Weather type: betrokken regen. Source: KNMI
January 1 » American Revolutionary War: One thousand five hundred soldiers of the 6th Pennsylvania Regiment under General Anthony Wayne's command rebel against the Continental Army's winter camp in Morristown, New Jersey in the Pennsylvania Line Mutiny of 1781.
January 5 » American Revolutionary War: Richmond, Virginia, is burned by British naval forces led by Benedict Arnold.
August 24 » American Revolutionary War: A small force of Pennsylvania militia is ambushed and overwhelmed by an American Indian group, which forces George Rogers Clark to abandon his attempt to attack Detroit.
September 8 » 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.
October 17 » American Revolutionary War: British General Charles, Earl Cornwallis surrenders at the Siege of Yorktown.
October 20 » The Patent of Toleration, providing limited freedom of worship, is approved in Austria.
When copying data from this family tree, please include a reference to the origin: Charles Olson, "Olson's Tree", database, Genealogy Online (https://www.genealogieonline.nl/olsons-tree/P2243.php : accessed January 3, 2026), "John Parke Custis (1754-1781)".
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