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

Astronomy

Armagh Observatory founded by Richard Robinson, 1st Baron Rokeby, Archbishop of Armagh.

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.

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.[1]
Publication in Montpellier of Jean-Antoine Chaptal's Élémens de chimie, in which he coins the word nitrogen (nitrogène).

Stainless steel produced in England

Awards

Copley Medal: Not awarded

Births

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

Deaths

February 5 - William Cullen, Scottish physician and chemist (b. 1710)
April 17 - Benjamin Franklin, American scientist and inventor, known for his experiments with electricity (b. 1706)
July 17 - Johann II Bernoulli, Swiss mathematician (b. 1710)

Referemces

^ "Patent Number: US0X0000001".