Events1 January - First edition of The Times published under this title (previously The Daily Universal Register).[1]

9 January - Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa founded.[2]

18 January - Captain Arthur Phillip's ship arrives at Botany Bay.

26 January - Eleven ships of First Fleet from Botany Bay led by Arthur Phillip land in what would become Sydney, Australia. Britain establishes the prison colony of New South Wales, the first permanent European settlement on the continent.

31 January - Henry Benedict Stuart becomes the new Stuart claimant to the throne of Great Britain as King Henry IX and the figurehead of Jacobitism.

17 February - The uninhabited Lord Howe Island is discovered by the brig HMS Supply, commanded by Lieutenant Ball, who is on his way from Botany Bay to Norfolk Island with convicts to start a penal settlement there.

14 March - The Edinburgh Evening Courant carries a notice of £200 reward for capture of William Brodie, town councilor doubling as a burglar.

20 May - Marylebone Cricket Club publishes revised Laws of Cricket, establishing their position as the final arbiter of the rules of the game.[2]

13 August - The Triple Alliance is formed between Britain, Prussia and the Dutch Republic.[3]

22 August - Britain signs a treaty with the chiefs of Sierra Leone allowing the creation of a settlement for freed slaves.[4]

27 August - Trial of William Brodie begins in Edinburgh. He is sentenced to death by hanging.

1 October - William Brodie hanged.
November–February 1789 - A period of a mental instability for the King, George III, causes a regency crisis only averted by his sudden recovery the following year.[5]

[undated] UndatedParliament begins an investigation into the slave trade led by Thomas Clarkson and William Wilberforce.[5]