← 1780 1779 1778 1781 in the United States → 1782 1783 1784
Decades:	1770s 1780s 1790s 1800s
See also:	History of the United States (1776–1789) Timeline of pre-United States history List of years in the United States

Events from the year1781 in the United States. This year marked the beginning of government under theArticles of Confederation as well as the surrender of British armed forces in theAmerican Revolution.

• President of theSecond Continental Congress:Samuel Huntington (until February 28)
• President of the Continental Congress:
  • March 1-July 6:Samuel Huntington
  • July 10-November 5:Thomas McKean
  • starting November 5:John Hanson

• January 2 –Virginia passes a law ceding itswestern land claims, paving the way forMaryland to ratify theArticles of Confederation.
• January 5 –American Revolution –Richmond, Virginia is burned by British naval forces led byBenedict Arnold.
• January 17 – American Revolution –Battle of Cowpens: Americans underDaniel Morgan defeat British forces.
• January 20 –Pompton Mutiny
• February 2 – TheArticles of Confederation are ratified byMaryland, the 13th and final state to do so.
• February 24 –Pyle's Massacre
• March 1 – The United StatesContinental Congress implements theArticles of Confederation, forming its Perpetual Union as the United States in Congress Assembled.
• March 8 – American Revolution –Skirmish at Waters Creek
• March 15 – American Revolution –Battle of Guilford Court House: American GeneralNathanael Greene loses to the British.
• March 16 – American Revolution –Battle of Cape Henry

• April 25
  • American Revolution –Battle of Blandford
  • American Revolution –Battle of Hobkirk's Hill
• April 27 – American Revolution –Action at Osborne's
• May 22 - June 6 – American Revolution –Siege of Augusta
• May 22 - June 19 – American Revolutionary War –Siege of Ninety-Six
• May 26 –Bank of North America is chartered by theConfederation Congress.
• June 3 – American Revolution –Jack Jouett begins a "midnight ride" to warnThomas Jefferson and theVirginia legislature of approaching British cavalry led byBanastre Tarleton who have been sent to capture them
• June 26 – American Revolution –Battle of Spencer's Ordinary

• July 6 – American Revolution –Battle of Green Spring
• July 9–24 – American Revolution –Francisco's Fight
• July 29 – American Revolution – Skirmish at the House in the Horseshoe: A Tory force underDavid Fanning attacks Phillip Alston's smaller force ofWhigs at Alston's home inCumberland County, North Carolina (in present-dayMoore County, North Carolina). Alston's troops surrender after Fanning's men attempt to ram the house with a cart of burning straw.
• August 19 – Congress passes an act saying they will recognize thesecessionist state of Vermont (formed in 1777 by unilateral separation from New York) and agree toadmit that state to the Union if Vermont will renounce its claims to territory east of the Connecticut River and west of Lake Champlain. (The following spring the Vermont legislature agreed, but nonetheless New York continued to block its admission until 1791.)
• August 30 – American Revolution: A French fleet underComte de Grasse entersChesapeake Bay, cutting British GeneralCharles Cornwallis off from escape by sea.
• September 4 –Los Angeles is founded as El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora La Reina de Los Ángeles de Porciuncula (City of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels of Porciuncula) by a group of 44Spanish settlers.
• September 5 – American Revolution –Battle of the Chesapeake: A British fleet underThomas Graves arrives and fights de Grasse, but is unable to break through to relieve theSiege of Yorktown.
• September 6 – American Revolution –Battle of Groton Heights: British forces underBenedict Arnold attack a fort inGroton, Connecticut, achieving a strategic victory.
• September 8 – American Revolution –Battle of Eutaw Springs
• September 10 – American Revolution: Graves gives up trying to break through the now-reinforced French fleet and returns toNew York, leaving Cornwallis to his fate.
• September 28 – American Revolution: American and French troops begin asiege of the British at Yorktown, Virginia.

• October 19 – American Revolution: Following theSiege of Yorktown, GeneralCornwallis surrenders to GeneralGeorge Washington atYorktown, Virginia, ending the armed struggle of the American Revolution.
• November 5 –John Hanson is electedPresident of the Continental Congress.
• December – A school is founded inWashington County, Pennsylvania that would later be known asWashington & Jefferson College.^[1]

• ReverendSamuel Peters publishes hisGeneral History of Connecticut, using the termblue law for the first time.
• Meeting in Paris,Benjamin Franklin invites PrincessYekaterina Vorontsova-Dashkova to become the first woman member of theAmerican Philosophical Society.

• American Revolutionary War (1775–1783)
• Articles of Confederation in effect (1781–1788)

• August 23 –John M. Berrien, United States Senator from Georgia from 1841 till 1852. (died1856)
• August 28 –Hannah Tompkins, wife ofDaniel D. Tompkins,Second Lady of the United States (died1829)
• October 1 –James Lawrence, U.S. Navy officer (died1813)
• October 2 –William Wyatt Bibb, United States Senator from Georgia from 1813 till 1816, 1st Governor of Alabama (died1820)

• February 28 -Richard Stockton, signatory of theDeclaration of Independence (born1730)

• Timeline of the American Revolution (1760–1789)

• Media related to1781 in the United States at Wikimedia Commons

• 1781 in the United States
• 1780s in the United States
• 1781 by country
• 1781 in North America
• Years of the 18th century in the United States

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