at government expense, during periods when the Congress is in session. John Adams returns to Paris as the first United States Minister to France. November 4 – Elias Boudinot of New Jersey is elected the new President of the Congress of the Confederation. November 30 – American Revolutionary War: In Paris, representatives from the United States and the Kingdom of Great Britain sign preliminary peace articles (later formalized in the Treaty of Paris). December 12 – American Revolutionary War: Action of 12 December 1782: A naval engagement off Ferrol, Spain, in which the British ship commanded by James Luttrell successfully attacks a convoy of French and American ships attempting to supply the United States. December 14 – The Montgolfier brothers first test fly a hot air balloon in France; it floats nearly . December 16 – East India Company: Hada and Mada Miah lead a rebellion in the Indian subcontinent against East India Company officer Robert Lindsay and his troops in Sylhet Shahi Eidgah. Date unknown Chief Kamehameha I of Hawaii gains control of the northern part of the island of Hawaii, after defeating his cousin Kīwalaʻō. Princess Yekaterina Vorontsova-Dashkova is the first woman in the world to direct a scientific academy, the Imperial Academy of Arts and Sciences. London creates the Foot Patrol for public security. The British Parliament extends James Watt's patent for the steam engine to the year 1800. The North Carolina General Assembly incorporates Washington, North Carolina. In China, the Siku Quanshu is completed, the largest literary compilation in China's history (surpassing the Yongle Encyclopedia of the 15th century). The books are bound in 36,381 volumes (册) with more than 79,000 chapters (卷), comprising about 2.3 million pages, and approximately 800 million Chinese characters. The first theater in the Baltic, the Riga City Theater, is founded. Saint Petersburg, Russia has 300,000 inhabitants. Births January 5 – Robert Morrison, Scottish Protestant missionary to China (d. 1834) January 18 – Daniel Webster, American statesman (d. 1852) January 22 – Philip Hamilton, son of American Founding Father, Alexander Hamilton (d. 1801) January 27 – Titumir, Bengali revolutionary (d. 1831) February 15 – William Miller, American preacher (d. 1849) March 4 – Johann Rudolf Wyss, Swiss writer (d. 1830) April 7 – Marie-Anne Libert, Belgian botanist (d. 1865) April 10 – María Antonia Santos Plata, Neogranadine rebel leader, heroine (d. 1819) April 21 – Friedrich Fröbel, German pedagogue (d. 1852)