1790 in science

The year 1790 in science and technology involved some significant events.

Astronomy

 * Armagh Observatory, founded in Ireland by Richard Robinson, 1st Baron Rokeby, Archbishop of Armagh, begins to function.

Biology

 * English ornithologist John Latham publishes his Index Ornithologicus, including a scientific description of the black swan.
 * English botanical illustrator James Sowerby begins publication of his English Botany, with text by James E. Smith.
 * Goethe publishes Metamorphosis of Plants.

Chemistry

 * July 31 – Samuel Hopkins of Vermont is granted a patent for a potash production technique, the first issued under the 1st United States Congress's Patent Act of 1790.
 * Publication in Montpellier of Jean-Antoine Chaptal's Élémens de chimie, in which he coins the word nitrogen (nitrogène).
 * Adair Crawford, working with William Cruickshank, proposes the existence of the alkaline earth metal located near Strontian in Scotland which will later be isolated at strontium.

Physiology and medicine

 * First recorded case of artificial insemination when British surgeon John Hunter helps impregnate a linen draper's wife.

Technology

 * January 30 – Henry Greathead's Original rescue life-boat is tested on the River Tyne in England.

Awards

 * Copley Medal: Not awarded

Births

 * February 3 – Gideon Mantell, English paleontologist (died 1852)
 * March 12 – John Frederic Daniell, English chemist and physicist (died 1845)
 * May 23 – Jules Dumont d'Urville, French explorer (died 1842)
 * May 30 – John Herapath, English physicist (died 1868)
 * July 1 – George Everest, Welsh surveyor and geographer (died 1866)
 * October 25 – Robert Stirling, Scottish inventor (died 1878)
 * November 17 – August Ferdinand Möbius, German mathematician (died 1868)
 * December 9 – Friederike Lienig, Latvian entomologist (d. 1855)
 * December 19 – William Edward Parry, English Arctic explorer (died 1855)

Deaths

 * February 5 – William Cullen, Scottish physician and chemist (born 1710)
 * March 22 – Anthony Addington, English physician (born 1713)
 * April 17 – Benjamin Franklin, American statesman and polymath, known for his experiments with electricity (born 1706)
 * July 17 – Johann II Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician (born 1710)