1794 CE

The United States Government authorizes the building of the first six United States Navy vessels (in 1797 the first 3 frigates, USS United States, USS Constellation and USS Constitution go into service), not to be confused with October 13, 1775, which is observed as the Navy's Birthday . French Revolution: Robespierre establishes the Cult of the Supreme Being as the new state religion of the French First Republic. Napoleon is arrested and put under house arrest at Nice for his association with the Robespierres during their fall in the Thermidorian Reaction. He is later taken to Antibes and detained in a military fort.

In the 1790s, the 18th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

January 13 – The U.S. Congress enacts a law providing for, effective May 1, 1795, a United States flag of 15 stars and 15 stripes, in recognition of the recent admission of Vermont and Kentucky as the 14th and 15th states. A subsequent act restores the number of stripes to 13, but provides for additional stars upon the admission of each additional state.source
January 21 – King George III of Great Britain delivers the speech opening Parliament and recommends a continuation of Britain's war with France.source
February 11 – The first session of the United States Senate is open to the public.source
March 4 – The Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution is passed by Congress for submission to the states for ratification.source
March 27 – The U.S. Senate passes a rule ending its policy of closing all of its sessions to the public.source
27 March – Denmark-Norway and Sweden form a neutrality compact.Denmark source
1 April – John Macarthur receives a further grant of 100 acres at Parramatta.Australia source
April 19 – Britain, Prussia and the Netherlands sign a treaty of alliance against France.source
June 17 – The Anglo-Corsican Kingdom is established.source
September 28 – Austria, Britain and Russia ally against France.source
October 22 – Fort Wayne founded in what is now the U.S. state of Indiana.source
October - Morgan John Rhys arrives in Pennsylvania, where he founds the Welsh colony of Cambria.Wales source
16 November – Administrative reorganisation adopted, introducing arrondissements, civil marriage, free trade with France; abolishing monopolies and noble titles.Belgium source
November 19 – The United States and Great Britain sign the Jay Treaty (coming into effect in 1796), which attempts to clear up some issues left over from the American Revolutionary War and secures a decade of peaceful trade between the two nations. Britain agrees to evacuate border forts in the Northwest Territory (roughly the area north of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi) and thereby end British support for the Indians.source
19 November – Britain and the United States sign the Jay Treaty (coming into effect 1796), which attempts to clear up some issues left over from the American Revolutionary War and secures a decade of peaceful trade between the two nations.United Kingdom source
November 19 – The United States and Great Britain sign the Jay Treaty (coming into effect 1796), which attempts to clear up some issues left over from the American Revolutionary War and secures a decade of peaceful trade between the two nations. Britain agrees to evacuate border forts in the Northwest Territory (roughly the area north of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi) and thereby end British support for the Indians.United States source
Jay Treaty establishes neutral commission to settle border disputes between United States and Canada; restores trade between the United States and British colonies of Canada; also guarantees Indians free movement across the border.Canada source
Vilna Governorate-General createdRussia source

Conflict & Security

March 12 – General Antoni Madaliński, a commander of the National Cavalry in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, disobeys an order from the ruling Russian Empire and Kingdom of Prussia imposing demobilization, advancing his troops from Ostrołęka to Kraków.source
March 23 – British troops capture Martinique from the French.source
March 24 – Tadeusz Kościuszko makes his proclamation starting the Kościuszko Uprising against the Russian Empire and Kingdom of Prussia in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Prussian Partition.source
April 4 – Battle of Racławice: Polish supporters of the Kościuszko Uprising defeat forces of the Russian Empire.source
April 17–19 – Kościuszko Uprising – Warsaw Uprising: The Polish people overthrow the Russian garrison in Warsaw.source
April 17–19 - Warsaw Uprising (1794)Russia source
April 29–May 1 – Battle of Boulou: The French defeat the Spanish and Portuguese forces.source
April 29-May 1 - Second Battle of BoulouSpain source
May 18 – Battle of Tourcoing: French troops defeat British forces.source
May 21 – the French Revolutionary Government decides that the Terror would be centralised, with almost all the tribunals in the provinces closed and all the trials held in Paris.source
May 28–June 1 – The Glorious First of June (Battle of Ushant): The British win a crushing tactical victory over the French fleet, but the merchant convoy escorted by the French fleet arrives safely in France.source
May 30–June 4 – Battle of Port-Républicain: British troops capture Port-au-Prince in Haiti from the French.source
May – Habeas corpus suspended. Robert Watt, who has plotted to seize Edinburgh Castle, is tried and executed for treason.Scotland source
June 17 – Battle of Mykonos: The British Royal Navy captures French frigate Sibylle.source
June 17 - June 26 – Battle of Fleurus: The Austrians and their allies are defeated by France, leading to the loss of the Austrian Netherlands.Austria source
June 26 – Battle of Fleurus: French forces defeat the Austrians and their allies, leading to permanent loss of the Austrian Netherlands and destruction of the Dutch Republic. French use of an observation balloon marks the first participation of an aircraft in battle.source
26 June – Battle of Fleurus: decisive French victory in the Flanders Campaign of the French Revolutionary Wars.Belgium source
July 12 – Horatio Nelson loses the sight in his right eye in the British Siege of Calvi in Corsica.source
July 13 – Battle of Trippstadt between French forces and those of Prussia and Austria (First Coalition).source
July 13–September 6 – Kościuszko Uprising: Siege of Warsaw – The Polish people resist a siege by armies of the Russian Empire and Kingdom of Prussia.source
July 17 – The sixteen Carmelite Martyrs of Compiègne are guillotined in Paris in the last stage of the French Revolution's Reign of Terror.source
July 17 – Whiskey Rebellion: 500 armed Pennsylvanians attack and burn the home of General John Neville.United States source
August 20 – Battle of Fallen Timbers in Northwestern Ohio: American troops under the command of General Anthony Wayne (nicknamed "Mad Anthony") defeat Native American tribes of the Western Confederacy.source
August 21 – British troops capture Corsica following the bombardment by Nelson.source
September - The 80th Foot, commanded by Henry Paget, begins service in Flanders.Wales source
October 2 – Battle of Aldenhoven between French forces and those of Austria.source
October 4 – In the first and only instance of an incumbent United States president leading men into battle, George Washington arrives at Carlisle, Pennsylvania to guide the U.S. Army's suppression of the Whiskey Rebellion. The rebels soon disperse and the insurrection collapses by the end of the month.source
October 10 – Battle of Maciejowice: Forces of the Russian Empire defeat Polish supporters of the Kościuszko Uprising; Tadeusz Kościuszko is wounded and captured.source
November 4 – Battle of Praga: Russian General Alexander Suvorov storms Warsaw in the war against the Polish Kościuszko Uprising and captures Praga, one of its suburbs, unwittingly killing many civilians.source
November 16 – The Kościuszko Uprising ends in the defeat of Tadeusz Kościuszko and his forces.source
November 20 – Battle of St-Laurent-de-la-Muga fought between French and Spanish forces.source
17 December – Grose leaves New South Wales for England. His positions as acting governor and commander of the New South Wales Corps are both filled by William Paterson.Australia source

Exploration & Expansion

February 8 – Wreck of the Ten Sail on Grand Cayman.source
11 June – Friderich Christian Hager receives a commission as governor of the Danish Gold Coast.Denmark source
August 11 – Sveinn Pálsson and two of his companions climb Öræfajökull glacier for the first time.Iceland source
20 August – A third attempt to cross the Blue Mountains is made, this time led by Henry Hacking; they return on 27th – unsuccessful.Australia source
15 October – Catholic seminarians forced to leave the English College, Douai, settle at Crook Hall, County Durham.United Kingdom source
November – Richard Lovell Edgeworth demonstrates a semaphore line from Donaghadee across the Irish Sea to Portpatrick in Scotland.Ireland source
November – Irish inventor Richard Lovell Edgeworth demonstrates a semaphore line from Donaghadee across the Irish Sea to Portpatrick.Scotland source
The first road between Sydney and Paramatta is clearedAustralia source
Nickajack Expedition, conflict between White frontiersmen and the Chickamauga CherokeeUnited States source

Religion & Belief

23 April – Francis II acclaimed Duke of Brabant and Limburg in Brussels.Belgium source
May 7 – Maximilien Robespierre establishes the Cult of the Supreme Being as the new state religion of the French First Republic.source
7 May – French Revolution: Robespierre establishes the Cult of the Supreme Being as the new state religion of the French First Republic.France source
French troops set fire to Aulne Abbey and Lobbes Abbey.Belgium source
20 July – François Antoine Marie Constantin de Méan et de Beaurieux, prince-bishop of Liège, flees to Germany.Belgium source
December 23 – St. Louis Cathedral, New Orleans is dedicated.source
Lords lieutenant appointed permanently across Scotland by royal warrant.Scotland source
Uvedale Price's Essay on the Picturesque, As Compared With The Sublime and The Beautiful published.United Kingdom source
St Mary's College is established at Old Oscott, near Birmingham, the first Roman Catholic seminary in England since the Reformation.United Kingdom source
Iolo Morganwg - Poems Lyric and PastoralWales source

Economy & Finance

January 1 – The Stibo Group is founded by Niels Lund as a printing company in Aarhus (Denmark).source
March 22 – Congress prohibits American ships from supplying slaves to any nation other than the United States, setting a penalty of forfeiture of the ship and a $2,000 fine.source
Lieutenant-Governor of Norfolk Island – Philip Gidley KingAustralia source
Det Dramatiske Selskab in Bergen is founded.Norway source
Oban distillery established by brothers John and Hugh Stevenson.Scotland source
Richard Crawshay buys out Anthony Bacon to become sole proprietor of Cyfarthfa Ironworks.Wales source

Technology & Infrastructure

February - Mumbles Lighthouse is completed and brought into use.Wales source
March 14 – Eli Whitney is granted a United States patent for the cotton gin.source
March 27 – The United States Government authorizes the building of the first six United States Navy vessels; in 1797 the first three frigates, USS United States, USS Constellation and USS Constitution will go into service (not to be confused with October 13, 1775, which is observed as the Navy's Birthday).source
March 27 – The United States Government authorizes the building of the first six United States Navy vessels (in 1797 the first 3 frigates, USS United States, USS Constellation and USS Constitution go into service), not to be confused with October 13, 1775, which is observed as the Navy's Birthday .United States source
14 May – Hambletonian wins his first race. He will win every subsequent race he finishes in his career.United Kingdom source
The Oban distillery is built in Scotland.source
1794 – Baranov builds first vessel in northwestern America at Voskres-senski on Kenai.Canada source
The printing press on Hrappsey ceased operations.Iceland source
Tromsø was issued its city charter.Norway source
Kharitonov Palace commissionedRussia source
Original Pentland Skerries lighthouse on Muckle Skerry built, engineered by Thomas Smith with the work superintendend by his stepson Robert Stevenson, the latter's first official work for the Commissioners of Northern Light Houses.Scotland source

Science & Discovery

25 June – Burns sets out on his second Galloway tour.Scotland source
Mary Leadbeater publishes Extracts and Original Anecdotes for the Improvement of Youth anonymously in Dublin.Ireland source
Thomas Paine's The Age of Reason published.United Kingdom source
Erasmus Darwin's Zoönomia published, anticipating later theories of evolution.United Kingdom source

Health & Medicine

8 May – Robert Burns' song Scots Wha Hae published in The Morning Chronicle.Scotland source
10 June – Law of 22 Prairial enacted, also known as the loi de la Grande Terreur.France source
1 August - A new sumptuary law (the last sumptuary law in Sweden) introduced a number of restrictions, among them notably the ban of the use of coffee, an extremely unpopular law, as coffee had by then been an everyday habit for all classes for decades, official farewell parties are held for coffee the days before the law is enforced (the law was abolished in 1796).Sweden source
26 November – French authorities order requisitioning and stockpiling of food.Belgium source
December – Glasgow Royal Infirmary opens.Scotland source
Hospitals pass to ownership of the state.France source
Hester Thrale - British Synonymy: or an attempt at regulating the choice of words in familiar conversationWales source

Crime & Justice

27 March – The Marquis de Condorcet is arrested (while in disguise) in Clamart and imprisoned in Bourg-l'Égalité; two days later he is found dead in his cell.France source
April 28 – Sardinian Vespers: The people of Cagliari in Sardinia oust the viceroy and his Piedmontese functionaries.source
May 8 – Reign of Terror: chemist Antoine Lavoisier is tried, convicted and executed in Paris with 27 co-defendants also associated with the former ferme générale.source
29 June – physician and poet William Drennan, a leading figure in the Dublin Society of United Irishmen, is tried for seditious libel for circulating a pamphlet Address to the Volunteers in 1792; he is acquitted but withdraws from further direct political commitment.Ireland source
July–August – A large strike among carpenters and later some 2,000 other craftsmen hits Copenhagen, resulting in the arrest of more than 200 carpenters. It is met with a general strike involving more than 2,000 craftsmen.Denmark source
August 9 – Napoleon is arrested and put under house arrest at Nice for his association with the Robespierres during their fall in the Thermidorian Reaction. He is later taken to Antibes and detained in a military fort.source
21 September – Artworks confiscated from castles, churches and religious houses shipped to France.Belgium source
23 September - Magdalena Rudenschöld is pilloried in Stockholm for her part in the Armfelt Conspiracy.Sweden source
November – 1794 Treason Trials.United Kingdom source
Inspector of Public Works – John MacarthurAustralia source
Peter Williams - Gwreiddyn y MaterWales source

Disasters & Accidents

26 February – The first Christiansborg Palace is destroyed in a fire.Denmark source
4 May – Dublin Society of United Irishmen suppressed.Ireland source
23 July – Ratcliffe Fire destroys over 400 homes in London.United Kingdom source
December 8 – The Great New Orleans Fire (1794) burns over 200 buildings in the French Quarter.source

Climate & Environment

15 May - The free port status of Marstrand, the only one in Sweden, is removed.Sweden source
June–July – Mount Vesuvius erupts in Italy; the town of Torre del Greco is destroyed.source

Culture & Society

3 January – Aarhus Stiftstidende, a local newspaper based in Aarhus, is published for the first time.Denmark source
February 4 – French Revolution: The National Convention of the French First Republic abolishes slavery.source
10 February – Alexander Gordon, 4th Duke of Gordon, authorized to raise the 92nd (Gordon Highlanders) Regiment of Foot (first parades 24 June). This year also the Duke becomes Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland.Scotland source
March 11 – Canonsburg Academy (modern-day Washington & Jefferson College) is chartered by the Pennsylvania General Assembly.source
21 April - Charles Kemble, Brecon-born brother of Sarah Siddons, makes his first appearance on the London stage as Malcolm in Macbeth.Wales source
June 24 – Bowdoin College is founded in Brunswick, Maine.source
June 29 – Petition of Free Negroes.Canada source
9 July – Tree of Liberty erected on the Place Royale (Brussels).Belgium source
August 1 – Aristocrats in Sweden gather to mourn the demise of coffee after the beverage is forbidden by royal decree.source
August 29 – Stonyhurst College is finally established as a Roman Catholic school in Lancashire, England, having had several European locations.source
August – Colombian Antonio Nariño is denounced as a traitor after he translates and publishes the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.source
September 10 – The University of Tennessee is established at Knoxville.source
November 14 – The first recorded meeting of the Franklin Literary Society is held at Canonsburg Academy (modern-day Washington & Jefferson College).source
The Ayrshire (Earl of Carrick's Own) Yeomanry, a British Yeomanry Cavalry Regiment, is formed by the Earl of Cassillis at Culzean Castle, Ayrshire.source
The Icelandic National Educational Association was founded on the initiative of Magnús Stephensen.Iceland source
Fru Haugans Hotel in Mosjøen is founded (Northern Norway's oldest hotel in continuous operation).Norway source
Thomas Paine's The Age of Reason, dedicated to "Fellow Citizens of the United States of America", is published.United States source

Births

February 20 – William Carleton, Irish novelist (died 1869)source
February 21 – Antonio López de Santa Anna, Mexican general and President of Mexico (died 1876)source
26 February – Barthélémy de Theux de Meylandt, politician (died 1874)Belgium source
March 5 – Robert Cooper Grier, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (died 1870)source
April 10 – Matthew Calbraith Perry, American commodore (died 1858)source
April 11 – Edward Everett, American politician (died 1865)source
April 11 – Edward Everett, politician (died 1865)United States source
May 24 – William Whewell, English scientist, philosopher and historian of science (died 1866)source
May 27 – Cornelius Vanderbilt, American entrepreneur (died 1877)source
June 16 – María Trinidad Sánchez, heroine of the Dominican War of Independence (died 1846)source
July 5 – Sylvester Graham, American nutritionist, inventor (died 1851)source
July 7 – Frances Stackhouse Acton, British botanist, archaeologist, writer and artist (died 1881)source
July 18 – Feargus O'Connor, Irish political radical, Chartist leader (died 1855)source
September 24 – Jeanne Villepreux-Power, French marine biologist (died 1871)source
November 3 – William Cullen Bryant, American poet (died 1878)source
November 10 – Robert Towns, merchant, founder of Townsville, Queensland, Australia (died 1873)source
10 November – Robert Towns, master mariner (died 1873)Australia source
Anselm Hüttenbrenner, (October 13, 1794) was an Austrian composer and pianist.Austria source

Deaths

January 16 – Edward Gibbon, English historian (born 1737)source
March 29 – Marquis de Condorcet, French mathematician, philosopher and political scientist (died in prison) (born 1743)source
April 5 – Reign of Terror: Georges Danton and Camille Desmoulins are executed.source
April 5 – Camille Desmoulins, French Revolutionary leader (executed) (born 1760)source
April 5 – Georges Danton, French Revolutionary leader (executed) (born 1759)source
April 27 – Sir William Jones, British philologist (born 1746)source
May 8 – Antoine Lavoisier, French chemist (executed) (born 1743)source
May 10 – Élisabeth of France, French princess (executed) (born 1764)source
18 May – Yemmerrawanne dies in England.Australia source
June 19 – Richard Henry Lee, 12th president of the Confederation Congress. signatory of the Continental Association, Declaration of Independence, and United States Constitution (born 1732)United States source
June 27 - Wenzel Anton, Prince of Kaunitz-Rietberg, Austrian statesman (born 1711)Austria source
July 13 – James Lind, British pioneer of naval hygiene in the Royal Navy (born 1716)source
July 27 (9 Thermidor) – French Revolution – Thermidorian Reaction: Maximilien, Augustin Robespierre and Saint-Just are arrested on the orders of the French National Convention; they are executed the next day, ending the French Revolution's Reign of Terror.source
July 28 – Louis Antoine de Saint-Just, French Revolutionary leader (executed) (born 1767)source
July 28 – Maximilien Robespierre, French Revolutionary leader (executed) (born 1758)source
November 15 – John Witherspoon, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (born 1723)source
November 20 - Luis Firmín de Carvajal, Conde de la Unión, Peruvian-born general, killed during the Siege of Roses (1794–95) (born 1752)Spain source
November 28 – Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, Prussian army officer (born 1730)source