Editing 1789 (section)

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* [[Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor]], decrees that all peasant labor obligations be converted into cash payments.
* The [[Qajar dynasty]] establish themselves as rulers in [[Qajar Iran|Iran]].
* The ''[[Traité Élémentaire de Chimie]]'' (Elementary Treatise of Chemistry), an influential chemistry textbook by [[Antoine Lavoisier]], is published; translated into English in [[1790]], it comes to be considered the first modern chemical textbook.
* German chemist [[Martin Heinrich Klaproth]] discovers the element [[uranium]], while studying the mineral [[pitchblende]].
* The [[Bengal Presidency]] first establishes a [[penal colony]], in the [[Andaman Islands]].
* [[Famines in Ethiopia|Famine in Ethiopia]].
* [[Thomas Jefferson]] returns from Europe, bringing the first ''[[macaroni]]'' machine to the United States.
* Influenced by [[Benjamin Rush]]'s argument against the excessive use of alcohol, about 200 farmers in a Connecticut community form a [[temperance movement in the United States]].
* [[Fort Washington (Cincinnati, Ohio)]] is built to protect early U.S. settlements in the [[Northwest Territory]].
* Former slave [[Olaudah Equiano]]'s autobiography ''[[The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano]]'', one of the earliest published works by a black writer, is published in London.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/launch_tl_british.shtml|title=BBC History British History Timeline|access-date=2007-09-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070909012414/http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/launch_tl_british.shtml |archive-date=2007-09-09<!--Added by DASHBot-->}}</ref>
* ''[[Peggy of Castletown|Peggy]]'' of [[Castletown, Isle of Man]], the world's oldest surviving private [[yacht]], is built.
* The pedal-powered [[tricycle]] is invented by two Frenchmen, Blanchard and Maguier.</onlyinclude>