Editing 1788 (section)

=== January–March ===
* [[January 1]] – The first edition of ''[[The Times]]'', previously ''The Daily Universal Register'', is published in [[London]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Steinberg |first1=S. H. |title=Five Hundred Years of Printing |date=2017 |publisher=Courier Dover Publications |isbn=9780486814452 |page=14 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LAONDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA14 |language=en}}</ref>
* [[January 2]] – [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] ratifies the [[United States Constitution]], and becomes the fourth [[U.S. state]] under the new government.<ref>{{cite book|title=Census of population and housing (2000): Georgia Population and Housing Unit Counts|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7VHtNij1aQYC&pg=PP13|publisher=DIANE Publishing|isbn=978-1-4289-8569-8|pages=13}}</ref>
* [[January 9]] – [[Connecticut]] ratifies the [[United States Constitution]], and becomes the fifth [[U.S. state]].
* [[January 18]] – The leading ship (armed tender [[HMS Supply (1759)|HMS ''Supply'']]) in Captain [[Arthur Phillip]]'s [[First Fleet]] arrives at [[Botany Bay]], to colonise Australia.
* [[January 22]] – The [[Continental Congress|Congress of the Confederation]], effectively a [[caretaker government]] until the United States Constitution can be ratified by at least nine of the 13 states, elects [[Cyrus Griffin]] as its last [[President of the Continental Congress|president]].<ref name="Harper1788">''Harper's Encyclopaedia of United States History from 458 A. D. to 1909'', ed. by Benson John Lossing and, Woodrow Wilson (Harper & Brothers, 1910) p167</ref>
* [[January 24]] – The [[Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse|La Perouse]] expedition in the ''[[French ship Astrolabe (1781)|Astrolabe]]'' and ''[[French ship Boussole (1782)|Boussole]]'' arrives off [[Botany Bay]], just as Captain [[Arthur Phillip]] is attempting to move his colony from there to [[Sydney Cove]] in [[Port Jackson]].
* [[January 26]] – [[Australia Day]]: Eleven ships of the [[First Fleet]] from [[Botany Bay]], led by Captain [[Arthur Phillip]], land at [[Sydney Cove]] (which will become Sydney), Australia, where he determines to establish the British prison colony of [[Colony of New South Wales|New South Wales]], the first permanent European settlement on the continent.
* [[January 31]] – [[Henry Benedict Stuart]] becomes the new Stuart claimant to the throne of Great Britain, as King Henry IX and the figurehead of [[Jacobitism]].
* [[February 1]] – [[Isaac Briggs]] and [[William Longstreet]] patent a [[steamboat]].
* [[February 6]] – [[Massachusetts]] ratifies the [[United States Constitution]], and becomes the sixth [[U.S. state]].
* [[February 7]] – Sydney is named and founded, by the British Colony of New South Wales.
* [[February 9]] – [[Habsburg monarchy|Austria]] enters the [[Russo-Turkish War (1787–92)]], and attacks [[Moldavia]].
* [[February 17]] – The uninhabited [[Lord Howe Island]] is discovered by the brig [[HMS Supply (1759)|HMS ''Supply'']], commanded by [[Henry Lidgbird Ball|Lieutenant Ball]], who is on his way from [[Botany Bay]] to [[Norfolk Island]] with convicts to start a penal settlement there. They arrive at Norfolk Island on [[March 6]].
* [[March 10]] – The [[Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse|La Perouse]] expedition leaves [[Sydney Cove]] for [[New Caledonia]], never to be seen again.
* [[March 14]] – The ''[[Edinburgh Evening Courant]]'' carries a notice of £200 reward for the capture of [[William Brodie]], a town councilor doubling as a burglar.
* [[March 21]] – The [[Great New Orleans Fire (1788)|Great New Orleans Fire]] destroys 856 buildings, including [[St. Louis Cathedral (New Orleans)|St. Louis Cathedral]] and [[The Cabildo]], leaving most of the town in ruins.