1778 in Great Britain
overview of Great Britain-related events during the year of 1778
Events from the year 1778 in Great Britain.
Incumbents
Monarch – George III
Prime Minister – Frederick North, Lord North (Tory)
Events
18 January – the third Pacific expedition of James Cook, with ships HMS Resolution (1771) and HMS Discovery (1774), first views Oahu then Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands, which he names the "Sandwich Islands".
6 February – American Revolutionary War: Britain declares war on France for aiding the Americans.
23 April – American Revolutionary War: John Paul Jones in USS Ranger (1777) raids Whitehaven, with limited effect.
24 April – American Revolutionary War: North Channel Naval Duel – John Paul Jones in USS Ranger captures HMS Drake (1777) in the North Channel.
May – HMS Victory is commissioned and remains in active service for the following 32 years, most notably at the Battle of Trafalgar (1805).
28 May–11 November – American Revolutionary War: In response to the threat of invasion from France, major militia camps are set up at Coxheath Common in Kent and Warley Common near Brentwood, Essex. Coxheath Camp becomes a fashionable gathering for high society.
3 June – Papists Act is the first to provide a measure of Catholic relief.
13 June – American Revolutionary War: The Carlisle Peace Commission of British envoys arrive in York, Pennsylvania to present the Continental Congress with a peace plan, which Congress quickly rejects.
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This entry incorporates text from “1778 in Great Britain” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.