1797 CE

The Treaty of the Third Partition of Poland is signed in St. Petersburg by the Russian Empire, Austria and the Kingdom of Prussia. French Revolutionary Wars – Battle of Cape St. Vincent: The British Royal Navy under Admiral Sir John Jervis defeats a larger Spanish fleet off Cape St. Vincent, Portugal. Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (1797), an amphibious assault by the Royal Navy on the Spanish port city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Canary Islands launched by Rear-Admiral Horatio Nelson. The result was a Spanish victory by truce after Nelson's party had lost several hundred men.

In the 1790s, the 18th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 3 – The Treaty of Tripoli, a peace treaty between the United States and Ottoman Tripolitania, is signed at Algiers (see also 1796).source
  • January 7 – The parliament of the Cisalpine Republic adopts the Italian green-white-red tricolour as their official flag (this is considered the birth of the flag of Italy).source
  • January 26 – The Treaty of the Third Partition of Poland is signed in St. Petersburg by the Russian Empire, Austria and the Kingdom of Prussia.source
  • 26 January – The Treaty of the Third Partition of Poland is signed in St. Petersburg by the Russian Empire, Austria and the Kingdom of Prussia.Germanysource
  • February 19 – Treaty of Tolentino: Pope Pius VI signs a peace treaty with Revolutionary France. He is forced to deliver works of art, treasures, territory, the Comtat Venaissin, and 30 million francs.source
  • March 4 – John Adams is sworn in as the second president of the United States, and Thomas Jefferson is sworn in as the second vice president.United Statessource
  • June 17 - Fath-Ali Shah Qajar ascended to the throne.Iransource
  • June 29 – Napoleon Bonaparte decrees the birth of the Cisalpine Republic; he appoints ministers and establishes the first constitution.source
  • July 9 – U.S. Senator William Blount becomes the first federal legislator to be expelled from office, as his fellow Senators vote 25 to 1 to block him from his seat during an investigation against him on charges of criminal conspiracy.source
  • October 17 – The Treaty of Campo Formio ends the War of the First Coalition.source
  • October 18 – The XYZ Affair inflames tensions between France and the United States when American negotiators Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, John Marshall, and Elbridge Gerry meet with French government representatives Jean-Conrad Hottinguer, Pierre Bellamy and Lucien Hauteval and are told that a treaty between France and the U.S. will require payment of a bribe to France's Foreign Minister Charles Talleyrand and a large loan of American cash to France. Pinckney tells people later that his response was "No, no, not a sixpence!"; Hottinguer, Bellamy and Hauteval are referred to, respectively, as "X", "Y" and "Z" in U.S. government reports on the failed negotiations.source
  • 18 October – By the Treaty of Campo Formio the Austrian monarchy accepts the French annexation of the former Austrian Netherlands.Belgiumsource
  • The secret Lautaro Lodge as the Logia de los Caballeros Racionales ("Lodge of Rational Knights") is founded, perhaps in Cádiz; membership will include many leaders of the Spanish American wars of independence such as Francisco de Miranda, Bernardo O'Higgins and José de San Martín.source
  • Treaty of Campo Formio 17 October 1797. The treaty's public articles concerned only France and Austria and called for a Congress of Rastatt to be held to negotiate a final peace for the Holy Roman Empire. In the treaty's secret articles, Austria as the personal state of the Emperor promised to work with France to certain ends at the congress. Among other provisions, the treaty meant the definitive end to the ancient Republic of Venice, which was disbanded and partitioned by the French and the Austrians.Austriasource
  • The historical local Lagtings and the office of Lawspeaker was abolished.Norwaysource
  • Pauline Laws - house laws of the House of Romanov establishedRussiasource
  • Guantánamo was founded in 1797.Spainsource

Conflict & Security

  • January 13 – Action of 13 January 1797, part of the War of the First Coalition: Two British Royal Navy frigates, HMS Indefatigable and HMS Amazon, drive the French 74-gun ship of the line Droits de l'Homme aground on the coast of Brittany, resulting in over 900 deaths.source
  • January 14 – War of the First Coalition – Battle of Rivoli: French forces under General Napoleon Bonaparte defeat an Austrian army of 28,000 men, under Feldzeugmeister József Alvinczi, near Rivoli (modern-day Italy), ending Austria's fourth and final attempt to relieve the fortress city of Mantua.source
  • January 15–16 – War of the First Coalition – Battle of La Favorita: French forces (28,000 men) under Napoleon Bonaparte stop the Austrian push to relieve Mantua. The garrison under Field Marshal Dagobert von Wurmser is deprived of food and reinforcements. The next day, Napoleon orders the city to be surrounded and sends French troops under General Pierre Augereau to blockade the approaches from Legnago.source
  • February 2 – Siege of Mantua: Field marshal Dagobert von Wurmser surrenders the fortress city to the French; only 16,000 men of the garrison are capable of marching out as prisoners of war.source
  • February 3 – Battle of Faenza: A French corps (9,000 men) under General Claude-Victor Perrin defeats the forces from the Papal States, at Castel Bolognese near Faenza, Italy.source
  • February 14 – French Revolutionary Wars – Battle of Cape St. Vincent: The British Royal Navy under Admiral Sir John Jervis defeats a larger Spanish fleet off Cape St. Vincent, Portugal.source
  • 14 February – Battle of Cape St Vincent: The Royal Navy under Admiral Sir John Jervis defeats a larger Spanish fleet off Cape St. Vincent, Portugal. On 23 May, Jervis is made Earl of St Vincent, and Horatio Nelson made a Knight of the Bath, for their part in the victory.United Kingdomsource
  • February 18 – Invasion of Trinidad: Spanish Governor José María Chacón peacefully surrenders the colony of Trinidad to a British naval force, commanded by Sir Ralph Abercromby.source
  • February 22 – The last invasion of Britain begins: French forces, under the command of American Colonel William Tate, land near Fishguard, Wales.source
  • 22 February - The Last invasion of Britain begins. French forces under the command of American Colonel William Tate land near Fishguard in Wales.Francesource
  • February 22 – The last invasion of Britain: An American colonel named William Tate leads French forces in a landing near Fishguard in Wales.United Statessource
  • February 25 – William Tate surrenders to the British at Fishguard.source
  • 9 March - Last invasion of Britain: HMS St Fiorenzo, under the command of Sir Harry Neale and Captain John Cooke's HMS Nymphe, capture La Resistance and La Constance in the Irish Sea.Walessource
  • March 16 – Battle of Valvasone: The Austrian army, led by Archduke Charles, fights a rearguard action at the crossing of the Tagliamento River, but is defeated by Napoleon Bonaparte at Valvasone.source
  • March 21 – Battle of Parramatta: Resistance leader Pemulwuy leads a group of aboriginal warriors, estimated to be at least 100, in an attack on a government farm at Toongabbie in Sydney, Australia.source
  • April 16 – The Spithead and Nore mutinies break out in the British Royal Navy.source
  • April 17 – Veronese Easter: Citizens of Verona, Italy, began an unsuccessful eight-day rebellion against the French occupying forces.source
  • April 17 – Battle of San Juan: Sir Ralph Abercromby unsuccessfully invades San Juan, Puerto Rico in what will be one of the largest British attacks on Spanish territories in the western hemisphere, and one of the worst defeats of the British Royal Navy for years to come.source
  • April 18 – Armistice of Leoben: On behalf of the French Republic, a delegation under Napoleon Bonaparte signs a peace treaty with the Holy Roman Empire at Leoben.source
  • May 12 – War of the First Coalition: Napoleon Bonaparte conquers Venice, ending the city and Republic of Venice's 1,100 years of independence. The last doge of Venice, Ludovico Manin, steps down. The Venetian Ghetto is thrown open.source
  • 16 May – HDMS Najaden in battle with local ships off Tripoli.Denmarksource
  • June 28 – French troops disembark in Corfu, beginning the First period of French rule in the Ionian Islands.source
  • 3 July – Following Aboriginal attacks on farms in the Hawkesbury region, Hunter dispatches a party of soldiers from the New South Wales Corps to protect settlers there.Australiasource
  • July 13 – Gual and España conspiracy against Spanish rule in Colonial Venezuela is exposed.source
  • July 24 – Horatio Nelson is wounded at the Battle of Santa Cruz, losing an arm.source
  • Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (1797), an amphibious assault by the Royal Navy on the Spanish port city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Canary Islands launched by Rear-Admiral Horatio Nelson. The result was a Spanish victory by truce after Nelson's party had lost several hundred men.Spainsource
  • August 29 – Massacre of Tranent: British troops attack protestors against enforced recruitment into the militia at Tranent, Scotland, killing 11 and injuring 8.source
  • September 5 – France's new government decrees that citizens who left the country without authorization are subject to the death penalty if they return.source
  • October 11 – Battle of Camperdown: the British Royal Navy defeats the fleet of the Batavian Republic off the coast of Holland.source
  • 11 October (12 October naval reckoning) – Battle of Camperdown: Royal Navy led by Dundee-born Admiral Duncan defeats the fleet of the Batavian Republic off the coast of Holland.Scotlandsource
  • October 21 – In Boston Harbor, the 44-gun United States Navy frigate USS Constitution is launched to fight Barbary pirates off the coast of Tripoli; the ship will remain in commission in the 21st century.source
  • November – 1797 Rugby School rebellion: The students at Rugby School in England rebel against the headmaster, Henry Ingles, after he decrees that the damage to a tradesman's windows should be paid for by the students.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • 9 February – Sydney Cove wrecked off Tasmania. Some of the crew manage to reach Sydney more than 600 km away, leading to the rescue of other members of the crew.Australiasource
  • March 5 – Protestant missionaries from the London Missionary Society land in Tahiti, from the Duff (celebrated as Missionary Day in French Polynesia).source
  • 26 June – HMS Reliance arrives in Sydney from the Cape of Good Hope, carrying stores ordered by Governor John Hunter and 26 merino sheep purchased by Captain Henry Waterhouse and Lieutenant William Kent. Wool pioneer John Macarthur would then acquire his first Merino sheep from them.Australiasource
  • 1 August – Following advice from the master of the Sydney Cove who observed currents and tides while wrecked on Preservation Island, Governor Hunter writes to Joseph Banks that it seems certain that the yet-to-be-discovered Bass Strait exists.Australiasource
  • 21 August: Sveinn Pálsson climbs Hekla for the second time.Icelandsource
  • 3 December – George Bass sets out from Sydney in a whaleboat with six oarsmen to explore south along the coast. He discovers the Kiama Blowhole (6 December) and the Shoalhaven River (7 December), he also visits Jervis Bay, and named Twofold Bay on 19 December, Wilson's Promontory (2 January 1798) and Western Port (5 January). He returns to Sydney two months later, having greatly increased the settlers' knowledge of the geography of Australia.Australiasource

Religion & Belief

  • 1 March – Kreditkassen for Husejere i Kjøbenhavn is founded by royal resolution.Denmarksource
  • 28 April – auction of Dominican convent and church in Antwerp begins; buildings bought by Prior Cornelius Peltiers.Belgiumsource
  • Mission San José (California), the fourteenth historic Spanish mission located in the present-day city of Fremont, California by the Franciscan order on June 11, 1797.Spainsource
  • 30 July: Geir Vídalín is consecrated bishop of Skálholt at Hólar by Bishop Sigurður Stefánsson.Icelandsource
  • September 4 – The Coup of 18 Fructidor is carried out in France as three of the five members of The Directory, France's executive council, arrested royalist members of the Council of Five Hundred, the national legislature, and discard the results of the spring elections.source
  • 25 November – Law of 5 Frimaire confiscates property of all religious colleges, seminaries and confraternities (implementation started 31 December).Belgiumsource
  • Lord Castlereagh is appointed Keeper of the King's Signet for Ireland, a Commissioner of the Treasury for Ireland and a Member of the Privy Council of Ireland.Irelandsource
  • Saint Petersburg Theological Academy foundedRussiasource
  • Edward Charles - Epistolau Cymraeg at y CymryWalessource

Economy & Finance

  • February 26 – Bank Restriction Act removes the requirement for the Bank of England (the national bank of Great Britain) to convert banknotes into gold – Restriction period lasts until 1821. The Bank of England issues the first one-pound and two-pound notes (pound notes discontinued March 11, 1988).source
  • 26 February – start of "restriction period" during which, by Government order, Bank of England notes are inconvertible to gold. The Bank issues the first one-pound and two-pound notes (the former denomination remains in issue until 11 March 1988).United Kingdomsource
  • July – Duties on Clocks and Watches Act 1797 imposed; it is repealed the following year.United Kingdomsource
  • September 30 – Dominique-Vincent Ramel-Nogaret, French finance minister, repudiates two thirds of France's debt.source
  • Lieutenant-Governor of Norfolk Island – Philip Gidley KingAustraliasource
  • David Thompson leaves Hudson's Bay Company to join North West Company.Canadasource
  • Keiller's marmalade first produced in Dundee.Scotlandsource

Technology & Infrastructure

  • May 10 – The first ship of the United States Navy, the frigate USS United States, is commissioned.source
  • 19 September – John Shortland is the first European to enter the port of Newcastle. On the 9th he discovered the Hunter River estuary and coal.Australiasource
  • Johnstons of Elgin established as a textile mill in Elgin, Moray.Scotlandsource
  • Richard Fothergill and the Rev. Matthew Monkhouse take over Tredegar ironworks and construct a new furnace.Walessource

Science & Discovery

  • October 22 – André-Jacques Garnerin makes the first parachute descent, at Parc Monceau, Paris; he uses a silk parachute to descend approximately 3,000 ft from a hot air balloon.source
  • Publication of Encyclopædia Britannica Third Edition is completed in Edinburgh.Scotlandsource
  • Arthur Aikin - Journal of a Tour through North Wales and Part of Shropshire with Observations in Mineralogy and Other Branches of Natural HistoryWalessource

Crime & Justice

  • 15 January – London haberdasher John Hetherington wears the first top hat in public and attracts a large crowd of onlookers. He is later fined £50 for causing public nuisance.United Kingdomsource
  • July 21 – American David McLane, being convicted of high treason, is hanged on a gibbet on the glacis of the fortifications at Quebec.Canadasource
  • August – The Home Office sends an agent to Nether Stowey in Somerset to investigate the poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth who are suspected of being French spies.United Kingdomsource
  • Governor of New South Wales – John HunterAustraliasource
  • Inspector of Public Works – Richard AtkinsAustraliasource
  • William Drennan writes the ballad The Wake of William Orr.Irelandsource
  • Panic of 1796–1797 (1796–1797)United Statessource
  • John Jones (Jac Glan-y-gors) - Toriad y DyddWalessource

Disasters & Accidents

  • November 16 – (or November 23?) – British Royal Navy frigate HMS Tribune is wrecked on the approaches to Halifax, Nova Scotia; of the 240 on board, all but 12 are lost.source
  • 16 November (or 23 November?) – Royal Navy frigate HMS Tribune is wrecked on the approaches to Halifax, Nova Scotia; of the 240 on board, all but 12 are lost.United Kingdomsource

Climate & Environment

  • 3 January – three of the stones making up Stonehenge fall due to heavy frosts.United Kingdomsource
  • January 18 – This notice appears in the Quebec Gazette: "A mail for the upper counties, comprehending Niagara and Detroit, will be closed, at this office, on Monday, 30th instant, at four o'clock in the evening, to be forwarded, from Montreal, by the annual winter express, on Thursday, 2 February next."Canadasource
  • February 4 – The Riobamba earthquake in Ecuador, estimated magnitude 8.3, causes up to 40,000 casualties.source
  • 1797 Riobamba earthquake, a deadly earthquake causing between 6,000 and 40,000 casualties in the Riomba and surrounding Interandean valley. The epicenter reached at least XI (Extreme) on the Mercalli intensity scale. This is the most powerful historical event in Ecuador.Spainsource
  • April: A volcanic eruption occurs at Grímsvötn.Icelandsource
  • 11 August - Overhoffretten, the highest court in Norway, was abolished, and replaced with four regional courts.Norwaysource
  • October 23 – Peter Bryan Bruin, Gabriel Benoist, Philander Smith, Daniel Clark Sr., Isaac Gaillard, and others compose a "Memorial to Congress by Permanent Committee of the Natchez District," expressing their preference for American control of the Natchez District and their desire to have slavery preserved in Mississippi.United Statessource

Culture & Society

  • February 12 – "Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser" is first performed, with the music composed in January by Joseph Haydn, and it also becomes the tune of the Deutschlandlied, the German national anthem (Deutschland, Deutschland über alles, later Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit).source
  • 12 February – "Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser" is first performed, with the music composed in January by Joseph Haydn, which also becomes the tune to the Deutschlandlied, the German national anthem (Deutschland, Deutschland über alles, later Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit).Germanysource
  • March 13 – Médée, an opera by Luigi Cherubini, is premiered in Paris.source
  • April 5 – Manifesto of three-day corveeRussiasource
  • May 30 – English abolitionist William Wilberforce marries Barbara Ann Spooner about six weeks after their first meeting.source
  • 5 July – Christian Ditlev Frederik, Count of Reventlow, is appointed to Minister of the State.Denmarksource
  • 25 October – University of Leuven suppressed by decree.Belgiumsource
  • October – Coleridge composes the poem Kubla Khan in an opium-induced dream, writing down only a fragment of it on waking.United Kingdomsource
  • November 16 – The Prussian heir apparent, Frederick William, becomes King of Prussia as Fredrick William III.source
  • 24 December – Walter Scott marries Charlotte Carpenter at St Mary's Church, Carlisle, and the couple immediately move into their new home at 50 George Street, Edinburgh.Scotlandsource
  • Joseph-Louis Lagrange publishes his treatise on differential calculus, entitled Théorie des fonctions analytiques.source
  • Shinyukan Cram School (進修館) founded by Masataka Okudaira (奥平昌孝) in Nakatsu, Buzen Province (now Oita Prefecture), Kyushu Island, as predecessor of Keio-Gijyuku University in Japan.source
  • The Tamperret (a special marriage court in Norway) is abolished.Norwaysource
  • Nathaniel Williams - Pregeth a Bregethwyd yn Llangloffan ar Neilltuad ... Joseph James a James DaviesWalessource

Births

Deaths

  • February 22 – Karl Friedrich Hieronymus Freiherr von Münchhausen, German officer and adventurer (born 1720)source
  • March 2 – Horace Walpole, English politician and writer (born 1717)source
  • March 7 – John Gabriel Stedman, British–Dutch colonial soldier and author (born 1744)source
  • 7 March – Johann Heinrich Samuel Formey, German writer (born 1711)Germanysource
  • March 26 – James Hutton, Scottish geologist (born 1726)source
  • March 31 – Olaudah Equiano, Nigerian ex-slave, abolitionist (born c. 1746)source
  • June 17 – Mohammad Khan Qajar, Iranian king (born 1742)source
  • June 17 – Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar, founder of the Qajar dynasty of Iran (born 1742)source
  • June 17 - Mohammad Khan Qajar, first king of Qajar Dynasty, was assassinated in Shusha, capital of Karabakh Khanate.Iransource
  • July 9 – Edmund Burke, Irish philosopher (born 1723)source
  • August 3 – Jeffrey Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst, British soldier and conqueror of Quebec (born 1717)source
  • August 22 – Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser, Alsatian-born Austrian general (born 1724)source
  • September 10 – Mary Wollstonecraft, English feminist author (born 1759)source
  • October 9 – Vilna Gaon, Lithuanian rabbi (born 1720)source
  • November 16 – King Frederick William II of Prussia (born 1744)source
  • December 26 – John Wilkes, English radical (born 1725)source
  • Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser, 22 August 1797Austriasource
  • Francesco Sabatini died in Madrid after completing important architecture projects in Spain.Spainsource