1783 (MDCCLXXXIII) was acommon year starting on Wednesday of theGregorian calendar and acommon year starting on Sunday of theJulian calendar, the 1783rd year of theCommon Era (CE) andAnno Domini (AD) designations, the 783rd year of the2nd millennium, the 83rd year of the18th century, and the 4th year of the1780s decade. As of the start of 1783, the Gregorian calendar was 11 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.

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• January 20 – AtVersailles,Great Britain signs preliminary peace treaties with the Kingdom of France and the Kingdom of Spain.^[1]
• January 23 – The Confederation Congress ratifies two October 8, 1782, treaties signed by the United States with the United Netherlands.^[2]
• February 3 –American Revolutionary War:Great Britain acknowledges the independence of the United States of America. At this time, the Spanish government does not grant diplomatic recognition.
• February 4 –American Revolutionary War: Great Britain formally declares that it will cease hostilities with the United States.
• February 5 –1783 Calabrian earthquakes: The first of a sequence of five earthquakes strikesCalabria, Italy (February 5–7, March 1 & 28), leaving 50,000 dead.
• February 7 – TheGreat Siege of Gibraltar is abandoned.
• February 26 – The United StatesContinental Army'sCorps of Engineers is disbanded.
• March 5 – The last celebration ofMassacre Day is held inBoston, Massachusetts.
• March 15 –Newburgh Conspiracy: A potential uprising in theContinental Army stationed atNewburgh, New York, is defused, whenGeorge Washington asks the officers to support the supremacy of theUnited States Congress.

• April – GeneralGeorge Washington sends a letter to the 13 governors of the Confederation of the United States, regarding the needs of the nation.^[3]
• April 3 – APeace and Commercial Treaty is signed between the newly-formedUnited States andSweden in Paris, among the first acts of state concluded between the U.S. and a foreign power.^[4]
• April 8 – TheCrimean Khanate, which has existed since1441 and is a late remnant of the MongolGolden Horde, is annexed by theRussian Empire ofCatherine the Great.
• April 9–28 –Second Anglo-Mysore War:Siege of Bednore –Tipu Sultan of Mysore with 100,000 troops besieges 1600 BritishEast India Company troops who are obliged to surrender withhonours of war.
• April 15 – Preliminary articles of peace ending theAmerican Revolutionary War are ratified by theCongress of the Confederation in the United States.
• April 18 –Three-Fifths Compromise: The first instance of black slaves in the United States of America being counted as three fifths of persons (for the purpose of taxation), is included in a resolution of theCongress of the Confederation (this is later adopted in the 1787 Constitution).
• May 13 – TheSociety of the Cincinnati, a fraternal organization for American veterans of the American Revolution, is formed inNewburgh, New York.^[3]
• May 18 – The firstUnited Empire Loyalists, fleeing the new United States, reach Parrtown inSaint John, New Brunswick, Canada.
• May 26 –A Great Jubilee Day, celebrating the end of theAmerican Revolution, is held inTrumbull, Connecticut.
• June 4 orJune 5 – TheMontgolfier brothers publicly demonstrate theirhot air balloon atAnnonay, France.
• June 8 – ThevolcanoLaki inIceland begins an 8-month eruption, starting the chain of natural disasters known as theMóðuharðindin, killing tens of thousands throughout Europe, including up to 33% of Iceland's population, and causing widespread famine. It has been described as one of "the greatest environmental catastrophes inEuropean history".^[5]

• July 16 – Grants of land in Canada toAmerican Loyalists are announced.
• July 24 – TheTreaty of Georgievsk is signed betweenImperial Russia and theKingdom of Kartli-Kakheti, makingGeorgia aprotectorate of Russia.
• August 4 –Mount Asama, the most activevolcano inJapan, begins a climactic eruption, killing roughly 1,400 people directly and exacerbating a famine, resulting in another 20,000 deaths (Tenmei eruption).
• August 10 – The BritishEast India Company packet shipAntelope (1781) is wrecked offUlong Island in thePalau (Pelew) group, resulting in the first sustained European contact with those islands.^[6]
• August 18 – The1783 Great Meteor passes on a 1,000-mile track across theNorth Sea, Great Britain and France, prompting scientific discussion.
• August 27 –Jacques Charles andLes Frères Robert launch the world's first hydrogen-filled balloon,Le Globe, in Paris.
• September 3 –Peace of Paris: A treaty between the United States and Great Britain is signed in Paris, formally ending theAmerican Revolutionary War, in which Britain recognizes the independence of the United States; and treaties are signed between Britain, France, and Spain atVersailles, ending hostilities with the Franco-Spanish Alliance.
• September 9 –Dickinson College is chartered inCarlisle, Pennsylvania.

• October 3 – The firstWaterford Crystalglassmaking business begins production inWaterford, Ireland.
• October 17 –Mozart'sGreat Mass is first performed, inSalzburg,Austria.
• November 2 – InRocky Hill, New Jersey,United States GeneralGeorge Washington gives hisFarewell Address to the Army.
• November 3 – The AmericanContinental Army is disbanded as the first act of business by theConfederation Congress, afterThomas Mifflin is elected the new President to succeed Elias Boudinot.^[3]
• November 21 – In Paris,Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier andFrançois Laurent, marquis d'Arlandes, make the first untetheredhot air balloon flight (flight time: 25 minutes, Maximum height: 900 m).
• November 24 – In Spain, theCedula of Population is signed, stating that anyone who will swear fealty to Spain and is of theRoman Catholic faith is welcome to populateTrinidad and Tobago.
• November 25 –American Revolutionary War: The last British troopsleave New York City and George Washington triumphantly returns, three months after the signing of theTreaty of Paris.
• November 27 – English rectorJohn Michell concludes that some stars might have enough gravity force to prevent light escaping from them, so he calls them "dark stars".
• November 29 –1783 New Jersey earthquake: Anearthquake of 5.3 magnitude strikesNew Jersey.
• December 1 –Jacques Charles andNicolas-Louis Robert make the first manned flight in a hydrogen-filledgas balloon in Paris.
• December 4 – AtFraunces Tavern in New York City,U.S. GeneralGeorge Washington formally bids his officers farewell.
• December 19 –William Pitt the Younger becomesPrime Minister of Great Britain.

• December 23 –General George Washington resigns his commission as commander-in-chief of theContinental Army to theCongress of the Confederation in theMaryland State House in Annapolis, Maryland, and retires to his home atMount Vernon. Washington's resignation, described by historianThomas Fleming as "the most important moment in American history,"^[7] affirms theUnited States' commitment to the principle ofcivilian control of the military, and promptsKing George III to call Washington "the greatest character of the age."^[8]
• December 31 –Louis-Sébastien Lenormand makes the first ever recorded public demonstration of aparachute descent, by jumping from the tower of theMontpellier Observatory in France, using his rigid-framed model, which he intends as a form of fire escape.

• Loyalists from New York settleGreat Abaco in theBahamas.
• The city ofSevastopol is founded on theCrimean Peninsula of theRussian Empire, by Rear AdmiralThomas MacKenzie.
• PrincessYekaterina Vorontsova-Dashkova is elected an honorary member of theRoyal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the first female foreign member and its second female member, afterEva Ekeblad.
• TheEvan Williams (bourbon) distillery is founded inBardstown, Kentucky.
• Ahmed ibn Muhammad ibn Khalifa, the Emir of Zubarah conquers and rules Bahrain. Shaikh Ahmed restores Arab independence and sovereignty over Bahrain and makes the islands his summer residence.

• January 20 –Friedrich Dotzauer, German cellist, composer (d.1860)
• January 23 –Stendhal, French writer (d.1842)
• February 8 –Charles-Marie Denys de Damrémont, French general, governor-general ofFrench Algeria (d.1837)
• February 16 –Stephen Cassin, United States Navy officer (d.1857)
• March 8 –Hannah Van Buren, née Hoes, American wife of Martin Van Buren (d.1819)

• April 3 –Washington Irving, American author (d.1859)^[9]
• April 21 –Reginald Heber, English priest (d. 1821)^[10]
• May 1 –Vicente Rocafuerte, Ecuadorian politician, 2nd President of Ecuador (d.1847)
• May 3 –José de la Riva Agüero, Peruvian soldier and politician, 1st President of Peru and 2nd President of North Peru (d.1858)
• May 25 –Philip P. Barbour, American politician,Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d.1841)

• May 27 –John Crawfurd, Scottish physician, colonial administrator, diplomat and author. Last British Resident of Singapore (d.1868)
• May 29 –Benedetto Pistrucci, Italian engraver and medalist (d.1855)
• June 19 –Friedrich Sertürner, German pharmacist who discovered morphine in1804 (d.1841)
• June 21 –Theodosia Burr,First Lady ofSouth Carolina duringWar of 1812, daughter ofAaron Burr (d.1813)

• July 24 –Simón Bolívar, Venezuelan patriot, revolutionary leader and statesman (d.1830)
• July 28 –Friedrich Wilhelm von Bismarck, German army officer and writer (d.1860)
• August 7 –Princess Amelia of the United Kingdom, member of the British Royal Family (d.1810)
• August 26 –Federigo Zuccari, astronomer, director of the Astronomical Observatory of Naples (d.1817)
• September 17
  • Samuel Prout, English painter (d.1852)^[11]
  • Nadezhda Durova, first female Russian army officer (d.1866)
• October 31 –Karl Wilhelm Gottlob Kastner, German chemist (d.1857)
• Date unknown:
  • TheTwo-Headed Boy of Bengal, sufferer from the rare conditionCraniopagus parasiticus (d.1787)
  • Mary Anne Whitby, English scientist (d.1850)

• January 2 –Johann Jakob Bodmer, Swiss author (b.1698)
• January 7 –William Tans'ur, English hymnist (b.1706)
• January 15 –William Alexander, Lord Stirling, American major-general in theContinental Army during theAmerican Revolutionary War (b.1726)
• January 18 –Jeanne Quinault, French actress, playwright (b.1699)

• February 6 –Capability Brown, English landscape gardener (b.1716)
• February 10 –James Nares, English composer of mostly sacred vocal works (b.1715)
• March 2 –Francisco Salzillo, Spanish sculptor (b.1707)
• March 19 –Frederick Cornwallis, Archbishop of Canterbury (b.1713)
• March 23 –Charles Carroll, American lawyer, delegate to the Continental Congress (b.1723)
• March 26 –Anna Rosina de Gasc, German portrait painter (b.1713)
• March 30 –William Hunter, Scottish anatomist (b.1718)
• March 31 –Nikita Ivanovich Panin, Russian statesman (b.1718)
• April 7 –Ignaz Holzbauer, German composer (b.1711)
• April 16
  • Benedict Joseph Labre, French Catholic saint (b.1745)
  • Christian Mayer, Czech astronomer (b.1719)
• May 11 –Juliane Reichardt, German-born Bohemian pianist, singer and composer (b.1752)
• May 23 –James Otis, American lawyer, patriot (b.1725)
• June 2 –Charles Spalding, Scottish inventor and underwater diver, killed in diving bell accident (b.1738)
• September 14 –James Grenville, British Member of Parliament (b.1715)

• September 18
  • Leonhard Euler, Swiss mathematician, physicist (b.1707)
  • Benjamin Kennicott, English churchman, Hebrew scholar (b.1718)
• September 28 –Marguerite Gourdan, French procurer (b. c.1730)
• October 2 –Joseph Leeson, 1st Earl of Milltown, Irish politician (b.1701)
• October 29 –Jean le Rond d'Alembert, French mathematician (b.1717)
• November 1 –Carl Linnaeus the Younger, Swedish naturalist (b.1741)
• November 3 –Charles Collé, French dramatist (b.1709)
• November 15 –John Hanson, AmericanPresident of the Continental Congress (b.1721)
• November 23 –Yoriyuki Arima, Japanese mathematician (b.1714)
• December 13 –Pehr Wilhelm Wargentin, Swedish astronomer (b.1717)
• December 15 –Ahmad bin Said al-Busaidi, first ruler ofOman of theAl Said dynasty (b.1710)
• December 16
  • Johann Adolph Hasse, German composer (b.1699)
  • William James, British naval commander (b.1720)
• Date unknown:
  • Thomas Calcraft, English politician and Lieutenant-Colonel (b.1738)^[12]
  • Adolf Friedrich von Reinhard, jurist and publicist (b.1726)^[13]

• John Blair; J. Willoughby Rosse (1856)."1783".Blair's Chronological Tables. London:H.G. Bohn.hdl:2027/loc.ark:/13960/t6349vh5n – via Hathi Trust.