1783

• The Kingdoms of Kartli and Kakheti in Georgia ask Russia to protect them against the Ottomans.
• The army of Oyo, a powerful state in West Africa, is defeated by an army from neighboring Borgu; this event will lead to the weakening of the Oyo state.
• Russia annexes Crimea and expels the Turks.
• A famine begins in Japan which will kill nearly one million people in ten years.
• 4 Feb.

An earthquake in Calabria, Italy, kills thirty thousand people.

Spain ends its siege of Gibraltar, allowing the British to maintain a fortress there.

Olaudah Equiano, a former slave living in London, informs British philanthropist Granville Sharp of an incident on the slave ship Zong. Sharp unsuccessfully tries to prevent the ship's owners from collecting insurance for drowned slaves, and public outcry leads to a campaign against the slave trade.

Tipu Sultan of India...