1787 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar).

Events

• In Britain, Thomas Clarkson and Granville Sharpthe "Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade" with support from John Wesley, Josiah Wedgwood and others.
• January 11 - William Herschel discovers Titania and Oberon, two moons of Uranus.
• February 4 - Shays' Rebellion fails
• May 13 - Captain Arthur Phillip leaves Portsmouth, England with eleven ships full of convicts to establish a penal colony in Australia.
• May 14 - In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, delegates begin to meet to write a new Constitution for the United States.
• May 25 - In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, delegates begin to convene a Constitutional Convention intended to amend the Articles of Confederation. However, a new Constitution for the United States was eventually produced. George Washington presided over the Convention.
• June 6 - Franklin College, named for Benjamin Franklin, opens in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It later merges with Marshall College to become Franklin and Marshall College.
• July 13 - The U.S. Congress enacts the Northwest Ordinance establishing governing rules for the Northwest Territory. It also establishes procedures for the admission of new states and limits the expansion of slavery.
• August 27 - Launching a forty-five-foot craft on the Delaware River, John Fitch demonstrates the first US patent for his design.
• September 17 - United States Constitution adopted
• December 7 - Delaware ratifies the Constitution and becomes the first U.S. state.
• December 12 - Pennsylvania becomes the second U.S. state.
• December 18 - New Jersey becomes the third U.S. state.

Births

• January 6 - Gaspard Théodore Ignace de la Fontaine , Luxembourgish politician.
• March 16 - Georg Ohm, German physicist
• April 26 - Ludwig Uhland, German poet (d. 1862)
• December 10 - Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, educator (d. 1851)

Deaths

• June 20 - Karl Friedrich Abel, aged 63, German baroque composer
• November 3 - Robert Lowth, Bishop of the Church of England
• November 15 - Christoph Willibald Gluck, composer