1798 CE

The Irish Rebellion of 1798 begins when the Irish Militia arrest the leadership of the Society of United Irishmen, a group unique amongst Irish republican and nationalist movements in that it unifies Catholics and Protestants (Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist and others) around republican ideals. This month, Lord Castlereagh is appointed Acting Chief Secretary for Ireland and on March 30 martial law is proclaimed here. The first battles in the rebellion are fought on May 24, and it continues through September, but the rebels receive much less than the expected support from France, which sends only 1,100 men. French Revolutionary Wars: Admiral Nelson's fleet destroys the French fleet at the Battle of the Nile. Battle of Tory Island: A British Royal Navy squadron, under Sir John Borlase Warren, prevents French Republican ships, commanded by Jean-Baptiste-François Bompart, from landing reinforcements for the Society of United Irishmen on the County Donegal coast; Irish leader Wolfe Tone is captured and later dies of his wounds. This ends the Irish Rebellion of 1798.

In the 1790s, the 18th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

March - Historian William Richards returns from Wales to King's Lynn.Wales source
April 7 – The Mississippi Territory is organized by the United States, from territory ceded by Georgia and South Carolina; later it is twice expanded, to include disputed territory claimed by both the U.S. and Spain (which acquired territory in trade with Great Britain).source
9 May – The County of Vrahesminde is established by Preben Bille-Brahe from the manors of af Hvedholm, Damsbo, Stensgård and Østrupgård.Denmark source
June 18 – The first of the four Alien and Sedition Acts, the Naturalization Act of 1798, is signed into law by U.S. President Adams, requiring immigrants to wait 14 years rather than five years to become naturalized citizens of the United States. On June 25, another law is signed authorizing the imprisonment and deportation of any non-citizens deemed to be dangerous.source
July 7 – Quasi-War: The United States Congress rescinds treaties with France, sparking the war.source
7 July - The United States Congress rescinds treaties with France, sparking the Quasi-War.France source
July 11 – The United States Marine Corps is re-established under its present name.source
July 11 – The United States Marine Corps is established by Congress (the Marine Corps had existed prior, see history of the United States Marine Corps).United States source
14 July – United States Consulate in Edinburgh opens.Scotland source
July 31 – A second round of elections are held in the Netherlands (Batavian Republic); no general elections this time.source
5 September – French legislature passes Law of 19 Fructidor, Year VI instituting universal conscription of all unmarried men aged 20 to 25.Belgium source
September 10 – The Piedmontese Republic is declared in the territory of Piedmont.source
October 2 – The Cherokee nation signs a treaty with the United States allowing free passage through Cherokee lands in Tennessee through the Cumberland Gap through the Appalachian Mountains from Virginia into Kentucky.source
Indian chiefs, in Canada, claim from Vermont an equivalent of the greater part of Addison, Chittenden, Franklin and Grand Isle counties. They get their expenses to-and-fro.Canada source
The town of Sogndal is founded (lost town status in 1944).Norway source

Conflict & Security

January 22 – A coup d'état is staged in the Netherlands (Batavian Republic). Unitarian Democrat Pieter Vreede ends the power of the parliament (with a conservative-moderate majority).source
March 7 – French forces invade the Papal States and establish the Roman Republic.source
March – the Irish Rebellion of 1798 begins when the Irish Militia arrest the leadership of the Society of United Irishmen, a group unique amongst Irish republican and nationalist movements in that it unifies Catholics and Protestants (Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist and others) around republican ideals. This month, Lord Castlereagh is appointed Acting Chief Secretary for Ireland and on March 30 martial law is proclaimed here. The first battles in the rebellion are fought on May 24, and it continues through September, but the rebels receive much less than the expected support from France, which sends only 1,100 men.source
April 12 – The Helvetic Republic, a French client republic, is proclaimed following the collapse of the Old Swiss Confederacy after the French invasion; Aarau becomes the republic's temporary capital.source
May 7 – French Revolutionary Wars: A French force attempting to dislodge a small British garrison on the Îles Saint-Marcouf is repulsed with heavy losses.source
26 May – Battle of Tara Hill in the Irish Rebellion of 1798: British forces including three companies of the Reay Fencibles (formed primarily from the Clan Mackay) drive rebels of the Society of United Irishmen from their position with around 400 of the latter killed and only 26 Reay casualties.Scotland source
May 27 – Pitt–Tierney duel takes place on Putney Heath. British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger fights a duel against opposition politician George Tierneysource
June 12 – French invasion of Malta: French forces under Napoleon Bonaparte capture the island fortress of Malta on the way to Egypt.source
July 1 – Egyptian Campaign: Napoleon Bonaparte disembarks his French army in Marabout Bay near Alexandria.source
July 12 – Battle of Shubra Khit: French troops defeat the Mamelukes, during Napoleon's march from Alexandria to take Cairo.source
July 14 – The fourth of the Alien and Sedition Acts, the Sedition Act of 1798 is signed into law, making it a federal crime to write, publish, or utter false or malicious statements about the United States government.source
July 14 – The Alien and Sedition Acts become United States law, making it a federal crime to write, publish, or utter false or malicious statements about the United States government.United States source
July 21 – Battle of the Pyramids: Napoleon Bonaparte defeats the Ottoman forces near the Pyramids. French forces claim control over Egypt's political center.source
August 1 – Battle of the Nile (near Abu Qir): Lord Nelson defeats the French navy under Admiral Brueys. 11 of the 13 French battleships are captured or destroyed, including the flagship Orient whose magazine explodes; Nelson himself is wounded in the head.source
1 August – French Revolutionary Wars: Admiral Nelson's fleet destroys the French fleet at the Battle of the Nile.United Kingdom source
August 22 – French troops land at Kilcummin in County Mayo to assist the Irish Rebellion.source
22 August - French troops land at Kilcummin in County Mayo to assist the Irish rebellion.France source
September 10 – Battle of St. George's Caye: Off the coast of British Honduras (modern-day Belize), a group of European settlers and Africans defeats a Spanish force sent from Mexico to drive them out.source
September 23 – Battle of Killala: in the last land battle of the Irish Rebellion of 1798, British troops defeat the remaining rebel Irish and French forces at Killala.source
October 7 – U.S. Representative Matthew Lyon of Vermont becomes the first member of Congress to be put on trial for violating the new Sedition Act of 1798.source
12 October – beginning of the Peasants' War (Boerenkrijg) in Flanders and Brabant.Belgium source
12 October – Battle of Tory Island: a British Royal Navy squadron under Sir John Borlase Warren prevents French Republican ships landing reinforcements for the United Irishmen on the Donegal coast; Wolfe Tone is captured.Ireland source
October 21–22 – Revolt of Cairo: Napoleon Bonaparte suppresses a revolt in Cairo. French occupation survives but becomes more dependent on force and administration.source
October 22 – Capitulation of the French garrison at Hyderabad to East India Company troops under James Kirkpatrick, British Resident.source
October 23 – The Ottoman–Albanian forces of Ali Pasha of Janina defeat the French and capture the town of Preveza in the Battle of Nicopolis.source
October 25 – The Ottoman–Albanian forces of Ali Pasha of Janina capture Butrint from the French after a week-long siege.source
November 4 – The Russo-Ottoman siege of Corfu, held by the French, begins.source
December 5 – Peasants War in the Southern Netherlands: The revolt is crushed in Hasselt; during the uprising it is estimated that 5,000 to 10,000 people have been killed.source
December 6 – General Joubert of the Piedmontese Republic occupies the Sardinian capital of Turin.source
The Ayrshire (Earl of Carrick's Own) Yeomanry, a British Army Yeomanry Cavalry Regiment, formed by The Earl of Cassillis at Culzean Castle, Ayrshire in 1794, is adopted onto the British Army List.source
Friedrich von Schiller – Wallensteins LagerGermany source
The Fourth Anglo-Mysore War begins.India source

Exploration & Expansion

26 January – The koala and lyrebird are observed by John Price on an expedition led by John Wilson.Australia source
25 February – John Hunter names Bass Strait in honour of George Bass.Australia source
May 9 – Napoleon sets off for Toulon, sailing aboard Vice-Admiral Brueys's flagship L'Orient; his squadron is part of a larger fleet of over 300 vessels, carrying almost 37,000 troops.source
14 May – HMS Nautilus arrives in Sydney, carrying missionaries from the London Missionary Society .Australia source
June/August - Clogwyn Du'r Arddu is climbed by Peter Bailey Williams and William Bingley, botanists looking for alpine plants on Snowdon.Wales source
July 7 – In the action of USS Delaware vs La Croyable, the newly-formed United States Navy makes its first capture.source
7 October – George Bass and Matthew Flinders leave Sydney to explore Van Diemen's Land on the Norfolk.Australia source
November 8 – British whaler John Fearn becomes the first European to land on Nauru.source
November 28 – Trade between the United States and modern-day Uruguay begins when John Leamy's frigate John arrives in Montevideo.source
10 December – HMS Colossus, returning from the French Revolutionary Wars, runs aground off Samson, Isles of Scilly. There is only one casualty but antiquities being shipped to England by Sir William Hamilton are lost.United Kingdom source
David Thompson travels to Mandan villages and charts headwaters of Mississippi River.Canada source
The first recorded excavations at Stonehenge – among the first serious work in archaeology anywhere – are made by William Cunnington and Sir Richard Colt Hoare.United Kingdom source

Religion & Belief

February 10 – The Pope is taken captive, and the Papacy is removed from power, by French General Louis-Alexandre Berthier.source
10 February - The Papacy is removed from power by the French General Louis Alexandre Berthier.France source
June 13 – Mission San Luis Rey de Francia is founded in California.source
14 June – Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.Ireland source
13 July - William Wordsworth, visiting Wales, writes "Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey on revisiting the banks of the Wye during a tour".Wales source
18 September – Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge is first published anonymously in Bristol, marking the beginning of English literary Romanticism. Most of the poems are by Wordsworth, including Lines composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey on revisiting the banks of the Wye during a tour, 13 July 1798, but also including the first publication of Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere. First London publication is on 4 October.United Kingdom source
7 October – St Phillip's Church founded in Sydney, completed in 1809.Australia source
Caroline von Wolzogen (anonymously) – Agnes von Lilien (first complete book publication, in 2 vols)Germany source
Building of the first major example of Egyptian Revival architecture, Karlsruhe Synagogue in Baden, designed by Friedrich Weinbrenner.Germany source

Economy & Finance

4 December – British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger announces the introduction of income tax in 1799.Scotland source
Nathan Mayer Rothschild moves from Frankfurt in the Holy Roman Empire to England, settling up in business as a textile trader and financier in Manchester.source
Lieutenant-Governor of Norfolk Island – Philip Gidley KingAustralia source
A new fur trading company is formed to compete with the North West Company. Confusingly called the New North West Company, it is nicknamed the XY Company later on.Canada source
Cassella chemical and pharmaceutical company foundedGermany source
M. M. Warburg & Co. bank foundedGermany source
Tobermory distillery is founded.Scotland source
The Merchant Banking Company of Glasgow fails.Scotland source

Technology & Infrastructure

January – Eli Whitney contracts with the U.S. federal government for 10,000 muskets, which he produces with interchangeable parts.source
April 30 – The United States Department of the Navy is established as a cabinet-level department. Benjamin Stoddert, a civilian businessman, is appointed as the first Navy Secretary by President Adams.source
17 October - First recorded use of the word "tramroad", in the minutes of the Brecon and Abergavenny Canal Company.Wales source
22 December – Norfolk enters the River Derwent,Australia source
Highland Park distillery is founded in Kirkwall.Scotland source
William Lort Mansel becomes Master of Trinity College, Cambridge.Wales source

Science & Discovery

Alois Senefelder invents lithography.source
The platypus is first discovered by Europeans.source
The Gwyneddigion Society launches its project of publishing ancient Welsh manuscripts.Wales source

Health & Medicine

11 March – Dundee Infirmary opened.Scotland source
July 16 – The Relief of Sick and Disabled Seamen Act is signed into law, creating the Marine Hospital Service, the forerunner to the current United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.source
September 5 – Conscription is made mandatory in France by the Jourdan Law.source
The first census in Brazil counts 2 million blacks in a total population of 3.25 million.source
Edward Jenner publishes An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolæ Vaccinæ, describing the smallpox vaccine, in London.source
Newspaper Publication Act 1798 restricts newspaper circulation.United Kingdom source

Crime & Justice

February 15 – U.S. Representative Roger Griswold (Fed-CT) beats Congressman Matthew Lyon (Dem-Rep-VT) with a cane, after the House declines to censure Lyon for earlier spitting in Griswold's face; the House declines to discipline either man.source
February 17 – Federalist Congressman Roger Griswold of Connecticut attacks Vermont Representative Matthew Lyon with a walking stick in the chambers of the United States House of Representatives.United States source
19 May – rebel leader Lord Edward FitzGerald is arrested in Dublin, later dying of wounds received.Ireland source
2 July – the Marine Police Force is formed on the River Thames by magistrate Patrick Colquhoun to prevent pilfering in the Port of London and West India Docks; it is the first organised police force in Britain.United Kingdom source
Governor of New South Wales – John HunterAustralia source
Inspector of Public Works – Richard AtkinsAustralia source
Over the course of the year Lieven Bauwens made numerous trips to England, smuggling out spinning machinery a piece at a time.Belgium source
Francis Lathom – The Midnight Bell: a German story, founded on incidents in real lifeGermany source
Thomas Roberts of Llwyn'rhudol - Cwyn yn erbyn GorthrymderWales source

Disasters & Accidents

17 February - The French corvette Cérès was wrecked on the shores of Norway.Norway source
May – Blessington House, County Wicklow is burnt to the ground by rebels, and will never be rebuilt.Ireland source
7 June – Carnew is burned by rebels led by Anthony Perry.Ireland source
1 October – Sydney's first church St Philip's is destroyed by fire.Australia source
24 October – attempted British landing at Blankenberge fails.Belgium source

Climate & Environment

July 20: The Althing met at Þingvellir for the last time.The few who had attended returned home from Þingvellir due to poor conditions, and thus ended the governments tenure at the site, which had lasted since 930.Iceland source

Culture & Society

January 4 – Constantine Hangerli enters Bucharest, as Prince of Wallachia.source
31 March - George Herbert, 2nd Earl of Powis, becomes Lord Lieutenant of Shropshire;Wales source
9 April – The Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland is formally established in Dublin and members hold their first meeting on Dawson Street.Ireland source
20 June – The abolishment of the Stavnsbånd, a serfdom-like institution originally introduced in 1733. The implementation was gradual.Denmark source
18 July - The town of Egersund is founded.Norway source
September 18 – Lyrical Ballads is published anonymously by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth, inaugurating the English Romantic movement in literature.source
September – Charles Brockden Brown publishes the first significant American novel, the Gothic fiction Wieland: or, The Transformation; an American Tale.source
11 October – Elizabeth Inchbald's play Lovers' Vows, adapted from Kotzebue's Das Kind der Liebe, is first performed at London's Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.United Kingdom source
12 October – The rebuilt Weimarer Hoftheater are inaugurated with the first performance of the first part of Friedrich Schiller's dramatic trilogy Wallenstein: Das Lager (The Camp), directed by Goethe.Germany source
Thomas Malthus publishes An Essay on the Principle of Population (anonymously) in London.source
S.M. Kirov Military Medical Academy foundedRussia source
Emily Clark - Ianthé, or the Flower of CaernarvonWales source

Births

January 14 – Johan Rudolph Thorbecke, Dutch statesman (died 1872)source
January 19 – Auguste Comte, French philosopher, pioneer of positivism (died 1857)source
4 March: Sigurður Breiðfjörð, poet.Iceland source
March 13 – Abigail Fillmore, wife of Millard Fillmore, First Lady of the United States, Second Lady of the United States (died 1853)United States source
April 8 – Dionysios Solomos, Greek poet (died 1857)source
April 20 – Frederick Crowder, English cricketer (died 1894)source
April 26 – Eugène Delacroix, French painter (died 1863)source
June 26 – Josiah Warren, American social reformer, philosopher, inventor, musician, author (died 1874)source
June 29 – Giacomo Leopardi, Italian poet, philosopher and writer (died 1837)source
11 September – Franz Ernst Neumann, German mineralogist, physicist and mathematician (died 1895)Germany source
October 2 – King Charles Albert of Sardinia, King of Sardinia (died 1849)source
October 7 – Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, French luthier (died 1875)source
October 12 – Pedro I of Brazil, Emperor of Brazil, and King of Portugal (died 1834)source
12 October – King Dom Pedro IV, King of Portugal, Emperor of Brazil (died 1834).Portugal source
October 19 – George Coles, English cricketer (died 1865)source
November 3 – Henry Wilder, English cricketer (died 1836)source
November 4 – John Dilloway, English cricketer (died 1869)source
December 24 – Adam Mickiewicz, Polish writer (died 1855)source

Deaths

January 22 – Lewis Morris, American landowner and developer, signer of the United States Declaration of Independence (born 1726)source
February 12 – Stanisław August Poniatowski, deposed last King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania (born 1732)source
March 25 – General Michel Joachim Marie Raymond, French leader of the army of the Nizam of Hyderabad (poisoned) (born 1755)source
29 April – Nikolaus Poda von Neuhaus, German entomologist (born 1723)Germany source
April – Gideon Morris, trans-Appalachian pioneer (born 1756)source
May 10 – George Vancouver, British Royal Navy officer, explorer (Vancouver, Canada is named after him) (born 1757)source
June 4 – Giacomo Casanova, Italian adventurer, writer (born 1725)source
24 June – Maria Christina, Duchess of Teschen (born 1742), former governess general of the Austrian NetherlandsBelgium source
June – Betsy Gray, Irish rebel heroinesource
July 17 – Henry Joy McCracken, Irish republicansource
August 11 – Joshua Clayton, American politician (born 1744)source
August 21 – James Wilson, American politician (born 1742)source
August 21 – James Wilson, politician (born 1742)United States source
September 21 – George Read, American lawyer, signer of the Declaration of Independence (born 1733)source
October 12 – Battle of Tory Island: A British Royal Navy squadron, under Sir John Borlase Warren, prevents French Republican ships, commanded by Jean-Baptiste-François Bompart, from landing reinforcements for the Society of United Irishmen on the County Donegal coast; Irish leader Wolfe Tone is captured and later dies of his wounds. This ends the Irish Rebellion of 1798.source
18 October – Francisco de Lacerda, explorer (born 1750)Portugal source
November 19 – Wolfe Tone, Irish republican (born 1737)source
December 16 – Thomas Pennant, Welsh naturalist (born 1726)source