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 April 17, 1782
The temperature on April 17, 1782 was about 6.0 °C. There was 44 mm of rainWind direction mainly northeast. Weather type: betrokken. Source: KNMI
March 8 » Gnadenhutten massacre: Ninety-six Native Americans in Gnadenhutten, Ohio, who had converted to Christianity, are killed by Pennsylvania militiamen in retaliation for raids carried out by other Indian tribes.
March 16 » American Revolutionary War: Spanish troops capture the British-held island of Roatán.
April 19 » John Adams secures the Dutch Republic's recognition of the United States as an independent government. The house which he had purchased in The Hague, Netherlands becomes the first American embassy.
May 6 » Construction begins on the Grand Palace, the royal residence of the King of Siam in Bangkok, at the command of King Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke.
August 19 » American Revolutionary War: Battle of Blue Licks: The last major engagement of the war, almost ten months after the surrender of the British commander Charles Cornwallis following the Siege of Yorktown.
December 14 » The Montgolfier brothers first test fly an unmanned hot air balloon in France; it floats nearly 2km (1.2mi).
Day of burial November 8, 1789
The temperature on November 8, 1789 was about 3.0 °C. There was 66 mm of rainWind direction mainly south by west. Weather type: zeer betrokken. Source: KNMI
January 21 » The first American novel, The Power of Sympathy or the Triumph of Nature Founded in Truth by William Hill Brown, is printed in Boston.
January 23 » Georgetown College, the first Catholic university in the United States, is founded in Georgetown, Maryland (now a part of Washington, D.C.).
April 28 » Mutiny on the Bounty: Lieutenant William Bligh and 18 sailors are set adrift and the rebel crew returns to Tahiti briefly and then sets sail for Pitcairn Island.
June 20 » Deputies of the French Third Estate take the Tennis Court Oath.
July 14 » Alexander Mackenzie finally completes his journey to the mouth of the great river he hoped would take him to the Pacific, but which turns out to flow into the Arctic Ocean. Later named after him, the Mackenzie is the second-longest river system in North America.
September 29 » The 1st United States Congress adjourns.
When copying data from this family tree, please include a reference to the origin: Wim Willard een Larinees, "Family tree Willard", database, Genealogy Online (https://www.genealogieonline.nl/stamboom-willard/I152.php : accessed January 14, 2026), "Gerrit Janszen Majoor (1754-1789)".
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