date: January 26

text: 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.


date: February 19

section: Geopolitics & Diplomacy

text: 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_section: Events › January–March


date: June 29

text: June 29 – Napoleon Bonaparte decrees the birth of the Cisalpine Republic; he appoints ministers and establishes the first constitution.

source_section: Events › April–June


date: July 9

text: 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_section: Events › July–September


date: October 17

text: October 17 – The Treaty of Campo Formio ends the War of the First Coalition.

source_section: Events › October–December


text: 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_section: Events › Undated


date: January 13

section: Conflict & Security

text: 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.


date: January 14

text: 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.


date: January 15

text: 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.


date: February 2

text: 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.


date: February 3

text: 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.


date: February 14

text: 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.


date: February 18

text: 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.


date: February 22

text: February 22 – The last invasion of Britain begins: French forces, under the command of American Colonel William Tate, land near Fishguard, Wales.


date: February 25

text: February 25 – William Tate surrenders to the British at Fishguard.


date: March 16

text: 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.


date: March 21

text: 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.


date: April 16

text: April 16 – The Spithead and Nore mutinies break out in the British Royal Navy.


date: April 17

text: April 17 – Veronese Easter: Citizens of Verona, Italy, began an unsuccessful eight-day rebellion against the French occupying forces.


text: 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.


date: April 18

text: 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.


date: May 12

text: 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.


date: June 28

text: June 28 – French troops disembark in Corfu, beginning the First period of French rule in the Ionian Islands.


date: July 13

text: July 13 – Gual and España conspiracy against Spanish rule in Colonial Venezuela is exposed.


date: July 24

text: July 24 – Horatio Nelson is wounded at the Battle of Santa Cruz, losing an arm.


date: August 29

text: August 29 – Massacre of Tranent: British troops attack protestors against enforced recruitment into the militia at Tranent, Scotland, killing 11 and injuring 8.


date: September 5

text: September 5 – France's new government decrees that citizens who left the country without authorization are subject to the death penalty if they return.


date: October 11

text: October 11 – Battle of Camperdown: the British Royal Navy defeats the fleet of the Batavian Republic off the coast of Holland.


date: November

text: 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.


date: March 5

section: Exploration & Expansion

text: March 5 – Protestant missionaries from the London Missionary Society land in Tahiti, from the Duff (celebrated as Missionary Day in French Polynesia).


date: October 21

text: October 21 – In Boston Harbor, the 44-gun United States Navy frigate is launched to fight Barbary pirates off the coast of Tripoli; the ship will remain in commission in the 21st century.


date: September 4

section: Religion & Belief

text: 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.


date: February 26

section: Economy & Finance

text: 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).


date: September 30

text: September 30 – Dominique-Vincent Ramel-Nogaret, French finance minister, repudiates two thirds of France's debt.


date: May 10

section: Technology & Infrastructure

text: May 10 – The first ship of the United States Navy, the frigate USS United States, is commissioned.


date: October 22

section: Science & Discovery

text: 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 m from a hot air balloon.


date: November 16

section: Disasters & Accidents

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


date: February 4

section: Climate & Environment

text: February 4 – The Riobamba earthquake in Ecuador, estimated magnitude 8.3, causes up to 40,000 casualties.


date: February 12

section: Culture & Society

text: 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).


date: March 13

text: March 13 – Médée, an opera by Luigi Cherubini, is premiered in Paris.


date: May 30

text: May 30 – English abolitionist William Wilberforce marries Barbara Ann Spooner about six weeks after their first meeting.


text: November 16 – The Prussian heir apparent, Frederick William, becomes King of Prussia as Fredrick William III.


text: Joseph-Louis Lagrange publishes his treatise on differential calculus, entitled Théorie des fonctions analytiques.


text: 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.


date: January 22

section: Births

text: January 22 – Archduchess Maria Leopoldina of Austria, Empress consort of Brazil (d. 1826)

source_section: Births › January–March


date: March 6

text: March 6 – Gerrit Smith, American social reformer (d. 1874)


date: March 10

text: March 10 – George Julius Poulett Scrope, English geologist, political economist and magistrate (d. 1876)


date: April 15

text: April 15 – Adolphe Thiers, President of France and Prime Minister of France (d. 1877)

source_section: Births › April–June


date: April 18

text: April 18 – Richard Ryan, British biographer of Irish descent (d. 1849)


date: May 2

text: May 2 – Abraham Pineo Gesner, Canadian geologist and inventor (d. 1864)


date: June 24

text: June 24 – John Hughes, Irish-born prelate of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States (d. 1864)


date: October 14

text: October 14 – Ida Laura Pfeiffer, Austrian traveler and travel book author (d. 1858)

source_section: Births › October–December


date: October 23

text: October 23 – Jan Jacob Rochussen, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (d. 1871)


date: November 15

text: November 15 – Thurlow Weed, New York newspaper publisher, Whig and Republican politician (d. 1882)


date: November 29

text: November 29 – Gaetano Donizetti, Italian composer (d. 1848)


date: December 13

text: December 13 – Heinrich Heine, German poet (d. 1856)


date: December 27

text: December 27 – Mirza Beg Asadullah Khan (Mirza Ghalib), Indian poet (d.1868)


text: December 27 – Charles Hodge, Presbyterian theologian, principal of Princeton Theological Seminary (1851-1878) (d. 1878)


date: January 13

section: Deaths

text: January 13 – Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel-Bevern, queen consort of Prussia (b. 1715)

source_section: Deaths › January–March


date: January 30

text: January 30 – John Glover, American military general, fisherman and merchant (b. 1732)


date: February 22

text: February 22 – Karl Friedrich Hieronymus Freiherr von Münchhausen, German officer and adventurer (b. 1720)


date: March 7

text: March 7 – John Gabriel Stedman, British–Dutch colonial soldier and author (b. 1744)


date: March 31

text: March 31 – Olaudah Equiano, Nigerian ex-slave, abolitionist (b. c. 1746)


date: July 9

text: July 9 – Edmund Burke, Irish philosopher (b. 1723)

source_section: Deaths › July–September


date: July 25

text: July 25 – Richard Bowen, officer of the Royal Navy during the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary Wars (b. 1761)


date: August 3

text: August 3 – August 3 – Jeffrey Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst, British soldier and conqueror of Quebec (b. 1717)


date: August 22

text: August 22 – Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser, Alsatian-born Austrian general (b. 1724)


date: August 29

text: August 29 – Joseph Wright of Derby, English landscape and portrait painter (b. 1734)


date: September 10

text: September 10 – Mary Wollstonecraft, English feminist author (b. 1759)


date: September 19

text: September 19 – Samuel Enderby, English whale oil merchant known for sponsoring Arctic exploration (b. 1719)


date: October 9

text: October 9 – Vilna Gaon, Lithuanian rabbi (b. 1720)

source_section: Deaths › October–December


date: October 10

text: October 10 – Carter Braxton, signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, merchant, planter, Virginia politician (b. 1736)


date: April 7

text: 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_section: Events › January–June


date: June 18

text: 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.


date: July 7

text: July 7 – Quasi-War: The United States Congress rescinds treaties with France, sparking the war.

source_section: Events › July–December


date: July 11

text: July 11 – The United States Marine Corps is re-established under its present name.


date: July 31

text: July 31 – A second round of elections are held in the Netherlands (Batavian Republic); no general elections this time.


text: September 10 – The Piedmontese Republic is declared in the territory of Piedmont.


date: October 2

text: 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.


date: January 22

text: 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).


date: March 7

text: March 7 – French forces invade the Papal States and establish the Roman Republic.


date: April 12

text: 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.


date: May 7

text: 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.


date: May 27

text: May 27 – Pitt–Tierney duel takes place on Putney Heath. British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger fights a duel against opposition politician George Tierney


date: June 12

text: June 12 – French invasion of Malta: French forces under Napoleon Bonaparte capture the island fortress of Malta on the way to Egypt.


date: July 1

text: July 1 – Egyptian Campaign: Napoleon Bonaparte disembarks his French army in Marabout Bay near Alexandria.


date: July 12

text: July 12 – Battle of Shubra Khit: French troops defeat the Mamelukes, during Napoleon's march from Alexandria to take Cairo.


date: July 14

text: 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.


date: July 21

text: July 21 – Battle of the Pyramids: Napoleon Bonaparte defeats the Ottoman forces near the Pyramids. French forces claim control over Egypt's political center.


date: August 1

text: 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.


date: August 22

text: August 22 – French troops land at Kilcummin in County Mayo to assist the Irish Rebellion.


date: September 10

text: 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.


date: September 23

text: 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.


date: October 7

text: 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.


date: October 12

text: October 12 – Peasants War against the French occupiers of the Southern Netherlands begins in Overmere.


date: October 21

text: October 21–22 – Revolt of Cairo: Napoleon Bonaparte suppresses a revolt in Cairo. French occupation survives but becomes more dependent on force and administration.


date: October 22

text: October 22 – Capitulation of the French garrison at Hyderabad to East India Company troops under James Kirkpatrick, British Resident.


date: October 23

text: 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.


date: October 25

text: October 25 – The Ottoman–Albanian forces of Ali Pasha of Janina capture Butrint from the French after a week-long siege.


date: November 4

text: November 4 – The Russo-Ottoman siege of Corfu, held by the French, begins.


date: December 5

text: 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.


date: December 6

text: December 6 – General Joubert of the Piedmontese Republic occupies the Sardinian capital of Turin.


text: 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_section: Events › Date unknown


date: May 9

text: 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.


date: July 7

text: July 7 – In the action of USS Delaware vs La Croyable, the newly-formed United States Navy makes its first capture.


date: November 8

text: November 8 – British whaler John Fearn becomes the first European to land on Nauru.


date: November 28

text: November 28 – Trade between the United States and modern-day Uruguay begins when John Leamy's frigate John arrives in Montevideo.


date: February 10

text: February 10 – The Pope is taken captive, and the Papacy is removed from power, by French General Louis-Alexandre Berthier.


date: June 13

text: June 13 – Mission San Luis Rey de Francia is founded in California.


text: 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.


date: January

text: January – Eli Whitney contracts with the U.S. federal government for 10,000 muskets, which he produces with interchangeable parts.


date: April 30

text: 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.


text: Alois Senefelder invents lithography.


text: Thomas Malthus publishes An Essay on the Principle of Population (anonymously) in London.


text: The platypus is first discovered by Europeans.


date: July 16

section: Health & Medicine

text: 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.


date: September 5

text: September 5 – Conscription is made mandatory in France by the Jourdan Law.


text: The first census in Brazil counts 2 million blacks in a total population of 3.25 million.


text: Edward Jenner publishes An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolæ Vaccinæ, describing the smallpox vaccine, in London.


date: February 15

section: Crime & Justice

text: 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.


date: January 4

text: January 4 – Constantine Hangerli enters Bucharest, as Prince of Wallachia.


date: September 18

text: September 18 – Lyrical Ballads is published anonymously by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth, inaugurating the English Romantic movement in literature.


date: September

text: September – Charles Brockden Brown publishes the first significant American novel, the Gothic fiction Wieland: or, The Transformation; an American Tale.


date: January 14

text: January 14 – William Duncombe, 2nd Baron Feversham, British politician (d. 1867)

source_section: Births › January


date: January 15

text: January 15 – Thomas Crofton Croker, Irish antiquary and artist (d. 1854)


date: January 19

text: January 19 – Auguste Comte, French philosopher, pioneer of positivism (d. 1857)


date: March 18

text: March 18 – Francis Lieber, German-American jurist, gymnast and political philosopher (d. 1872)

source_section: Births › March


date: April 27

text: April 27 – Claire Clairmont, British writer, mother of Lord Byron's daughter (d. 1879)

source_section: Births › April


date: May 4

text: May 4 – Charles Kanaʻina, Hawaiian noble, father of King Lunalilo (d. 1877)

source_section: Births › May


date: June 26

text: June 26 – Josiah Warren, American social reformer, philosopher, inventor, musician, author (d. 1874)

source_section: Births › June


date: June 29

text: June 29 – Giacomo Leopardi, Italian poet, philosopher and writer (d. 1837)


date: July 13

text: July 13 – Alexandra Feodorovna, wife of Nicholas I of Russia (d. 1860)

source_section: Births › July


date: August 11

text: August 11 – Dominick Daly, Governor of Prince Edward Island & South Australia (d. 1868)

source_section: Births › August


date: October 2

text: October 2 – Théodore Guérin, Catholic saint and nun from France (d. 1856)

source_section: Births › October


date: October 28

text: October 28 – Levi Coffin, American educator and abolitionist (d. 1877)


date: December 24

text: December 24 – Adam Mickiewicz, Polish writer (d. 1855)

source_section: Births › December


date: December 27

text: December 27 – Alexander Colquhoun-Stirling-Murray-Dunlop, church lawyer & politician (d. 1870)


date: January 22

text: January 22 – Lewis Morris, American landowner and developer, signer of the United States Declaration of Independence (b. 1726)

source_section: Deaths


date: March 25

text: March 25 – General Michel Joachim Marie Raymond, French leader of the army of the Nizam of Hyderabad (poisoned) (b. 1755)


date: April 14

text: April 14 – Henry Mowat, Scottish-born British Royal Navy officer (b. 1734)


date: May 10

text: May 10 – George Vancouver, British Royal Navy officer, explorer (Vancouver, Canada is named after him) (b. 1757)


date: June 4

text: June 4 – Giacomo Casanova, Italian adventurer, writer (b. 1725)


date: June

text: June – Betsy Gray, Irish rebel heroine


date: August 1

text: August 1 – François-Paul Brueys d'Aigalliers, French admiral (killed in battle) (b. 1753)


text: August 11 – Joshua Clayton, American politician (b. 1744)


date: August 21

text: August 21 – James Wilson, American politician (b. 1742)


date: September 21

text: September 21 – George Read, American lawyer, signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1733)


date: October 12

text: 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.


date: November 15

text: November 15 – Angelo Maria Amorevoli, Italian operatic tenor (b. 1716)


date: November 19

text: November 19 – Wolfe Tone, Irish republican (b. 1737)


date: December 16

text: December 16 – Thomas Pennant, Welsh naturalist (b. 1726)


date: January 21

text: January 21 – The Parthenopean Republic is established in Naples by French General Jean Étienne Championnet; King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies flees.

source_section: Events › January–March


date: March 1

text: March 1 – Federalist James Ross becomes President pro tempore of the United States Senate.


date: June 13

text: June 13 – Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies is restored to his kingdom following the collapse of the Parthenopean Republic.

source_section: Events › April–June


date: September 23

text: September 23 – Frederick North, 5th Earl of Guilford, the Governor of British Ceylon (modern-day Sri Lanka), issues a proclamation declaring that the laws of the Netherlands for the conquered Dutch Ceylon shall be enforced until superseded by new laws.

source_section: Events › July–September


date: December 10

text: December 10 – France adopts the metre as its official unit of length.

source_section: Events › October–December


date: January 27

text: January 27 – French Revolutionary Wars: Macau Incident – French and Spanish warships encounter a British Royal Navy escort squadron in the Wanshan Archipelago of China inconclusively.


date: February 9

text: February 9 – Quasi-War: In the single-ship action of USS Constellation vs L'Insurgente in the Caribbean, the American ship is the victor.


date: February 28

text: February 28 – French Revolutionary Wars: Action of 28 February 1799 – British Royal Navy frigate HMS Sybille defeats the French frigate Forte off the mouth of the Hooghly River in the Bay of Bengal, but both captains are killed.


date: March 4

text: March 4 – The Russo-Ottoman Siege of Corfu (1798–1799) ends with the surrender of the French garrison, bringing an end to the first period of French rule in the Ionian Islands (1797–1799).


date: March 7

text: March 7 – War of the Second Coalition: Siege of Jaffa – Napoleon captures Jaffa in Palestine from the Ottomans and his troops proceed to kill more than 2,000 Albanian captives.


date: March 21

text: March 21 – War of the Second Coalition: Victory of Archduke Charles and the Austrian army over the French army of Jean-Baptiste Jourdan at the Battle of Ostrach.


date: March 23

text: March 23 – War of the Second Coalition: Victory of Franjo Jelačić and the Austrian army over the French army of André Masséna at the Battle of Feldkirch.


date: March 25

text: March 25 – War of the Second Coalition: Victory of Archduke Charles and the Austrian army over the French army of Jean-Baptiste Jourdan at the Battle of Stockach (1799), a key crossroads at the western end of Lake Constance.


date: April 16

text: April 16 – French Revolutionary Wars: At the Battle of Mount Tabor severely outnumbered French forces repulse an Ottoman attack.


date: April 27

text: April 27 – French Revolutionary Wars: The Battle of Cassano takes place outside of Milan, as Russian and Austrian troops commanded by General Alexander Suvorov rout the French Army under the command of General Jean Moreau.


date: May 4

text: May 4 – Battle of Seringapatam: Tipu Sultan is defeated and killed by the British, ending the captivity of Mangalorean Catholics at Seringapatam ends and concluding the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War.


date: May 21

text: May 21 – The Siege of Acre ends after two months; Napoleon's attempt to widen his Middle Eastern campaign into Syria is frustrated by Ottoman forces, and he withdraws to Egypt.


date: May 27

text: May 27 – War of the Second Coalition: Battle of Winterthur – Habsburg forces secure control of north-east Switzerland from the French Army of the Danube.


date: June 7

text: June 7 – War of the Second Coalition: First Battle of Zurich – Four days of fighting ends in victory for Archduke Charles and the Austrian army over the French army under André Masséna.


date: June 17

text: June 17 – War of the Second Coalition: Battle of the Trebbia – The beginning of the battle that marked the debacle of Étienne Macdonald's French army. Suvorov scores a comprehensive victory.


date: June 18

text: June 18 – French Revolutionary Wars: Action of 18 June 1799 – A French frigate squadron, under Rear-admiral Perrée, is captured by the British fleet under Lord Keith, off Toulon.


date: July 12

text: July 12 – Ranjit Singh captures Lahore from the Bhangi Misl, a key step in establishing the Sikh Empire, and becoming Maharaja of the Punjab.


date: July 25

text: July 25 – Battle of Abukir: French forces under Napoleon Bonaparte defeat 20,000 Ottoman Mamluk troops under Mustafa Pasha at Abukir. The French suffer only 220 dead and 600 wounded while the Ottoman losses are enormous: 2,000 dead on the battlefield, 11,000 men drowned, 5,000 prisoners of war. Napoleon captures 100 Ottoman banners, 32 guns, 400 horses and three Pashas' Bunchuks (ceremonial flags issued to Pasha).


date: August 15

text: August 15 – War of the Second Coalition: Battle of Novi – the defeat of Barthélemy Joubert's army by Suvorov's Austrian–Russian troops.


date: August 27

text: August 27 – War of the Second Coalition: Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland – Britain and Russia send an expedition to the Batavian Republic.


date: September 18

text: September 18 – War of the Second Coalition: Battle of Mannheim – Victory of Archduke Charles and the Austrian army over a French force under Jacques Léonard Muller


date: September 30

text: September 30 – Suvorov's Swiss campaign: Battle of Muottental – the rout of Masséna's French troops by Suvorov's army.


date: October 18

text: October 18 – Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland: Anglo-Russian expedition forces surrender in North Holland.


date: November 9

text: November 9 – Coup of 18 Brumaire: Napoleon overthrows the French Directory in a coup d'état, which ends the French Revolution.


date: July 15

text: July 15 – In the Egyptian port city of Rosetta, French Captain Pierre Bouchard finds the Rosetta Stone.


text: Conrad John Reed, 12, finds what he describes as a "heavy yellow rock" along Little Meadow Creek in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, and makes it a doorstop in his home. Conrad's father John Reed learns that the rock is actually gold in 1802, initiating the first gold rush in the United States.


date: September 29

text: September 29 – The Second Roman Republic, a puppet state formed by the French Army after they dissolve the Papal States and the occupation of Rome, is dissolved 19 months after its creation on February 15, 1798.


date: November 10

text: November 10 (19 Brumaire) – A remnant of the Council of Ancients in France abolishes the Constitution of the Year III, and ordains the French Consulate with Napoleon as First Consul, with the Constitution of the Year VIII.


date: November 30

text: November 30 – 1799–1800 Papal conclave opens in Venice at San Giorgio Monastery.


date: January 9

text: January 9 – British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger introduces an income tax of two shillings to the pound, to raise funds for Great Britain's effort in the French Revolutionary Wars.


date: December 31

text: December 31 – The Dutch East India Company's charter is allowed to expire by the Batavian Republic.


text: The Place Royale in Paris is renamed Place des Vosges, when the Department of Vosges becomes the first to pay new Revolutionary taxes.


text: The small town of Tignish, Prince Edward Island, Canada is founded.


text: William Cockerill begins building cotton-spinning machinery in Belgium.


text: Eli Whitney, holding a 1798 United States government contract for the manufacture of muskets, is introduced by Oliver Wolcott Jr. to the concept of interchangeable parts, an origin of the American system of manufacturing.


date: October 12

text: October 12 – Jeanne Geneviève Labrosse becomes the first woman to jump from a balloon with a parachute, from an altitude of 900 m ft over France.


date: January 17

text: January 17 – Maltese patriot Dun Mikiel Xerri, along with a number of other patriots, is executed.


date: October 16

text: October 16 – War of the Second Coalition: Action of 16 October 1799 – A Spanish treasure convoy worth more than £54,000,000 is captured by the British Royal Navy off Vigo.


date: October 9

text: October 9 – (a famous treasure wreck) is sunk in the West Frisian Islands.


date: November 5

text: November 5 – HMS Sceptre is driven ashore and wrecked in a storm in Table Bay, South Africa, with the loss of 349 and 41 survivors.


date: March 14

text: March 14 – The public premiere of Haydn’s oratorio The Creation takes place at the Burgtheater in Vienna.


date: March 29

text: March 29 – New York passes a law aimed at gradually abolishing slavery in the state.


date: January 6

text: January 6 – Jedediah Smith, American fur trapper, explorer (d. 1831)

source_section: Births › January–June


date: February 11

text: February 11 – Basil Moreau, founder of the Congregation of Holy Cross (d. 1873)


date: March 8

text: March 8 – Simon Cameron, American politician (d. 1889)


date: March 28

text: March 28 – Karl Adolph von Basedow, German physician, noted for reporting the symptoms of Graves–Basedow disease (d. 1854)


text: March 29 – Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1869)


date: April 17

text: April 17 – Eliza Acton, English poet and cookery writer (d. 1859)


date: May 20

text: May 20 – Honoré de Balzac, French author (d. 1850)


date: May 21

text: May 21 – Mary Anning, British paleontologist (d. 1847)


date: June 6

text: June 6 – Alexander Pushkin, Russian author (d. 1837)


date: October 1

text: October 1 – John Brown Russwurm, Americo-Liberian journalist and governor of the African Republic of Maryland (d. 1851)

source_section: Births › July–December


date: November 1

text: November 1 – Thomas Baldwin Marsh, American religious leader (d. 1866)


date: November 29

text: November 29 – Amos Bronson Alcott, American philosopher, educator and writer, father of novelist Louisa May Alcott (d. 1888)


date: December 3

text: December 3 – Peggy Eaton, born Margaret O'Neill, wife of United States Secretary of State John Eaton and central character in the Petticoat affair (d. 1879)


date: December 25

text: December 25 – Manuel Bulnes, Chilean general and politician, President of Chile (d. 1866)


date: January 22

text: January 22 – Horace-Bénédict de Saussure, Swiss aristocrat, alpinist (b. 1740)

source_section: Deaths › January–June


date: February 7

text: February 7 – The Jiaqing Emperor of China comes into his full powers on the death of his father, the Qianlong Emperor. He prosecutes corrupt court official Heshen and issues a decree prohibiting the import of opium to China.


date: February 12

text: February 12 – Lazzaro Spallanzani, Italian biologist, physiologist (b. 1729)


date: February 24

text: February 24 – Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, German scientist, satirist and Anglophile (b. 1742)


date: April 6

text: April 6 – Alexander Bezborodko, Grand Chancellor of Russia, architect of Catherine the Great's foreign policy (b. 1747)


date: May 4

text: May 4 – Tipu Sultan, Indian warrior and ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore, killed in battle (b. 1750)


text: June 6 – Patrick Henry, American revolutionary politician, Governor of Virginia (b. 1736)


date: June 10

text: June 10 – Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Guadeloupe-born French musician (b. 1745)


date: August 2

text: August 2 – Jacques Étienne Montgolfier, French inventor of the hot-air balloon, balloonist (b. 1744)

source_section: Deaths › July–December


date: October 9

text: October 9 – Pierre Pigneau de Behaine, French priest who helped to establish the Nguyễn dynasty (b. 1741)


date: October 20

text: October 20 – James Iredell, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (b. 1751)


date: October 24

text: October 24 – Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf, Austrian composer (b. 1739)


date: December 6

text: December 6 – Joseph Black, Scottish physician, physicist and chemist (b. 1728)


date: December 14

text: December 14 – George Washington, first President of the United States, dies at Mount Vernon, Virginia, aged 67.


year_label: 18 CE

text: Germanicus concludes a peace treaty with Artabanus II of Parthia, in which he is recognized as king and friend of Rome.

source_section: Events › 18 AD › Parthia


text: Daemusin becomes ruler of the Korean kingdom of Goguryeo.

source_section: Events › 18 AD › Korea


text: Winter – Germanicus Caesar arrives in Syria, as new commander-in-chief for the Roman East.

source_section: Events › 18 AD › Syria


text: A vexillatio (sub-unit or detachment) of Legio III Augusta is destroyed by an ambush in Africa.

source_section: Events › 18 AD › Roman Empire


text: Gnaeus Calpurnius Piso, governor of Syria, ignores the order of Germanicus to send Syrian-based legions, including Legio VI Ferrata and Legio X Fretensis, to Armenia to back him in his planned coronation of Artaxias III.


text: In India, the Indo-Parthians control Taxila.

source_section: Events › 18 AD › India


text: After a flooding of the Yellow River in China, farmers are forced to rebel. Emperor Wang Mang reacts by sending an army (some 100,000 men) against the agrarian rebels. The rebel leaders, concerned that during battle it will become impossible to tell friend from foe, order that their men color their eyebrows red – and this is where the name Chimei ("The Red Eyebrows") comes from.

source_section: Events › 18 AD › China


text: Julia Livilla, daughter of Germanicus and Agrippina the Elder (approximate date) (d. AD 41)

source_section: Births › 18 AD


text: Yang Xiong, Chinese philosopher (b. 53 BC)

source_section: Deaths › 18 AD


text: Crinagoras, Greek epigrammatist (b. 70 BC)


text: Publius Ovidius Naso, Roman poet (or AD 17)


text: Herod Archelaus, Jewish ruler (ethnarch) (b. 23 BC)


text: Yuri, Korean ruler of Goguryeo


text: Mother Lü, rebel leader against the Xin dynasty


text: Cassius Dio arrives in Rome and becomes a Senator

source_section: Events › By place › Roman Empire


date: July 17

text: July 17 – Twelve Christian inhabitants of Scillium in Numidia are executed in Carthage (also in North Africa) (known as the Scillitan Martyrs) – they had refused to swear an oath to the Emperor.

source_section: Events › By topic › Religion


text: The Quadi are chased westwards, deeper into Germania. The Praetorian prefect, Tarutenius Paternus, achieves a decisive victory against the Germanic tribes.


text: The Era of the Five Good Emperors ends.


text: Northern British from beyond Hadrian's Wall invade the North of modern-day England, causing Emperor Commodus to allow swathes of Northern cities to establish city walls.


text: 180–395 – Late Empire in Rome.


text: The Goths reach the banks of the Black Sea.

source_section: Events › By place › Europe


text: Rome creates a 4-mile wide buffer zone by the Danube.


text: Commodus creates an official cult of the Zoroastrian god Mithra.


text: Work begins in Rome on the building of the Column of Marcus Aurelius.


text: In his Methodus Medendo, Greek physician Galen describes the connection between paralysis and the severing of the spinal cord.

source_section: Events › By topic › Arts and sciences


text: Lake Taupō in New Zealand erupts, forming ash clouds as far as China and Europe.

source_section: Events › By place › Oceania


text: Galen's popular work on hygiene is published.


text: Johanan bar Nappaha, Jewish rabbi (d. 279)

source_section: Births


text: Ardashir I, founder of the Sasanian Empire (d. 242)


text: Julia Soaemias, mother of Elagabalus (d. 222)


text: Sima Fu, Chinese prince and statesman (d. 272)


date: March 17

text: March 17 – Emperor Marcus Aurelius dies after a week's illness at his camp in Vindobona (modern Vienna). He is succeeded by his son Commodus (age 18).


text: March 17 – Marcus Aurelius, Roman emperor (b. 121)

source_section: Deaths


text: Aulus Gellius, Roman author and grammarian (b. 125 AD)


text: Pinytus, bishop of Knossos (approximate date)


text: Hegesippus, Christian chronicler and writer (b. 110)


text: Gaius, Roman jurist and writer (approximate date)


text: Melito of Sardis, bishop of Sardis (approximate date)


text: Lucian of Samosata, Syrian rhetorician (b. 125 AD)


text: February 7 – A public plebiscite in France confirms Napoleon as First Consul, by a substantial majority.

source_section: Events › January–March


date: April 2

text: April 2 – The Treaty of Constantinople establishes the Septinsular Republic, the first autonomous Greek state since the Fall of the Byzantine Empire.

source_section: Events › April–June


date: June 3

text: June 3 – U.S. President John Adams moves to Washington. Because the President's Mansion is still under construction, President Adams takes up residence at Tunnicliffe's City Hotel near the unfinished U.S. Capitol Building.


date: July 2

text: July 2 – The Union with Ireland Act 1800 is passed by the Parliament of Great Britain; the Irish Parliament passes similar legislation in the following month, uniting the two kingdoms and abolishing the Parliament of Ireland.

source_section: Events › July–September


date: August 1

text: August 1 – King George III gives royal assent to the second Act of Union to unite the Kingdom of Great Britain and Kingdom of Ireland (both ruled by him) into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, effective on January 1, 1801.


date: September 30

text: September 30 – The Convention of 1800, or Treaty of Mortefontaine, is signed between France and the United States of America, ending the Quasi-War.


date: October 1

text: October 1 – Third Treaty of San Ildefonso: Spain returns Louisiana (New Spain) to France, in return for the Tuscany area of Italy.

source_section: Events › October–December


date: November 1

text: November 1 – U.S. President John Adams becomes the first President of the United States to live in the Executive Mansion (later renamed the White House).


date: November 17

text: November 17 – The United States Congress holds its first Washington, D.C., session.


date: December 3

text: December 3 – The 1800 United States presidential election: The Electoral College casts votes for president and Vice President that result in a tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, requiring a contingent election which will select Jefferson as president.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – Quasi-War: Action of 1 January 1800 – A naval battle off the coast of Haiti, between four United States merchant vessels escorted by naval schooner , and a squadron of armed barges manned by Haitian pirates (known as picaroons), under the command of general André Rigaud, ends indecisively.


date: April 6

text: April 6 – War of the Second Coalition: Siege of Genoa – General André Masséna is surrounded by 40,000 Austrian troops under Field Marshal Michael von Melas and blockaded by a strong British squadron under Lord Keith.


date: May 14

text: May 14 – Second Coalition: French forces under General Louis-Alexandre Berthier are halted by 400 Austro-Piedmont soldiers, at Fort Bard in the Aosta Valley.


date: May 15

text: May 15 – Napoleon and his French army (40,000 men)—not including the field artillery and baggage trains—(35,000 light artillery and infantry, 5,000 cavalry) begin crossing the Alps. He selects the shortest route through the Great St Bernard Pass, and invades after five days traversing the northern region of Italy.


date: June 4

text: June 4 – War of the Second Coalition: Siege of Genoa: The French army is evacuated from Genoa. Marshal André Masséna is allowed to march out, with all the honours of war. A portion of his force joins General Louis-Gabriel Suchet, and the rest is conveyed in British ships to Antibes.


date: June 14

text: June 14 – French general Jean-Baptiste Kléber is assassinated in Cairo by Syrian Kurdish Muslim student Suleiman al-Halabi.


text: June 14 – War of the Second Coalition: Battle of Marengo: Napoleon Bonaparte defeats the Austrian army (some 30,000 men) under General Michael von Melas near Marengo. The arrival of French reinforcements under General Louis Desaix reverses the battle. A late counterstroke turns a near-defeat into a political and strategic triumph. Desaix dies during the battle. Napoleon strengthens his position as First Consul and becomes the 'savior of France'. The Austrians lose 6,000 men killed or wounded and some 8,000 prisoners of war. The French lose over 5,000 men (25% total casualties).


date: June 15

text: June 15 – Convention of Alessandria (Armistice of Marengo): Austria agrees to evacuate much of Italy and suspends military operations.


date: June 19

text: June 19 – War of the Second Coalition: Battle of Höchstädt – General Jean Victor Marie Moreau leads French forces to victory, opening the Danube passageway to Vienna.


date: June 27

text: June 27 – War of the Second Coalition: Battle of Neuburg – General Claude Lecourbe leads French forces to victory, securing control of the Danube from Austria.


date: August 30

text: August 30 – The plot by African-American blacksmith and slave Gabriel Prosser to seize Richmond, Virginia, and guide a slave uprising, is thwarted by a massive downpour on the evening that it is set to begin; two other slaves have revealed Prosser's plans to authorities, who have prepared to follow him to the rendezvous point and arrest the conspirators, so that "neither the geographical extent of the plot nor the number of insurgents in the conspiracy was revealed"; eventually, 25 slaves, including Prosser, will be captured, tried and hanged.


date: September 4

text: September 4 – Siege of Malta (1798–1800): The French garrison in Valletta surrenders to British troops, who had been called at the invitation of the Maltese. The islands of Malta and Gozo become the Malta Protectorate.


date: November 22

text: November 22 – War of the Second Coalition: Hostilities resume.


text: December 3 – War of the Second Coalition: Battle of Hohenlinden – The French army defeats Habsburg and Bavarian troops.


date: December 24

text: December 24 – The Plot of the rue Saint-Nicaise fails to kill Napoleon Bonaparte.


date: December 25

text: December 25 – The Armistice of Steyr is signed between French and Imperial forces in Germany, ending active hostilities of the War of the Second Coalition in Germany.


text: War of the Second Coalition: Battle of Montebello: French forces under General Jean Lannes defeat the Austrians at Montebello. Lannes distinguishes himself in battle; the Austrians lose 659 killed and 1,445 wounded. The French claim only 600 casualties, but a more realistic assessment is that they suffer about 3,000 losses.


date: March 26

text: March 26 – British Royal Navy officer Henry Waterhouse first charts the Antipodes Islands.


date: October 7

text: October 7 – French privateer Robert Surcouf leads the 150-man crew of his corvette to capture the 40-gun, 437-man British East Indiaman in the Indian Ocean.


date: March 14

text: March 14 – Papal conclave, 1799–1800: cardinal Barnaba Chiaramonti succeeds Pius VI as Pius VII, the 251st pope. He is crowned on March 21, in Venice.


text: December 24 – Pierre Coudrin and Henriette Aymer de la Chevalerie found the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in Paris.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – The Dutch East India Company dissolves.


date: February 11

text: February 11 – Infrared radiation is discovered by astronomer Sir William Herschel.


date: February 22

text: February 22 – The Baker rifle, designed by Ezekiel Baker, is selected by the British Board of Ordnance as a new standard.


date: March 20

text: March 20 – Alessandro Volta describes his new invention, the voltaic pile, the first chemical battery, in a letter to the Royal Society of London.


date: June 2

text: June 2 – The first smallpox vaccination is made in North America, at Trinity, Newfoundland.


date: March 17

text: March 17 – The British Royal Navy ship of the line, , catches fire off the coast of Capraia, with the loss of 673 lives.


date: April 2

text: April 2 – Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 1 premieres at the Burgtheater, in Vienna.


date: April 24

text: April 24 – The U.S. Library of Congress is founded in Washington, D.C.


date: July 10

text: July 10 – Fort William College is established by Lord Wellesley, British Governor-General of India, in Calcutta, to promote Bengali, Hindi and other vernaculars of the Indian subcontinent.


date: November 1

text: November 1 – Middlebury College is granted its charter by the Vermont General Assembly.


text: January 1 – Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere, English landowner (d. 1857)

source_section: Births › January–June


date: January 7

text: January 7 – Millard Fillmore, 13th President of the United States (d. 1874)


date: January 11

text: January 11 – Ányos Jedlik, Hungarian physicist, inventor of the dynamo (d. 1895)


date: January 12

text: January 12 – George Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon, English diplomat, statesman (d. 1870)


date: March 3

text: March 3 – Heinrich Georg Bronn, German geologist, paleontologist (d. 1862)


date: March 10

text: March 10 – George Hudson, English railway financier (d. 1871)


date: March 13

text: March 13 – Mustafa Reşid Pasha, Turkish statesman, diplomat (d. 1858)


date: April 16

text: April 16 – George Bingham, 3rd Earl of Lucan, British soldier (d. 1888)


date: May 9

text: May 9 – John Brown, American abolitionist (d. 1859)


text: June 2 – Nicholas P. Trist, secretary to President Andrew Jackson of the U.S. (d. 1874)


date: June 17

text: June 17 – William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse, Irish astronomer (d. 1867)


date: June 29

text: June 29 – William Boxall, 2nd director of the National Gallery in London (d. 1879)


date: July 15

text: July 15 – Sidney Breese, American senator from Illinois, father of the Illinois Central Railroad (d. 1878)

source_section: Births › July–December


date: October 26

text: October 26 – Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, German field marshal (d. 1891)


date: January 20

text: January 20 – Thomas Mifflin, first Governor of Pennsylvania (b. 1744)

source_section: Deaths › January–June


date: February 27

text: February 27 – Adélaïde of France, French princess (b.1732)


date: March 1

text: March 1 – John Hazelwood, English-born officer in the U.S. Continental Navy (b. 1726)


date: March 21

text: March 21 – William Blount, U.S. statesman (b. 1749)


date: June 30

text: June 30 – Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney, British politician (b. 1732)


date: July 18

text: July 18 – John Rutledge, governor of South Carolina (b. 1739)

source_section: Deaths › July–December


date: August 25

text: August 25 – Elizabeth Montagu, English literary critic (b. 1718)


date: October 10

text: October 10 – Gabriel Prosser, American slave revolutionary (b. approx. 1776)


date: October 28

text: October 28 – Artemas Ward, American Major General in the American Revolutionary War, Congressman from Massachusetts (b. 1727)


date: November 5

text: November 5 – Jesse Ramsden, English astronomical instrument maker (b. 1735)


date: November 14

text: November 14 – François Claude Amour, marquis de Bouillé, French general (b. 1739)


date: November 25

text: November 25 – Francisco Bouligny, former military governor of Spanish Louisiana (b. 1736)


date: December 7

text: December 7 – Wilhelm von Knyphausen, Hessian Lieutenant-General (b. 1716)


date: December 27

text: December 27 – Hugh Blair, Scottish Presbyterian preacher, man of letters (b. 1718)


date: January 1

text: January 1 – The legislative union of Great Britain and Ireland is completed under the Act of Union 1800, bringing about the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the abolition of the Parliament of Ireland.


date: January 3

text: January 3 – Toussaint Louverture triumphantly enters Santo Domingo, the capital of the former Spanish colony of Santo Domingo, which has become a colony of Napoleonic France.


date: January 31

text: January 31 – John Marshall is appointed Chief Justice of the United States.


date: February 4

text: February 4 – William Pitt the Younger resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.


date: February 9

text: February 9 – The Treaty of Lunéville ends the War of the Second Coalition between France and Austria. Under the terms of the treaty, all German territories left of the Rhine are officially annexed by France while Austria also has to recognize the Batavian, Helvetian, Cisalpine and Ligurian Republics.


date: February 17

text: February 17 – An electoral tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr is resolved, when Jefferson is elected President of the United States and Burr Vice President by the United States House of Representatives.


date: February 27

text: February 27 – Washington, D.C. is placed under the jurisdiction of the United States Congress.


date: March 14

text: March 14 – Henry Addington becomes First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer, effectively Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.


date: June 7

text: June 7 – War of the Oranges ends: Portugal and Spain sign the Treaty of Badajoz; Portugal loses the city of Olivenza.


date: July 7

text: July 7 – Toussaint Louverture promulgates a reforming constitution for Santo Domingo, declaring himself emperor for life of the entire island of Hispaniola, and nominally abolishing slavery.


date: September 9

text: September 9 – Alexander I of Russia confirms the privileges of the Baltic provinces.


date: September 30

text: September 30 – The Treaty of London is signed for preliminary peace between the French First Republic and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.


date: April 2

text: April 2 – War of the Second Coalition: First Battle of Copenhagen – The British Royal Navy, under Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, forces the Royal Dano-Norwegian Navy to accept an armistice. Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson leads the main attack, deliberately disregarding his commander's signal to withdraw. He is created a Viscount on May 19; Denmark-Norway is forced to withdraw from the Second League of Armed Neutrality.


date: May 6

text: May 6 – French Revolutionary Wars: Action of 6 May 1801 off Barcelona – British Royal Navy brig HMS Speedy, although outmanned and outgunned, captures the 32-gun Spanish frigate El Gamo.


date: May 10

text: May 10 – The pascha of Tripoli declares war on the United States, by having the flagpole on the consulate chopped down.


date: June 15

text: June 15 – A bull breaks through barriers at a bullfight in Madrid, killing two people (including the mayor of Torrejón de Ardoz) and injuring a number of other spectators.


date: June 27

text: June 27 – Siege of Cairo ends: Cairo falls to British troops.


date: July 6

text: July 6 – First Battle of Algeciras: The French fleet defeats the British fleet.


date: July 12

text: July 12 – Second Battle of Algeciras: The British fleet defeats the French and Spanish fleets.


date: August 1

text: August 1 – First Barbary War: Action of 1 August 1801 – United States Navy schooner captures the 14-gun Tripolitan corsair polacca Tripoli off the north African coast, in a single-ship action.


date: September 2

text: September 2 - Siege of Alexandria: French troops (some 10,000 men) under General Jacques-François Menou surrender to the British after a siege of 17 days. According to the terms, the French are allowed to keep their personal weapons and baggage.


date: October 17

text: October 17 – A coup d'état is staged in the Batavian Republic.


date: December 15

text: December 15 – Hadži Mustafa Pasha, Ottoman commander and politician, is assassinated in Belgrade, Sanjak of Smederevo, by Kučuk-Alija.


date: July 18

text: July 18 – Napoleon signs a Concordat with Pope Pius VII.


date: November 16

text: November 16 – The first edition of the New-York Evening Post is printed.


text: The Supreme Council, Scottish Rite (Southern Jurisdiction, USA) is founded within Freemasonry.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


date: December 24

text: December 24 – Cornish engineers Richard Trevithick and Andrew Vivian demonstrate "Puffing Devil", their steam-powered road locomotive, in Camborne. The trial is successful but Trevithick realizes the limitations of steam power in a road-running vehicle and turns his attention to rail, introducing the world's first steam railway locomotive in 1804.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – Giuseppe Piazzi discovers the asteroid and dwarf planet Ceres.


text: The first of a continuous series of censuses is held in France.


text: Ultraviolet radiation is discovered by Johann Wilhelm Ritter.


date: March 10

text: March 10 – The first census is held in Great Britain. The population of England and Wales is determined to be 8.9 million, with London revealed to have 860,035 residents. 1.5 million people live in cities of 20,000 or more in England and Wales, accounting for 17% of the total English population.


text: Philippe Pinel publishes Traité médico-philosophique sur l'aliénation mentale; ou la manie, presenting his enlightened humane psychological approach to the management of psychiatric hospitals. Translated into English by D. D. Davis as Treatise on Insanity in 1806, it is influential on both sides of the Atlantic during the nineteenth century.


date: March 23

text: March 23 – Tsar Paul I of Russia is murdered; he is succeeded by his son Alexander I.


date: September 24

text: September 24 – Joseph Marie Jacquard exhibits his new invention, a loom where the pattern being woven is controlled by punched cards, at the National Exposition in Paris.


text: Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, begins removal of the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon in Athens.


date: April 21

text: April 21 – Ranjit Singh is invested as Maharaja of Punjab.


date: December 19

text: December 19 – South Carolina College, a precursor to The University of South Carolina, is established in Columbia, South Carolina.


text: The magnum opus Disquisitiones Arithmeticae of Carl Friedrich Gauss is published.


date: January 10

text: January 10 – Thierry Hermès, German-born French businessman, founder of Hermès (d. 1878)


date: January 11

text: January 11 – Honório Hermeto Carneiro Leão, Marquis of Paraná, Brazilian politician (d. 1856)


date: January 14

text: January 14 – Jane Welsh Carlyle, Scottish writer, wife of Thomas Carlyle (d. 1866)


date: February 1

text: February 1 – Thomas Cole, American artist (d. 1848)


date: March 15

text: March 15 – George Perkins Marsh, American diplomat, philologist and pioneer environmentalist (d. 1882)


date: May 5

text: May 5 – Pío Pico, last Governor of Alta California (d. 1894)


date: May 16

text: May 16 – William H. Seward, 24th United States Secretary of State (d. 1872)


date: June 14

text: June 14 – Heber C. Kimball, American religious leader (d. 1868)


date: June 30

text: June 30 – Frédéric Bastiat, French philosopher (d. 1850)


date: July 14

text: July 14 – Johannes Peter Müller, German physiologist, comparative anatomist, ichthyologist, and herpetologist (d. 1858)


date: July 27

text: July 27 – George Biddell Airy, English mathematician, astronomer (d. 1892)


date: November 3

text: November 3 – Vincenzo Bellini, Italian composer (d. 1835)


date: November 13

text: November 13 – Queen Elisabeth Ludovika of Bavaria, queen of Prussia (d. 1873)


date: December 14

text: December 14 – Joseph Lane, American politician and general, 1st Governor of Oregon (d. 1881)


text: January 11 – Domenico Cimarosa, Italian composer (b. 1749)


date: February 17

text: February 17 – Princess Philippine Charlotte of Prussia (b. 1716)


date: March 14

text: March 14 – Margarita "Peggy" Schuyler Van Rensselaer, American socialite, Angelica Schuyler Church's sister (b. 1758)


date: March 16

text: March 16 – Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna of Russia, daughter of Paul I of Russia (b.1783)


date: March 19

text: March 19 – Ambrosio O'Higgins, 1st Marquis of Osorno, Spanish viceroy of Peru and Governor of the Captaincy General of Chile, father of Bernardo O'Higgins, (b. c. 1720)


date: March 21

text: March 21 – Battle of Alexandria in Egypt: British troops defeat the French, but the British commander, Sir Ralph Abercromby, dies later of a wound received in the action.


date: March 25

text: March 25 – Novalis, German poet (b. 1772)


date: March 28

text: March 28 – Ralph Abercromby, British general (b. 1734)


date: June 4

text: June 4 – Frederick Muhlenberg, first Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives (b. 1750)


date: October 3

text: October 3 – Philippe Henri, marquis de Ségur, Marshal of France (b. 1724)


date: November 4

text: November 4 – William Shippen, American physician, Continental Congressman (b. 1712)


date: November 5

text: November 5 – Motoori Norinaga, Japanese philologist and scholar (b. 1730)


date: November 24

text: November 24 – Franz Moritz von Lacy, Austrian field marshal (b. 1725)


text: November 24 – Philip Hamilton, son of American soldier and statesman, Alexander Hamilton (b. 1782)


text: March 25–27 – The Treaty of Amiens between the French Republic and the United Kingdom ends the War of the Second Coalition. The treaty also ends the French Revolutionary Wars.


date: April 26

text: April 26 – A general amnesty signed by Napoleon allows all but about 1,000 of the most notorious émigrés of the French Revolution to return to France as part of a conciliatory gesture to make peace with the various factions of the Ancien Régime that ultimately consolidates his own rule.


date: May 20

text: May 20 – By the Law of 20 May 1802, Napoleon reinstates slavery in the French colonies, revoking its abolition in the French Revolution.


date: July 5

text: July 5 – Parliamentary elections begin in the United Kingdom, with voting continuing until August 28; the Tories, led by Henry Addington, win control of the House of Commons.


date: August 2

text: August 2 – In a plebiscite, Napoleon Bonaparte is confirmed as the First Consul of France.


date: September 11

text: September 11 – The Italian region of Piedmont becomes a part of the French First Republic.


date: November 16

text: November 16 – The newly elected British Parliament is inaugurated by King George III, who tells the members, "In my intercourse with foreign powers, I have been actuated by a sincere disposition of the maintenance of peace," but adds that "My conduct will be invariably regulated by a due consideration of the actual situation of Europe, and by a watchful solicitude for the permanent welfare of my people."


date: January 5

text: January 5 – Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, begins removal of the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon in Athens, claiming they are at risk of destruction during the Ottoman occupation of Greece; the first shipment departs Piraeus on board Elgin's ship, the Mentor, "with many boxes of moulds and sculptures", including three marble torsos from the Parthenon.


date: February 3

text: February 3 – Leclerc and the first 5,000 of 20,000 troops arrive at Cap-François (modern Cap-Haïtien).


date: April 21

text: April 21 – About 12,000 Wahhabi Sunnis under the command of Abdul-Aziz bin Muhammad, the second ruler of the First Saudi State attack and sack Karbala, kill between 2,000 and 5,000 inhabitants and plunder the tomb of Husayn ibn Ali, grandson of Muhammad and son of Ali ibn Abi Talib.


date: May

text: May – Madame Marie Tussaud first exhibits her wax sculptures in London, having been commissioned, during the Reign of Terror in France, to make death masks of the victims.


date: June 8

text: June 8 – Haitian revolutionary Toussaint Louverture is seized by French troops and imprisoned at the Fort de Joux.


date: July 22

text: July 22 – Gia Long captures Hanoi, completing his unification of Vietnam.


date: October 2

text: October 2 – War ends between Sweden and Tripoli. The United States also negotiates peace, but war continues over the size of compensation.


date: October 15

text: October 15 – French Army General Michel Ney enters Switzerland with 40,000 troops, on orders of Napoleon Bonaparte.


date: January 29

text: January 29 – The French Saint-Domingue expedition (40,000 troops) led by General Charles Leclerc (Bonaparte's brother-in-law) lands in Saint-Domingue (modern Haiti) in an attempt to restore colonial rule following the Haitian Revolution in which Toussaint Louverture (a black former slave) has proclaimed himself Governor-General for Life and established control over Hispaniola.


date: March 16

text: March 16 – The United States Army Corps of Engineers is re-established, and the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York is established under its management, opening on July 4.


date: June 1

text: June 1 – The United States Patent and Trademark Office is established within the Department of State.


date: July 19

text: July 19 – Éleuthère Irénée du Pont founds E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, the modern DuPont chemical company, as a gunpowder manufactory near Wilmington, Delaware.


date: July 31

text: July 31 – William Wordsworth, leaving London for Dover and Calais with his sister Dorothy, witnesses the early morning scene which he captures in his sonnet "Composed upon Westminster Bridge".


date: February

text: February – The Rosetta Stone is brought to England by Colonel Tomkyns Hilgrove Turner, who arrives at Portsmouth on the captured French frigate L'Egyptiane.


date: March 28

text: March 28 – H. W. Olbers discovers the asteroid Pallas.


date: April 10

text: April 10 – The Great Trigonometrical Survey of India begins with the measurement of a baseline near Madras.


date: April 12

text: April 12 — Beethoven leaves Vienna for a small nearby Austrian village named Heiligenstadt where he would cope with his declining mental and physical health including his growing deafness. He would stay until October and there he would write an unsent letter to his brothers called the Heiligenstadt Testament. In the letter, Beethoven contemplates suicide but it was his passion for the art of music that prevented him so.


date: December 2

text: December 2 – The Health and Morals of Apprentices Act in the United Kingdom comes into effect, regulating conditions for child labour in factories. Although poorly enforced, it pioneers a series of Factory Acts.


date: June 2

text: June 2 – Indigenous Australian Pemulwuy, a leader of the resistance to European settlement of Australia, is shot dead by Henry Hacking.


date: October 16

text: October 16 – The port of New Orleans and the lower Mississippi River are closed to American traffic by order of the city's Spanish administrator, Juan Ventura Morales, threatening the economy in the western United States, and prompting the need for the Louisiana Purchase.


date: November 23

text: November 23 – East Indiaman Vryheid, in the service of the Batavian Republic, is shipwrecked in a gale off Hythe, Kent, in the south of England; only 18 of 472 on board survive.


date: October 26

text: October 26 – A powerful 7.9 earthquake shakes the Romanian district of Vrancea destroying hundreds of buildings, triggering landslides and killing 4 people. This earthquake is considered one of the strongest to have shaken Europe.


date: January 15

text: January 15 – Canonsburg Academy (modern-day Washington & Jefferson College) is chartered by the Pennsylvania General Assembly.


date: March 3

text: March 3 – Ludwig van Beethoven publishes his Piano Sonata No. 14, commonly known as the "Moonlight Sonata" (Mondschein), in Vienna; the availability of the sheet music is announced by Giovanni Cappi in the newspaper Wiener Zeitung.


date: March 11

text: March 11 – The Rosetta Stone is presented to the Society of Antiquaries of London, which in turn presents it to the British Museum.


date: May 19

text: May 19 – Napoleon establishes the French Legion of Honour (Légion d'honneur).


text: June 1 – At Huế, shortly before his conquest of Tonkin, Nguyen Anh is crowned as the Emperor Gia Long, the first ruler of the Nguyễn dynasty in Vietnam.


date: June

text: June – The first account of Thomas Wedgwood's experiments in photography is published by Humphry Davy in the Journal of the Royal Institution in London. Since a fixative for the image has not yet been developed, the early photographs quickly fade.


date: February 6

text: February 6 – Charles Wheatstone, English physicist, inventor (d. 1875)


date: February 11

text: February 11 – Lydia Maria Child, American abolitionist author (d. 1880)


date: February 16

text: February 16 – Phineas Quimby, American physician (d. 1866)


date: April 4

text: April 4 – Dorothea Dix, American activist (d. 1887)


date: April 9

text: April 9 – Elias Lönnrot, Finnish folklorist, philologist who created the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala (d. 1884)


date: June 12

text: June 12 – Harriet Martineau, British social theorist, writer (d. 1876)


date: July 5

text: July 5 (June 23 O.S.) – Pavel Nakhimov, Russian admiral (d. 1855)


date: July 24

text: July 24 – Alexandre Dumas, French author (d. 1870)


date: July 26

text: July 26 – Mariano Arista, President of Mexico (d. 1855)


date: August 5

text: August 5 – Niels Henrik Abel, Norwegian mathematician (d. 1829)


date: September 19

text: September 19 – Lajos Kossuth, Hungarian politician (d. 1894)


date: November 9

text: November 9 – Elijah P. Lovejoy, American abolitionist (d. 1837)


date: November 19

text: November 19 – Solomon Foot, American politician (d. 1866)


date: December 12

text: December 12 – Jakob Joseph Matthys, Swiss Catholic priest (d. 1866)


date: February 2

text: February 2 – Welbore Ellis, 1st Baron Mendip, British statesman (b. 1713)


date: February 3

text: February 3 – Pedro Rodríguez, Count of Campomanes, Spanish statesman, writer (b. 1723)


date: February 26

text: February 26 – Esek Hopkins, American Revolutionary War admiral (b. 1718)


date: April 18

text: April 18 – Erasmus Darwin, English physician and botanist (b. 1731)


date: April 26

text: April 26 – Edmund Nelson (clergyman), English priest (b. 1722)


date: May 22

text: May 22 – Martha Washington, first First Lady of the United States (b. 1731)


date: July 6

text: July 6 – Daniel Morgan, American pioneer, Congressman from Virginia, and general (b. 1736)


date: July 15

text: July 15 – John de Verdion, London-based bookseller and language instructor (b. 1740s)


date: July 22

text: July 22 – Xavier Bichat, French anatomist and pathologist (b. 1771)


text: July 24 – Joseph Ducreux, French noble, portrait painter, pastelist, miniaturist, and engraver (b. 1735)


date: August 12

text: August 12 – Louis Lebègue Duportail French military leader in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War (b. 1743)


date: September 26

text: September 26 – Jurij Vega, Slovenian mathematician, physicist, and soldier (b. 1754)


date: November 16

text: November 16 – André Michaux, French botanist (b. 1746)


date: December 31

text: December 31 – Francis Lewis, signer of the United States Declaration of Independence (b. 1713)


date: January 30

text: January 30 – Monroe and Livingston sail for Paris to discuss, and possibly buy, New Orleans; they end up completing the Louisiana Purchase.


date: February 19

text: February 19 – An Act of Mediation, issued by Napoleon Bonaparte, establishes the Swiss Confederation to replace the Helvetic Republic. Under the terms of the act, Graubünden, St. Gallen, Thurgau, the Ticino and Vaud become Swiss cantons.


text: February 19 – Ohio is admitted as the 17th U.S. state.


date: February 25

text: February 25 – A major redistribution of territorial sovereignty within the Holy Roman Empire is enacted, via an act known as the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss.


date: March 9

text: March 9 – Aargau becomes a Swiss canton.


date: June 7

text: June 7 – Indiana Territory governor (and future U.S. president) William Henry Harrison signs treaties at Fort Wayne, with representatives of the Delaware, Shawnee, Potawatomi, Miami, Kickapoo, Eel River, Wea, Piankeshaw and Kaskaskia Indian tribes. The U.S. Senate ratifies the treaties on November 25.


date: July 4

text: July 4 – The Louisiana Purchase is announced to the American people.


date: July 5

text: July 5 – The convention of Artlenburg leads to the French occupation of Hanover (which had been ruled by the British king).


date: October 14

text: October 14 – Orissa, an area of India along the Bay of Bengal that comprises the modern-day Indian state of Odisha, is occupied by the British under the British East India Company, after the Second Anglo-Maratha War. The Maratha Empire formally cedes the area in the Treaty of Deogaon, signed on December 17.


date: October 20

text: October 20 – The Senate ratifies the Louisiana Purchase Treaty, doubling the size of the United States.


date: November 30

text: November 30 – At the Cabildo in New Orleans, Spanish representatives Governor Manuel de Salcedo and the Marqués de Casa Calvo officially transfer Louisiana (New Spain) to French representative Prefect Pierre Clément de Laussat. Barely three weeks later, France transfers the same land to the United States.


date: December 9

text: December 9 – The proposed Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution, requiring that electoral ballots distinctly list the choice for president and the choice for vice president, is approved by Congress for submission to the states for ratification; passed in the wake of the problems in the 1800 presidential election, the amendment is ratified by 13 of the 17 states and is proclaimed in effect on September 25, 1804.


date: December 20

text: December 20 – The Louisiana Purchase is completed as the French prefect, de Laussat, formally transfers ownership of land between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains to the United States, by way of commissioners William C. C. Claiborne and James Wilkinson. Claiborne is appointed as the area's first American governor.


date: February 20

text: February 20 – Kandyan Wars: Kandy, Ceylon is taken by a British detachment.


date: February 21

text: February 21 – Edward Despard and six others are hanged and beheaded for plotting to assassinate King George III, and to destroy the Bank of England.


date: May 18

text: May 18 – The Napoleonic Wars begin, when the United Kingdom declares war on France, after France refuses to withdraw from Dutch territory.


date: May

text: May – First Consul of France, Citizen Bonaparte, begins making preparations to invade England.


date: June 14

text: June 14 – Napoleon Bonaparte orders the establishment of five military camps to defend the coast of France, located at Bayonne, Ghent, Saint-Omer, Compiègne, Saint-Malo, and one in the occupied Netherlands, at Utrecht. Each one has 20,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry to defend it.


date: July 23

text: July 23 – Robert Emmet's uprising in Ireland begins.


date: August 3

text: August 3 – The British begin the Second Anglo-Maratha War, against the Scindia Dynasty of Gwalior.


date: September 11

text: September 11 – Second Anglo-Maratha War: Battle of Delhi – British troops under General Lake defeat the Marathas of Scindia's army, under General Louis Bourquin.


date: September 20

text: September 20 – Irish rebel Robert Emmet is executed.


date: September 23

text: September 23 – Second Anglo-Maratha War: Battle of Assaye – British-led troops defeat Maratha forces.


date: November 18

text: November 18 – Haitian Revolution: Battle of Vertières – The Haitian army, led by Jean-Jacques Dessalines, defeats the French army sent by Napoleon.


date: August 31

text: August 31 – The Lewis and Clark Expedition begins as Lewis and a crew of 11 depart on the Ohio River.


date: May 19

text: May 19 – Master Malati, a Coptic Christian leader, is beheaded by a Muslim mob in Cairo, Egypt.


date: January 4

text: January 4 – William Symington demonstrates his Charlotte Dundas, the "first practical steamboat", in Scotland.


date: July 26

text: July 26 – The wagonway between Wandsworth and Croydon is opened, being the first public railway line in England.


date: April 26

text: April 26 – The L'Aigle meteorite falls in Normandy, causing a shift in scientific opinion on the origin of meteorites.


date: September 6

text: September 6 – John Dalton, British scientist, begins using symbols to represent the atoms of different elements.


text: Major breakthroughs in chemistry occur, with the identification of the elements rhodium and palladium (by William Hyde Wollaston); osmium and iridium (by Smithson Tennant); and cerium (by Wilhelm Hisinger, Jons Jakob Berzelius and Martin Heinrich Klaproth)


date: March

text: March–April – The franc germinal is introduced in France.


date: November 30

text: November 30 – The Balmis Expedition starts in Spain, with the aim of vaccinating millions against smallpox in Spanish America and the Philippines.


date: February 24

text: February 24 – Marbury v. Madison: The Supreme Court of the United States establishes the principle of judicial review.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – The first edition of Alexandre Balthazar Laurent Grimod de La Reynière's Almanach des gourmands, the first guide to restaurant cooking, is published in Paris.


date: April 5

text: April 5 — Ludwig van Beethoven puts on a big Akademie concert at the Theater an der Wien, in Vienna consisting of the premieres of his second symphony, third piano concerto, and his oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives.


date: April 30

text: April 30 – The Louisiana Purchase is made from France by the United States.[https://www.britannica.com/event/Louisiana-Purchase]


date: February 2

text: February 2 – Albert Sidney Johnston, American Confederate general (d. 1862)


date: February 15

text: February 15 – John Sutter, German-American pioneer (d. 1880)


date: March 27

text: March 27 – Charles Lafontaine, Swiss mesmerist (d. 1892)


date: May 12

text: May 12 – Justus von Liebig, German chemist (d. 1873)


date: May 24

text: May 24 – Charles Lucien Bonaparte, French naturalist, ornithologist (d. 1857)


date: May 25

text: May 25 – Ralph Waldo Emerson, American writer (d. 1882)


text: May 25 – Edward Bulwer-Lytton, English novelist, playwright and politician (d. 1873)


date: July 31

text: July 31 – John Ericsson, Swedish inventor, engineer (d. 1889)


date: August 3

text: August 3 – Sir Joseph Paxton, English gardener, architect and Member of Parliament (d. 1865)


date: August 18

text: August 18 – Nathan Clifford, American politician, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1881)


date: August

text: August – Francesca Anna Canfield, American linguist, poet and translator (d. 1833)


date: September 4

text: September 4 – Sarah Childress Polk, First Lady of the United States (d. 1891)


date: September 28

text: September 28 – Prosper Mérimée, French writer (d. 1870)


date: October 16

text: October 16 – Robert Stephenson, English civil engineer (d. 1859)


date: January 23

text: January 23 – Arthur Guinness, Irish brewer (b. 1725)


date: February 21

text: February 21 – Edward Despard, British revolutionary (b. 1751)


date: February 23

text: February 23 – Praskovia Kovalyova-Zhemchugova, Russian serf actress, opera soprano (b. 1768)


date: April 7

text: April 7 – Toussaint L'Ouverture, Haitian revolutionary (b. 1743)


date: April 14

text: April 14 – Christoph Anton Migazzi, Austrian Catholic bishop (b. 1714)


date: May 8

text: May 8 – John Joseph Merlin, Belgian-born British clock- and musical-instrument-maker and inventor (b. 1735)


date: September 5

text: September 5 – Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, French general, author (b. 1741)


date: September 13

text: September 13 – John Barry, officer in the Continental Navy during the American Revolutionary War, later in the United States Navy (b. 1745)


date: September 16

text: September 16 – Nicolas Baudin, French explorer (b. 1754)


date: October 26

text: October 26 – Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford, English politician (b. 1721)


date: October 31

text: October 31 – Pandara Vanniyan, last King of Vanni (defeated by Lt. von Driberg)


date: November 17

text: November 17 – John Willett Payne, British Royal Navy admiral (b. 1752)


date: December 18

text: December 18 – Johann Gottfried Herder, German philosopher, writer (b. 1744)


date: December 30

text: December 30 – Francis Lewis, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1713)


date: January 1

text: January 1 – Haiti gains independence from France, becoming the first independent Black state in the New World.


date: February 15

text: February 15 – New Jersey becomes the last of the northern United States to abolish slavery.


date: February 20

text: February 20 – Hobart is established in its permanent location in Van Diemen's Land (modern-day Tasmania) as a British penal colony.


date: March 21

text: March 21 – The Napoleonic Code is adopted as French civil law.


date: April 26

text: April 26 – Henry Addington resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.


date: May 10

text: May 10 – William Pitt the Younger begins his second term as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.


date: May 18

text: May 18 – Napoleon Bonaparte is proclaimed Emperor of the French by the French Senate.


date: June 15

text: June 15 – The Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified by New Hampshire, and arguably becomes effective (subsequently vetoed by the Governor of New Hampshire).


date: July 27

text: July 27 – The Twelfth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which reforms the way that candidates for President and Vice President are chosen, is ratified by Tennessee, removing doubt surrounding adoption.


date: November 3

text: November 3 – The Treaty of St. Louis is signed by Quashquame and William Henry Harrison; controversy surrounding the treaty eventually causes the Sauk people to ally with the British during the War of 1812, and is the main cause of the Black Hawk War of 1832.


date: November 20

text: November 20 – Said bin Sultan, Sultan of Muscat and Oman, starts to rule.


date: December 3

text: December 3 – Thomas Jefferson defeats Charles C. Pinckney in the United States presidential election.


text: The Nguyễn dynasty emperor Gia Long changes his country's official name from Đại Việt to Việt Nam.


date: February 14

text: February 14 – The First Serbian uprising begins the Serbian Revolution. By 1817, the Principality of Serbia will have proclaimed self-rule from the Ottoman Empire, the first nation-state in Europe to do so.


date: February 16

text: February 16 – First Barbary War: Stephen Decatur leads a raid to burn the pirate-held frigate at Tripoli to deny her further use by the captors.


date: February 22

text: February 22–April 22 – 1804 Haiti massacre, an ethnic cleansing with the goal of eradicating the white population on Haiti.


date: March 4

text: March 4–March 5 – The Castle Hill convict rebellion breaks out in New South Wales, led by Irish convicts in Australia.


date: October 5

text: October 5 – Action of 5 October 1804: War between Spain and the United Kingdom is triggered by the battle between four British warships (Indefatigable, Medusa, Amphion and Lively) and four Spanish frigates (Medee, Fama, Clara and Mercedes), all carrying treasure and merchandise. Captain Graham Moore of Indefatigable informs Spanish Admiral Jose Bustamante of his orders to detain the treasure-laden ships and, "not receiving a satisfactory answer, an Action commenced"; La Mercedes is sunk and the other three ships surrender.


date: December 12

text: December 12 – Spain declares war on the United Kingdom.


date: April 4

text: April 4 – Samuel Taylor Coleridge sets sail on The Speedwell for the Mediterranean. In Malta, he obtains employment as a public official.


date: May 14

text: May 14 – The Lewis and Clark Expedition departs from Camp Dubois and begins its historic journey by traveling up the Missouri River.


text: Matthew Flinders recommends that New Holland be renamed Australia (from the Latin australis meaning "of the south").


date: February 4

text: February 4 – The Sokoto Caliphate is founded in West Africa.


date: August 11

text: August 11 – In reaction to Napoleon being proclaimed emperor of France, Francis II assumes the title of a hereditary emperor of Austria (as Francis I) in addition to his title as emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. This latter title will become obsolete two years later when the formation of the Confederation of the Rhine instigated by Napoleon signals the end of the Holy Roman Empire.


date: December 2

text: December 2 – Coronation of Napoleon I: At the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris, Napoleon crowns himself as the first Emperor of the French in a thousand years. Witnessing this, Simón Bolívar dedicates himself to liberating Venezuela from Spanish rule.


text: Thomas Charles is instrumental in founding the British and Foreign Bible Society.


date: February 21

text: February 21 – Cornishman Richard Trevithick's newly built Penydarren steam locomotive operates on the Merthyr Tramroad, between Penydarren in Merthyr Tydfil and Abercynon in South Wales, following several trials since February 13, the world's first locomotive to work on rails.


date: May 21

text: May 21 – Père Lachaise Cemetery a 118 acre km2 cemetery in Paris, France, is opened.


text: Shimizu-gumi, predecessor of Shimizu Corporation, a major construction company in Japan, is founded in Kanda region, Edo (modern-day Tokyo).


date: April 5

text: April 5 – The High Possil meteorite, the first recorded meteorite to fall in Scotland in modern times, falls at High Possil.


date: June 21

text: June 21 – Smithson Tennant announces the discovery of the elements iridium and osmium; three days later, William Hyde Wollaston reveals to the Royal Society that he is the formerly anonymous discoverer of palladium.


date: September 1

text: September 1 – German astronomer K. L. Harding discovers the asteroid Juno.


text: World population reaches 1 billion people.


text: Morphine is first isolated from the opium poppy by the German pharmacist, Friedrich Sertürner.


date: November 30

text: November 30 – The Democratic-Republican-controlled United States Senate begins an impeachment trial against Federalist-partisan Supreme Court of the United States Justice Samuel Chase, on charges of political bias (he is acquitted by the United States Senate of all charges on March 1, 1805).


date: April 2

text: April 2 – Forty merchantmen are wrecked when a convoy led by British frigate runs aground off Portugal with considerable loss of life.


date: February 18

text: February 18 – Ohio University is chartered by the Ohio General Assembly.


date: March 10

text: March 10 – Louisiana Purchase, Three Flags Day: In St. Louis, a formal ceremony is conducted to transfer ownership of Louisiana Territory from France to the United States.


date: March 17

text: March 17 – Friedrich Schiller's play Wilhelm Tell is first performed at Weimar, under the direction of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.


date: June 9

text: June 9 – Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 in E–flat is premiered in Vienna.


date: October 8

text: October 8 – Jean-Jacques Dessalines holds his coronation as Jean-Jacques I, Emperor of Haiti.


text: John Wedgwood founds the Royal Horticultural Society.


date: February 29

text: February 29 – Carl von Rokitansky, Czech medical doctor and pathologist (d. 1878)


date: March 20

text: March 20 – Neal Dow, mayor of Portland, Maine and Father of Prohibition (d. 1897)


date: May 13

text: May 13 – Per Gustaf Svinhufvud af Qvalstad, treasurer of Tavastia province, manor host, and paternal grandfather of President of Finland P. E. Svinhufvud (d. 1866)


date: May 16

text: May 16 – Elizabeth Peabody, Transcendental activist, educator (d. 1894)


date: June 1

text: June 1 – George Sand, French writer (d. 1876)


date: July 1

text: July 1 – George Sand, French novelist (d. 1876)


date: July 4

text: July 4 – Nathaniel Hawthorne, American writer (d. 1864)


date: July 23

text: July 23 – Jane Irwin Harrison, de facto First Lady of the United States (d. 1846)


date: September 5

text: September 5 – William Alexander Graham, United States Senator from North Carolina (1840–1843), Confederate States Senator (1864–1865) (d. 1875)


date: September 14

text: September 14 – Louis Désiré Maigret, Roman Catholic bishop of Honolulu (d. 1882)


date: October 18

text: October 18 – Mongkut, Rama IV, King of Siam (d. 1868)


date: November 23

text: November 23 – Franklin Pierce, 14th President of the United States (d. 1869)


date: December 7

text: December 7 – Noah Haynes Swayne, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1884)


date: December 10

text: December 10 – Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi, German mathematician (d. 1851)


date: January 4

text: January 4 – Charlotte Ramsey Lennox, British author and poet (b. 1727)


date: February 6

text: February 6 – Joseph Priestley, British chemist (b. 1733)


date: February 7

text: February 7 – William Bingham, American Continental congressman, senator for Pennsylvania (b. 1752)


date: March 13

text: March 13 – Damodar Pande, Prime Minister of Nepal (b. 1752)


date: March 21

text: March 21 – Louis Antoine, Duke of Enghien (executed) (b. 1772)


date: March 30

text: March 30 – Victor-François, 2nd duc de Broglie, Marshal of France (b. 1718)


date: April 9

text: April 9 – Jacques Necker, French statesman (b. 1732)


date: April 15

text: April 15 – Jean-Charles Pichegru, French general (strangled in prison) (b. 1761)


date: July 11

text: July 11 – Aaron Burr, Vice President of the United States, shoots former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton during a duel; Hamilton dies the next day.


date: August 20

text: August 20 – Lewis and Clark Expedition: The Corps of Discovery, whose purpose is to explore the Louisiana Purchase, suffers its only death when Sergeant Charles Floyd dies, apparently from acute appendicitis.


date: September 4

text: September 4 – Richard Somers, American naval officer (killed in battle) (b. 1778)


date: October 2

text: October 2 – Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot, French steam vehicle pioneer (b. 1725)


date: October 29

text: October 29 – Sarah Crosby, the first female Methodist preacher (b. 1729)


date: November 18

text: November 18 – Philip Schuyler, general in the American Revolution, a United States senator from New York, father of Angelica Schuyler Church and Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, father-in-law of Alexander Hamilton (b. 1733)


date: January 11

text: January 11 – The Michigan Territory is created.


date: March 5

text: March 5 – The New Brunswick Legislature passes a bill to advance literacy in the province, which eventually leads to the creation of public education in Canada.


date: May 26

text: May 26 – Napoleon is crowned King of Italy.


date: August 25

text: August 25 – Treaty of Bogenhausen is concluded between France and Bavaria forming a military alliance


date: September 21

text: September 21 – King Ferdinand of Naples signs a treaty in Paris agreeing to keep Naples neutral during the war between France and the allied powers.


date: December 26

text: December 26 – The Peace of Pressburg between France and Austria is signed in the Primate's Palace, Pressburg (modern-day Bratislava).


date: April 27

text: April 27 – Battle of Derne: United States Marines and Berbers attack the Tripolitan city of Derna (the Shores of Tripoli).


date: May 31

text: May 31–June 2 – Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Diamond Rock – A Franco-Spanish fleet captures the strategic island of Diamond Rock off Martinique in the West Indies, from the British.


date: June 4

text: June 4 – The First Barbary War ends between Tripoli and the United States of America.


date: August 27

text: August 27 – Napoleon orders the Grande Armée ("The Great Army") of some 165,000 men to march to the Rhine River to deal with the Austrian and Russian threats on the frontier. The French army is organized into seven corps and is supported by 36–40 cannons each. Napoleon orders Marshal Joachim Murat with his I Cavalry Corps (some 20,000 men), to make feint attacks through the Black Forest in south-west Germany.


date: October 14

text: October 14 – Napoleonic Wars: War of the Third Coalition – Ulm Campaign: Battle of Elchingen – An Austrian corps under Johann von Riesch is defeated by Marshal Ney, near Elchingen, Bavaria.


date: October 16

text: October 16–October 19 – War of the Third Coalition: Ulm Campaign – Battle of Ulm: Austrian General Mack von Leiberich is forced to surrender his entire army to Napoleon, after being surrounded.


date: October 21

text: October 21 – Napoleonic Wars: War of the Third Coalition – Battle of Trafalgar: The British fleet, led by Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, defeated a combined French and Spanish fleet off the coast of Spain; however, Admiral Nelson is fatally shot.


date: October 31

text: October 31 – Sweden, led by King Gustav IV Adolf, declares war on France.


date: November 11

text: November 11 – Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Dürenstein – 8,000 French troops attempt to slow the retreat of a vastly superior Russian and Austrian force.


date: November 16

text: November 16 – Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Schöngrabern – Russian forces, under Pyotr Bagration, delay the pursuit by French troops under Joachim Murat.


date: December 2

text: December 2 – Napoleonic Wars: Battle of Austerlitz – French troops under Napoleon decisively defeat a joint Russo-Austrian force.


date: December 31

text: December 31 – The French Republican Calendar (which featured a 10-day week until 1802) is used for the last time, 8 days after being annulled by Napoleon, with the final official date being "9 Nivôse in Year XIV of the Revolution".


date: June 13

text: June 13 – Lewis and Clark Expedition in the United States: Scouting ahead of the expedition, Meriwether Lewis and four companions sight the Great Falls of the Missouri River, confirming they are heading in the right direction.


date: August 12

text: August 12 – Lewis and Clark Expedition: U.S. Army Captain Meriwether Lewis reaches the Continental Divide of the Americas, crossing to the west at Lemhi Pass. Karen Jones and John Wills, The American West: Competing Visions (Edinburgh University Press, 2009) p17


date: August 31

text: August 31 – British Army General David Baird departs from Cork, leading an expedition to capture the Cape of Good Hope. Their ship arrives on January 4.


date: September 29

text: September 29 – Admiral Nelson of the British Royal Navy takes command of the fleet off the coast of Cádiz, in order to counteract the navies of France and Spain.


date: November 7

text: November 7 – The Lewis and Clark Expedition arrives at the Pacific Ocean.


date: February 15

text: February 15 – The Harmony Society is officially formed as a Christian community in Harmony, Pennsylvania.


date: June 1

text: June 1 – Tuscan-born composer Luigi Boccherini is buried in the Basílica pontificia de San Miguel in Madrid after being found dead on May 28.


date: July 9

text: July 9 – Muhammad Ali Pasha founds his dynasty in Egypt.


date: August 29

text: August 29 – Emperor Franz I of Austria and his council of ministers vote in favor of going to war with France.


date: November 26

text: November 26 – The Pontcysyllte Aqueduct is opened in Wales; it is 1007 ft m long and 126 ft m tall.


text: James Squire becomes the first brewer in Australia to cultivate hops.


text: The Old Man of the Mountain, a natural rock formation in the U.S. state of New Hampshire, is first mentioned by two workmen, Francis Whitcomb and Luke Brooks.


date: April 29

text: April 29 – Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck is appointed as Grand Pensionary of the Batavian Republic by Napoleon.


text: Napoleon orders his soldiers to be vaccinated.


date: March 1

text: March 1 – Justice Samuel Chase is acquitted of impeachment charges by the United States Senate.


date: June 11

text: June 11 - Detroit burns to the ground; most of the city is destroyed.


date: October 23

text: October 23 – British troopship Aeneas is wrecked off Newfoundland with the loss of 340 lives.


date: July 26

text: July 26 – 1805 Molise earthquake: 5,573 people in Molise and Campania, Italy, are killed.


date: April 7

text: April 7 – Beethoven's Symphony No. 3, Eroica, has its public premiere at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna under his baton.


date: June 4

text: June 4 – The first Trooping the Colour ceremony is held at the Horse Guards Parade in London.


date: November 20

text: November 20 – Beethoven's only opera Fidelio, in its original form (known retrospectively as Leonore), is premiered at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna, which at this time is under French military occupation.


date: January 8

text: January 8 – Orson Hyde, American religious leader (d. 1878)


date: January 27

text: January 27 – Samuel Palmer, English artist (d. 1881)


date: February 13

text: February 13 – Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet, German mathematician (d. 1859)


date: April 2

text: April 2 – Hans Christian Andersen, Danish writer (d. 1875)


date: June 9

text: June 9 – José Trinidad Cabañas, Honduran general, president and national hero (d. 1871)


date: June 22

text: June 22 – Giuseppe Mazzini Italian patriot, statesman and writer (d. 1872)


date: July 5

text: July 5 – Robert FitzRoy, English meteorologist, captain and politician (d. 1865)


date: July 29

text: July 29 – Alexis de Tocqueville, French historian (d. 1859)


date: August 4

text: August 4 – William Rowan Hamilton, Irish physicist (d. 1865)


date: September 19

text: September 19 – John Stevens Cabot Abbott, American historian, pastor and pedagogical writer (d. 1877)


date: September 27

text: September 27 – George Müller, Prussian evangelist, founder of the New Orphan Houses, Ashley Down, Bristol in England (d. 1898)


date: November 14

text: November 14 – Fanny Hensel, German composer, pianist (d. 1847)


date: November 28

text: November 28 – John Lloyd Stephens, American traveler, diplomat and Mayanist archaeologist (d. 1852)


date: December 12

text: December 12 – Henry Wells, American businessman, founder of Wells Fargo (d. 1878)


date: January 7

text: January 7 – Ebenezer Sproat, American Continental Army officer, pioneer to the Ohio Country (b. 1752)


date: January 9

text: January 9 – Noble Wimberly Jones, American Continental Congressman (b. 1723)


date: February 7

text: February 7 – King Anouvong becomes ruler of Vientiane on the death of his brother Inthavong.


date: February 25

text: February 25 – Thomas Pownall, English colonial statesman (b. 1722)