date: July 27

text: July 27 – The first agency of the Federal government of the United States under the new Constitution, the Department of Foreign Affairs (on September 15 renamed the Department of State), is established.


date: August 4

section: Geopolitics & Diplomacy

text: August 4 – In France, members of the Constituent Assembly take an oath to end feudalism and abandon their privileges.

source_section: Events › July–September


date: August 21

text: August 21 – A proposal for a Bill of Rights is adopted by the United States House of Representatives.


date: August 26

text: August 26 – The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen is proclaimed in France by the Constituent Assembly.


date: September 24

text: September 24 – The Judiciary Act of 1789 establishes the federal judiciary, and the United States Marshals Service.


date: September 25

text: September 25 – The United States Congress proposes a set of 12 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, for ratification by the states. Ratification for 10 of these proposals is completed on December 5, 1791, creating the United States Bill of Rights.


date: October 24

text: October 24 – Brabant Revolution: Brabant revolutionaries cross the border from the Dutch Republic into the Austrian Netherlands; the first public reading of the Manifesto of the People of Brabant declares the independence of the Austrian Netherlands.

source_section: Events › October–December


date: November 20

text: November 20 – New Jersey ratifies the United States Bill of Rights, the first state to do so.


date: November 21

text: November 21 – North Carolina ratifies the United States Constitution, and becomes the 12th U.S. state.


date: November 26

text: November 26 – A national Thanksgiving Day is observed in the United States, as recommended by President George Washington and approved by Congress.


text: The Bengal Presidency first establishes a penal colony, in the Andaman Islands.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


text: The Qajar dynasty establish themselves as rulers in Iran.


date: January 29

section: Conflict & Security

text: January 29 – In Vietnam, Emperor Quang Trung crushes the Chinese Qing forces in Ngọc Hồi-Đống Đa. It is considered one of the greatest victories in Vietnamese military history.

source_section: Events › January–March


date: March 10

text: March 10 – In Japan, the Menashi–Kunashir rebellion begins between the Ainu people and Japanese.


date: March 11

text: March 11 – The Venetian arsenal on the island of Corfu, containing 72000 lb of gunpowder and 600 bombshells, explodes during a fire, killing 180 bystanders and knocking down a seawall.


date: April 28

text: April 28 – Mutiny on the Bounty: Fletcher Christian leads the mutiny on the British Royal Navy ship against Captain William Bligh, in the Pacific Ocean.

source_section: Events › April–June


date: July 9

text: July 9 – The Theatre War officially ends in Scandinavia.


date: July 12

text: July 12 – An angry Parisian crowd, inflamed by a speech from journalist Camille Desmoulins, demonstrates against the King's decision to dismiss Minister Necker.


date: July 13

text: July 13 – The people begin to seize arms for the defense of Paris.


date: July 14

text: July 14 – Survivors of the mutiny on the Bounty, including Captain William Bligh and 18 others, reach Timor after a nearly 4000 mi km journey in an open boat.


text: July 14 – French Revolution: Storming of the Bastille – Citizens of Paris storm the fortress of the Bastille, and free the only seven prisoners held. In rural areas, peasants attack the manors of the nobility.


date: August 7

text: August 7 – The United States Department of War is established.


date: August 18

text: August 18 – The Liège Revolution breaks out in the Prince-Bishopric of Liège.


date: August 24

text: August 24 – The first naval battle of the Svensksund begins in the Gulf of Finland.


date: September 22

text: September 22 – Russo-Turkish War (1787–92) – Battle of Rymnik: Alexander Suvorov roundly defeats 100,000 Turks.


date: September 29

text: September 29 – The U.S. Department of War establishes the nation's first regular army, with a strength of several hundred men.


date: October 27

text: October 27 – Battle of Turnhout: The Austrian army is beaten by Brabant revolutionaries.


text: In Southern Africa, the Second Xhosa War between the Xhosa people and European settlers begins.


date: July 10

section: Exploration & Expansion

text: July 10 – Alexander Mackenzie reaches the Mackenzie River Delta.


text: Peggy of Castletown, Isle of Man, the world's oldest surviving private yacht, is built.


text: The first version of a graphic description of a slave ship (the Brookes) is issued on behalf of the English Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade.


date: April 7

section: Religion & Belief

text: April 7 – Selim III (1789–1807) succeeds Abdul Hamid I (1773–1789) as Ottoman Sultan.


date: November 2

text: November 2 – Decree on the goods of the clergy placed at the disposal of the Nation passed by the National Constituent Assembly.


date: November 6

text: November 6 – Pope Pius VI creates the first diocese in the United States at Baltimore, and appoints John Carroll the first Roman Catholic bishop in the United States.


text: Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, decrees that all peasant labor obligations be converted into cash payments.


date: July 4

section: Economy & Finance

text: July 4 – The U.S. Congress passes its first bill, the Tariff of 1789, setting out tariffs.


date: September 11

section: Technology & Infrastructure

text: September 11 – Alexander Hamilton is appointed as the first United States Secretary of the Treasury.


text: Thomas Jefferson returns from Europe, bringing the first macaroni machine to the United States.


text: The pedal-powered tricycle is invented by two Frenchmen, Blanchard and Maguier.


text: Fort Washington (Cincinnati, Ohio) is built to protect early U.S. settlements in the Northwest Territory.


date: August 28

section: Science & Discovery

text: August 28 – William Herschel discovers Enceladus, one of Saturn's moons.


text: German chemist Martin Heinrich Klaproth discovers the element uranium, while studying the mineral pitchblende.


date: July 11

section: Health & Medicine

text: July 11 – Louis XVI of France dismisses popular Chief Minister Jacques Necker.


date: October 10

text: October 10 – Physician Joseph-Ignace Guillotin proposes to the French National Assembly the adoption of more humane and egalitarian forms of capital punishment, including use of the guillotine.


date: December 23

text: December 23 – A leaflet circulated in France accuses the Marquis de Favras of plotting to rescue the royal family.


text: Influenced by Benjamin Rush's argument against the excessive use of alcohol, about 200 farmers in a Connecticut community form a temperance movement in the United States.


date: July 1

section: Crime & Justice

text: July 1 – The comic ballet La fille mal gardée, choreographed by Jean Dauberval, is first presented under the title Le ballet de la paille, at the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux, at Bordeaux, France.


section: Disasters & Accidents

text: An estimated 150,000 of Paris's 600,000 people are without work.


date: January 21

section: Culture & Society

text: January 21 – The first American novel, The Power of Sympathy or the Triumph of Nature Founded in Truth, is printed in Boston, Massachusetts. The anonymous author is William Hill Brown.


date: January 23

text: January 23 – Georgetown University is founded in Georgetown, Maryland (part of modern-day Washington, D.C.), as the first Roman Catholic college in the United States.


date: January

text: January – Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès publishes the pamphlet What Is the Third Estate? (Qu'est-ce que le tiers-état?), influential on the French Revolution.


date: May 5

text: May 5 – In France, the Estates-General convenes for the first time in 175 years, taken as the start of the French Revolution (1789–1799).


date: June 20

text: June 20 – The Tennis Court Oath is taken in Versailles.


date: June 23

text: June 23 – Louis XVI of France makes a conciliatory speech urging reforms to a joint session, and orders the three estates to meet together.


date: September 2

text: September 2 – The United States Department of the Treasury is founded.


date: September 22

text: September 22 – The United States Department of the Post Office is established.


date: October 5

text: October 5 – Women's March on Versailles: Some 7,000 women march 12 mi km from Paris to the royal Palace of Versailles to demand action over high bread prices.


date: December 11

text: December 11 – The University of North Carolina, the oldest public university in the United States, is founded.


text: The Traité Élémentaire de Chimie (Elementary Treatise of Chemistry), an influential chemistry textbook by Antoine Lavoisier, is published; translated into English in 1790, it comes to be considered the first modern chemical textbook.


text: Former slave Olaudah Equiano's autobiography The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, one of the earliest published works by a black writer, is published in London.


date: February 15

section: Births

text: February 15 – Martin Chester Deming, American businessman and politician (d. 1851)

source_section: Births


date: February 22

text: February 22 – René Edward De Russy, Brigadier General of the United States Army, Superintendent of the United States Military Academy and military engineer (d. 1865)


date: April 22

text: April 22 – Richard Roberts, Welsh-born mechanical engineer and inventor (d. 1864)


date: May 1

text: May 1 – George Fife Angas, English coachbuilder, businessman and politician; founder of South Australia (d. 1879)


date: July 19

text: July 19 – John Martin, English painter (d. 1854)


date: July 21

text: July 21 – Vasil Aprilov, Bulgarian educator, merchant and writer (d. 1847)


date: August 6

text: August 6 – Friedrich List, German journalist (d. 1846)


date: August 21

text: August 21 – Augustin-Louis Cauchy, French mathematician (d. 1857)


date: August 28

text: August 28 – Stéphanie de Beauharnais, Grand Duchess of Baden (d. 1860)


date: September 15

text: September 15 – James Fenimore Cooper, American writer (d. 1851)


date: October 8

text: October 8 – William Swainson, English naturalist, artist (d. 1855)


date: December 22

text: December 22 – Levi Woodbury, American politician, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1851)


date: December 25

text: December 25 – Elizabeth Jesser Reid, English social reformer, founder of Bedford College (d. 1866)


date: December 28

text: December 28 – Catharine Sedgwick, American novelist (d. 1867)


date: January 1

section: Deaths

text: January 1 – Fletcher Norton, 1st Baron Grantley, English politician (b. 1716)

source_section: Deaths


date: January 4

text: January 4 – Thomas Nelson Jr., American signer of the Declaration of Independence and Governor of Virginia (1781) (b. 1738)


date: January 10

text: January 10 – James Mitchell Varnum, American brigadier general of the Revolutionary War, Continental Congressman for Rhode Island (b. 1748)


date: January 13

text: January 13 – Joseph Spencer, American major general of the Revolutionary War, Continental Congressman for Connecticut (b. 1714)


date: February 12

text: February 12 – Ethan Allen, American major general of the Revolutionary War, Vermont statesman (b. 1738)


date: February 19

text: February 19 – Nicholas Van Dyke, American lawyer and President of Delaware (b. 1738)


date: April 7

text: April 7 – Abdul Hamid I, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1725)


date: May 5

text: May 5 – Giuseppe Marc'Antonio Baretti, Italian literary critic (b. 1719)


date: June 4

text: June 4 – Louis Joseph, Dauphin of France, son of Louis XVI (tuberculosis) (b. 1781)


date: September 23

text: September 23 – Silas Deane, American Continental Congressman for Connecticut (b. 1737)


date: October 27

text: October 27 – John Cook, American farmer, President of Delaware (b. 1730)


date: November 10

text: November 10 – Richard Caswell, American major general of the Revolutionary War, Continental Congressman and Governor of North Carolina (1776–80, 1785–87) (b. 1729)


date: November 17

text: November 17 – Samuel Holden Parsons, American major general of the Revolutionary War, member of the Connecticut House of Representatives (b. 1737)


date: December 23

text: December 23 – Charles-Michel de l'Épée, French philanthropist, developer of signed French (b. 1712)


text: Gogukcheon succeeds his father Shindae as King of Goguryeo.

source_section: Events › By place › Asia


text: Abgar IX the Great becomes King of Edessa.


text: Roman legionaries of Legio II Adiutrix engrave on the rock of the Trenčín Castle (Slovakia) the name of the town Laugaritio, marking the northernmost point of Roman presence in that part of Europe.

source_section: Events › By place › Roman empire


text: Marcus Aurelius drives the Marcomanni over the Danube and reinforces the border. To repopulate and rebuild a devastated Pannonia, Rome allows the first German colonists to enter territory controlled by the Roman Empire.


text: The Roman fort Castra Regina ("fortress by the Regen river") is built at Regensburg, on the right bank of the Danube in Germany.


text: Han dynasty China: The full title of the Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art appears on two bronze standard measures dated to this year, yet there is speculation that the same book existed beforehand only under different titles. In the 3rd century, Liu Hui would provide commentary on this important early Chinese mathematical treatise.


text: Sima Yi, Chinese general and regent (d. 251)


text: Pang Tong, Chinese adviser of warlord Liu Bei (d. 214)


text: Myeongnim Dap-bu, Korean prime minister (b. AD 67)


text: Beautiful Lady Yu, Chinese concubine and imperial consort


text: Sindae of Goguryeo, Korean ruler (b. AD 89)


date: January 8

text: January 8 – United States President George Washington gives the first State of the Union address, in New York City.


date: January 11

text: January 11 – The 11 minor states of the Austrian Netherlands, which took part in the Brabant Revolution at the end of 1789, sign a Treaty of Union, creating the United States of Belgium.


date: January 14

text: January 14 – U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton submits his proposed plan for payment of American debts, starting with $12,000,000 to pay the foreign debts of the confederation, followed by $40 million for domestic debts, and $21.5 million for the war debts of the states. The plan is narrowly approved 14-12 in the Senate, and 34-28 in the House.


date: February 1

text: February 1 – In New York City, the Supreme Court of the United States convenes for the first time.


date: February 4

text: February 4 – King Louis XVI declares to the French National Assembly that he will maintain the constitutional laws.


date: February 11

text: February 11 – Two Quaker delegates petition the United States Congress for the abolition of slavery.


date: February 25

text: February 25 – North Carolina cedes its western territories (modern day Tennessee) to the federal government.


date: March 4

text: March 4 – France is divided into 83 départements, which cut across the former provinces, in an attempt to dislodge regional loyalties based on noble ownership of land.


date: March 6

text: March 6 – The New York legislature consents to the admission to the Union of a new state, Vermont, formed within the boundaries of New York, contingent upon the successful conclusion of negotiations concerning disputed real-estate claims, and the boundary between the two states.


date: March 21

text: March 21 – Thomas Jefferson reports to President George Washington in New York, as the new United States Secretary of State.


date: May 26

text: May 26 – Congress passes an act to govern the creation of states from the "Southwest Territory", from which Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi will be formed.


date: May 29

text: May 29 – Rhode Island ratifies the United States Constitution, and becomes the last of the 13 original states to do so.


date: June 20

text: June 20 – Compromise of 1790: Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton come to an agreement: Madison agrees to not be "strenuous" in opposition for the assumption of state debts by the federal government; Hamilton agrees to support the capital site being above the Potomac.


date: July 10

text: July 10 — The U.S. House of Representatives votes 32–29 to approve creating the District of Columbia from portions of Maryland and Virginia for the eventual seat of government and national capital.


date: July 12

text: July 12 – French Revolution: The Civil Constitution of the Clergy is passed. This completes the destruction of the monastic orders, legislating out of existence all regular and secular chapters for either sex, abbacies and priorships.


date: July 16

text: July 16 – U.S. President George Washington signs the Residence Act into law, establishing a site along the Potomac River as the District of Columbia and the future site of the capital of the United States. The move comes after the bill is narrowly approved on July 1 by the Senate, 14 to 12, and on July 9 by the House, 32 to 29. At the same time, plans are made to move the national capital from New York to Philadelphia until the Potomac River site can be completed.


date: July 26

text: July 26 – Alexander Hamilton's Assumption Bill, giving effect to his First Report on the Public Credit, is passed in the United States Congress, allowing the federal government to assume the consolidated debts of the U.S. states.


date: July 27

text: July 27 – The Convention of Reichenbach is signed between Prussia and Austria.


date: July

text: July – Louis XVI accepts a constitutional monarchy in France.


date: August 14

text: August 14 – The Treaty of Värälä ends the Russo-Swedish War.


date: October 7

text: October 7 – Commissioners appointed by the New York legislature announce the successful conclusion of negotiations between New York and Vermont, concerning disputed real-estate claims, and the consent of New York's legislature to the admission to the Union of the state of Vermont as the 14th State (which was formed within what New York claimed as its territory, under an Order in Council, that King George III issued on July 20, 1764).


date: November 27

text: November 27 – U.S. President George Washington and his wife, Martha Washington, arrive in the new temporary U.S. capital, Philadelphia, and take up residence at the President's House located at 524 Market Street.


date: December 6

text: December 6 – The United States Congress opens its first session in the new temporary U.S. capital in Philadelphia.


date: December 26

text: December 26 – Louis XVI gives his public assent to Civil Constitution of the Clergy during the French Revolution.


date: January 15

text: January 15 – Fletcher Christian & 8 mutineers aboard the Bounty land on Pitcairn.


date: January 30

text: January 30 – Olowalu Massacre: American Captain Simon Metcalfe opens fire with cannon towards villagers in canoes, killing about one hundred Hawaiians, and wounding many others.


date: May 13

text: May 13 – Battle of Reval: Gustav III of Sweden sends the battlefleet to eliminate the Russian squadron wintering at Reval (Estonia), but is defeated; 8 Russians, 130 Swedes are killed, up to 520 captured, 1 ship is burnt, another captured.


date: May 17

text: May 17–18 – Battle of Andros: An Ottoman–Algerian fleet destroys the fleet of the Greek privateer Lambros Katsonis.


date: July 9

text: July 9 – Russo-Swedish War – Second Battle of Svensksund: In a massive Baltic Sea battle of 300 ships, the Swedish Navy captures one third of the Russian galley fleet: 304 Swedes are killed, 3,500 Russians killed and 6,000 captured, 51 Russian galleys and other rowing craft are sunk and 22 are taken.


text: October 7–22 – The Harmar Campaign ends in a defeat of U.S. Army General Josiah Harmar and Colonel John Hardin by the Western Confederacy of Indians, led by Chief Little Turtle or Mihšihkinaahkwa of the Miami tribe and Blue Jacket or Weyapiersenwah of the Shawnee at Kekionga (now Fort Wayne, Indiana).


date: October

text: October–December – Vincent Ogé leads a rebellion of freed blacks in Saint-Domingue. The rebellion is suppressed and Ogé executed.


date: December 2

text: December 2 – Holy Roman Empire forces recapture Brussels, bringing an end to the short-lived United States of Belgium and restoring the Austrian Netherlands.


date: December 22

text: December 22 – Russo-Turkish War (1787–92): The Turkish fortress of Izmail is stormed and captured by Alexander Suvorov and his Russian armies. During Suvorov's storm of Izmail, 26,000 Turkish soldiers lose their lives.


text: January 30 – The first boat specialized as a rescue lifeboat is tested on the River Tyne in England.


date: December 10

text: December 10 – The Hawkesbury and Nepean Wars begin in New South Wales, Australia, as a result of deterioration in relations and increasing colonization.


date: August 4

text: August 4 – A newly passed U.S. tariff act creates the system of cutters for revenue enforcement (later named the United States Revenue Cutter Service), the forerunner of the Coast Guard.


date: March 1

text: March 1 – The first United States Census is authorized; it is held later in the year.


date: April 10

text: April 10 – The United States patent system is established.


date: June 9

text: June 9 – Royal assent is given to establishment of the port of Milford Haven in Wales.


date: July 31

text: July 31 – Inventor Samuel Hopkins becomes the first to be issued a U.S. patent (for an improved method of making potash).


date: December 17

text: December 17 – The Aztec calendar stone is discovered at El Zócalo, Mexico City.


date: June 23

text: June 23 – The alleged London Monster is arrested in London; he later receives 40 years for 10 assaults.


date: October 10

section: Climate & Environment

text: October 10 – At least 3,000 people die in Algeria when an earthquake and tsunami strikes the city of Oran. The city is destroyed and Spanish forces eventually flee in 1792.


date: January 26

text: January 26 – Mozart's opera Così fan tutte premieres in Vienna.


date: July 14

text: July 14 – French Revolution: Citizens of Paris celebrate the unity of the French people and the national reconciliation, in the Fête de la Fédération.


date: September 25

text: September 25 – The Peking Opera is born, when the Four Great Anhui Troupes introduce Anhui opera to Beijing, in honor of the Qianlong Emperor's 80th birthday.


date: September 30

text: September 30 – Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor starts to rule.


date: January 5

text: January 5 – Melchor Múzquiz, 5th President of Mexico (d. 1844)


date: January 18

text: January 18 – Qi Shan, Manchu Qing official (d. 1854)


date: January 27

text: January 27 – Juan Álvarez, interim president of Mexico, 1855 (d. 1867)


date: February 4

text: February 4 – John Bachman, American minister, social activist and naturalist (d. 1874)


date: March 29

text: March 29 – John Tyler, tenth President of the United States (d. 1862)


date: April 21

text: April 21 – Manuel Blanco Encalada, Spanish-Chilean admiral and politician, 1st President of Chile (d. 1876)


date: May 23

text: May 23 – Jules Dumont d'Urville, French explorer (d. 1842)


date: October 14

text: October 14 – Thursday October Christian I, Pitcairn Islander and son of Fletcher Christian (d. 1831)


date: October 21

text: October 21 – Alphonse de Lamartine, French poet and politician


date: November 17

text: November 17 – August Ferdinand Möbius, German mathematician, astronomer (d. 1868)


date: November 21

text: November 21 – Edmund Lyons, 1st Baron Lyons, British admiral (d. 1858)


date: December 8

text: December 8 – Richard Carlile, English social reformer, press advocate (d. 1843)


date: December 19

text: December 19 – William Edward Parry, English Arctic explorer (d. 1855)


date: December 23

text: December 23 – Jean-François Champollion, French Egyptologist (d. 1832)


date: January 20

text: January 20 – John Howard (prison reformer), English philanthropist (b. 1726)


date: February 5

text: February 5 – William Cullen, Scottish physician, chemist (b. 1710)


date: February 15

text: February 15– Juan Albano Pereira Márquez, godfather and tutor of Bernardo O'Higgins (b. 1728)


date: March 12

text: March 12 – William Grayson, American Continental Congressman and United States Senator for Virginia (b. 1740)


date: April 2

text: April 2 – Robert H. Harrison, American jurist and lieutenant colonel of the Continental Army (b. 1745)


date: May 29

text: May 29 – Israel Putnam, American Revolutionary War general (b. 1718)


date: June 1

text: June 1 – Theodorick Bland, American Continental Congressman and U.S. Representative for Virginia (b. 1741)


date: June 25

text: June 25 – Lovisa Augusti, Swedish opera singer (b. 1756)


date: July 6

text: July 6 – George Augustus Eliott, 1st Baron Heathfield, British army officer (b. 1717)


date: July 25

text: July 25 – William Livingston, Governor of New Jersey (1776–1790) (b. 1723)


date: October 14

text: October 14 – William Hooper, American signer of the Declaration of Independence and Continental Congressman for North Carolina (b. 1742)


date: November 6

text: November 6 – James Bowdoin, American Governor of Massachusetts (b. 1726)


date: December 16

text: December 16 – Benjamin Andrew, American Continental Congressman for Georgia and member of the Georgia House of Representatives (b. 1713)


date: December 29

text: December 29 – Maria Teresa Cybo-Malaspina, Duchess of Massa, Italian ruler (b. 1725)


date: January 25

text: January 25 – The British Parliament passes the Constitutional Act 1791, splitting the old province of Quebec into Upper and Lower Canada.


date: February 21

text: February 21 – The United States opens diplomatic relations with Portugal.


date: March 4

text: March 4 – Vermont is admitted as the 14th U.S. state.


date: March

text: March – French Revolution: In France, the National Constituent Assembly accepts the recommendation of its Commission of Weights and Measures that the nation should adopt the metric system.


date: April 21

text: April 21 – The first of forty boundary markers of the original District of Columbia, delineating the borders of the new District in the United States is laid at Jones Point Light in Alexandria, Virginia.


date: May 3

text: May 3 – The Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth proclaims the Constitution of May 3, 1791, the first modern codified constitution in Europe.


date: August 4

text: August 4 – The Treaty of Sistova is signed, ending the Ottoman–Habsburg wars.


date: August 7

text: August 7 – George Hammond is appointed as Great Britain's first minister to the United States.


date: August 27

text: August 27 – Declaration of Pillnitz: A proclamation by Frederick William II of Prussia and the Habsburg Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor, affirms their wish to "put the King of France in a state to strengthen the bases of monarchic government."


date: September 9

text: September 9 – The capital of the United States, Washington, D.C., is named after the incumbent 1st President George Washington.


date: September 13

text: September 13 – French Revolution: King Louis XVI accepts the final version of the completed constitution.


date: September 28

text: September 28 – French Revolution: The law on Jewish emancipation is promulgated in France, the first such legislation in modern Europe.


date: October 1

text: October 1 – French Revolution: The Legislative Assembly (France) convenes.


date: October 19

text: October 19 – The Treaty of Drottningholm is signed between the Russian Empire and Sweden establishing an alliance between the two.


date: December 15

text: December 15 – Ratification by the states of the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution is completed, creating the United States Bill of Rights. Two additional amendments remain pending, and one of these is finally ratified in 1992, becoming the Twenty-seventh Amendment.


date: December 23

text: December 23 – The Pale of Settlement is established by ukase of Catherine the Great, specifying those areas of the Russian Empire in which Jews are permitted permanent residency.


text: The abolition of guilds is enacted.


date: January 2

text: January 2 – Northwest Indian War: Big Bottom Massacre – The war begins in the Ohio Country, with this massacre.


date: June 20

text: June 20 – French Revolution: Flight to Varennes – The French Royal Family is captured when they try to flee in disguise.


date: July 14

text: July 14–17 – Priestley Riots against Dissenters in Birmingham, England.


date: July 17

text: July 17 – French Revolution: The Champ de Mars massacre occurs in Paris.


date: August 21

text: August 21 – Haitian Revolution: A slave rebellion breaks out in the French colony of Saint-Domingue.


text: August 27 – Third Anglo-Mysore War: Battle of Tellicherry – Off the south-west coast of India, a British Royal Navy patrol forces a French convoy bound for Mysore to surrender.


date: November 4

text: November 4 – St. Clair's Defeat, the worst loss suffered by the United States Army in fighting against American Indians, takes place in modern-day Mercer County, Ohio. Miami fighters led by Chief Mihsihkinaahkwa (Little Turtle) and by Shawnee warriors commanded by War Chief Weyapiersenwah (Blue Jacket) rout the forces of General Arthur St. Clair and kill 630 U.S. soldiers, along with hundreds of civilians.


date: April 29

text: April 29–May 8 – The first American ships reach Japan, brigantine Lady Washington captained by John Kendrick of Boston, and the brig Grace.


text: A mechanical semaphore line for rapid long-distance communication is demonstrated by Claude Chappe in Paris.


date: January 12

text: January 12 – Holy Roman troops reenter Liège, heralding the end of the Liège Revolution, and the restoration of its Prince-Bishops.


date: July 11

text: July 11 – The ashes of Voltaire are transferred to the Panthéon in Paris.


date: September 5

text: September 5 – Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen is written by activist Olympe de Gouges in response to the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.


date: September 14

text: September 14 – French Revolution: The Papal States lose Avignon to Revolutionary France.


date: September 25

text: September 25 – Mission Santa Cruz is founded by Basque Franciscan Father Fermín Lasuén, becoming the 12th mission in the California mission chain.


date: October 9

text: October 9 – Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad is founded by Father Fermín Lasuén, becoming the 13th mission in the California mission chain.


date: February 8

text: February 8 – The Bank of the United States, based in Philadelphia, is incorporated by the federal government with a 20-year charter and started with $10,000,000 capital.


date: August 6

text: August 6 – The Brandenburg Gate in Berlin (Prussia) is finished.


date: August 26

text: August 26 – John Fitch is granted a patent for the steamboat in the United States.


text: Camembert cheese reputedly first made by Marie Harel, a farmer from Normandy.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – Austrian composer Joseph Haydn arrives in England, to perform a series of concerts.


date: March 13

text: March 13 – Thomas Paine's chief work Rights of Man (first part) is published in London.


date: June 21

text: June 21 – The Ordnance Survey is founded in Great Britain for the production of maps.


date: July 8

text: July 8 – Austrian composer Joseph Haydn, on his visit to England, is awarded an honorary doctorate of music at the University of Oxford.


text: September 5 – An ordinance is written barring the game of baseball within 80 yards of the Meeting House in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, the first known reference to the game of baseball in North America.


date: September 6

text: September 6 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera seria, La clemenza di Tito, premières at the Estates Theatre in Prague with Mozart conducting to mark the coronation of Leopold II as King of Bohemia.


date: September 12

text: September 12 – The first serious secondary education school open to girls in Denmark, the Døtreskolen af 1791, is founded in Copenhagen.


date: September 30

text: September 30 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's singspiel opera The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte) premières at the Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna with Mozart conducting.


date: October 28

text: October 28 – French Revolution: The Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen is published in France.


date: December 4

text: December 4 – The first issue of The Observer, the world's first Sunday newspaper, is published in London.


text: The Dar Hassan Pacha (palace) in the Casbah of Algiers is completed.


text: The School for the Indigent Blind, the oldest continuously operating specialist school of its kind in the world, is founded in Liverpool, England, by blind ex-merchant seaman, writer and abolitionist Edward Rushton.


text: The first printed manuscript of Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin, one of the Classic Chinese Novels, begins publication posthumously.


date: January 15

text: January 15 – Franz Grillparzer, Austrian writer (d. 1872)


date: January 28

text: January 28 – Ferdinand Hérold, French composer (d. 1833)


date: February 12

text: February 12 – Peter Cooper, American industrialist, inventor and philanthropist (d. 1883)


date: February 15

text: February 15 – Friedrich Ludwig Weidig, German Protestant theologian, pastor and radical (suicide 1837)


date: February 21

text: February 21 – Carl Czerny, Austrian composer (d. 1857)


date: March 20

text: March 20 – Marie Ellenrieder, German painter (d. 1863)


date: April 3

text: April 3 – Anne Lister, English landowner, diarist, mountaineer and traveller, "the first modern lesbian" (d. 1840)


date: April 23

text: April 23 – James Buchanan, American lawyer, politician, and 15th President of the United States. (d. 1868)


date: July 26

text: July 26 – Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, Austrian composer, pianist (d. 1844)


date: September 5

text: September 5 – Giacomo Meyerbeer, German composer (d. 1864)


date: September 21

text: September 21 – István Széchenyi, Hungarian politician, writer (d. 1860)


date: September 23

text: September 23 – Theodor Körner, German author, soldier (d. 1813)


date: September 26

text: September 26 – Théodore Géricault, French painter (d. 1824)


date: October 29

text: October 29 – John Elliotson, British physician (d. 1868)


date: March 10

text: March 10 – William Wentworth, 2nd Earl of Strafford (1722–1791), England (b. 1722)


date: April 2

text: April 2 – Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau, French revolutionary leader (b. 1749)


date: April 19

text: April 19 – Richard Price, Welsh philosopher (b. 1723)


date: April 24

text: April 24 – Benjamin Harrison V, signer of the United States Declaration of Independence (b. 1726)


date: May 9

text: May 9 – Francis Hopkinson, signer of the United States Declaration of Independence (b. 1737)


date: June 5

text: June 5 – Frederick Haldimand, Swiss-born British colonial governor (b. 1718)


date: June 10

text: June 10 – Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte, French admiral (b. 1720)


date: June 17

text: June 17 – Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon, English Methodist leader (b. 1707)


date: June 30

text: June 30 – Jean-Baptiste Descamps, Flemish painter and art historian (b. 1714)


date: July 25

text: July 25 – Isaac Low, American delegate to the Continental Congress (b. 1735)


date: August 22

text: August 22 – Johann David Michaelis, German biblical scholar and teacher (b. 1717)


date: October 16

text: October 16 – Grigory Potemkin, Russian military leader, statesman, nobleman and favourite of Catherine the Great (b. 1739)


date: December 5

text: December 5 – Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart dies early this morning aged 35 at his home in Vienna, having been bedridden since November 20 with a serious illness, perhaps acute rheumatic fever. On a mild and misty December 7, following a funeral service in St. Stephen's Cathedral, he is buried in a common unmarked grave (as customary at this time) in St. Marx Cemetery in the presence of Salieri, Süssmayr, van Swieten (his patron) and two other musicians.


date: December 19

text: December 19 – Jean-François de Neufforge, Flemish architect and engraver (b. 1714)


date: January 9

text: January 9 – The Treaty of Jassy ends the Russian Empire's war with the Ottoman Empire over Crimea.


date: February 20

text: February 20 – Parliament House, Dublin catches fire during a legislative session. "Although in imminent danger of the roof falling in," it is noted later, "the House did not adjourn until a proper motion had been put and carried in the affirmative."


text: February 20 – The Postal Service Act, establishing the United States Post Office Department, is signed by President George Washington.


date: March 7

text: March 7 – A settlement is formed in Sierra Leone in West Africa as a home for freed slaves.


date: March 20

text: March 20 – A new capital of North Carolina, and seat of the newly formed Wake County, is established after North Carolina State senator and surveyor William Christmas submits his design for the city. A few months later, the capital is officially named Raleigh, in honor of Sir Walter Raleigh.


date: March 25

text: March 25 – The National Legislative Assembly (France) agrees that the guillotine should be used for judicial executions.


date: April 5

text: April 5 – United States President George Washington vetoes a bill designed to apportion representatives among U.S. states. This is the first time the presidential veto is used in the United States.


date: April 25

text: April 25 – La Marseillaise, the French national anthem, is composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle.


date: June 1

text: June 1 – Kentucky becomes the 15th state of the United States of America.


date: June 4

text: June 4 – Captain George Vancouver claims Puget Sound for Great Britain.


date: September 21

text: September 21 – French Revolution: A Proclamation of the abolition of the monarchy by the French Convention goes into effect, and the French First Republic is established, effective the following day.


date: September 22

text: September 22 – French Revolution: The Era of the historical French Republican Calendar begins.


date: October 13

text: October 13 – Foundation of Washington, D.C.: The cornerstone of the United States Executive Mansion (known as the White House after 1818) is laid.


date: November 6

text: November 6 – The second United States presidential election is held. Incumbent President George Washington receives all 132 electoral votes for president, and incumbent Vice President John Adams is re-elected with 77 of 132 votes, with George Clinton receiving 50.


date: November 19

text: November 19 – France's National Convention passes a resolution pledging French support for the overthrow of the governments of other nations.


date: December 3

text: December 3 – George Washington is re-elected president of the United States.


date: March 16

text: March 16 – Assassination of Gustav III: King Gustav III of Sweden is shot in the back by Jacob Johan Anckarström, at a midnight masquerade at the Royal Opera in Stockholm; he lives until March 29, and is then succeeded by his 14-year-old son, Gustav IV Adolf.


date: March 22

text: March 22 – Haitian Revolution: Battle of Croix-des-Bouquets – Black slave insurgents gain a victory in the first major battle of the revolution.


date: April 20

text: April 20 – France declares war against Austria, beginning the French Revolutionary Wars and the War of the First Coalition.


date: May 18

text: May 18 – War in Defence of the Constitution: Russia invades Poland.


date: May 29

text: May 29 – The Great Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth is disbanded following the Russian invasion of Poland.


date: June 13

text: June 13 – Prussia declares war against France.


date: July 18

text: July 18 – Polish–Russian War: Battle of Dubienka – Soldiers of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, led by Tadeusz Kościuszko, resist an attack from Imperial Russian Army forces five times their size.


date: July 25

text: July 25 – Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick, commander of the Allied army issues the Brunswick Manifesto threatening the Parisians with military execution and complete destruction should the French royal family be harmed in any way.


date: August 21

text: August 21 – Royalist Louis Collenot d'Angremont becomes the first person executed by guillotine for political reasons, in Paris.


date: August 29

text: August 29–September 2 – War of the First Coalition: Battle of Verdun – Prussian forces defeat French troops led by Nicolas-Joseph Beaurepaire.


date: September 2

text: September 2–7 – French Revolution: September Massacres – Rampaging mobs slaughter three Roman Catholic bishops and more than 200 priests, together with at least 1,000 other criminals.


date: September 14

text: September 14 – Radical antimonarchist Thomas Paine flees from England to France after being indicted for treason. He is tried in absentia during December and outlawed.


date: September 20

text: September 20 – French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Valmy – The French revolutionary army defeats the Prussians under the Duke of Brunswick after a 7-hour artillery duel.


date: September 30

text: September 30 – Chickamauga Cherokee launch an attack on Middle Tennessee to exterminate the White settlers; they are stopped at the opening battle at Buchanan's Station outside Nashboro.


date: October 3

text: October 3 – A militia departs from the Spanish stronghold of Valdivia to quell a Huilliche uprising in southern Chile.


date: November 6

text: November 6 – War of the First Coalition: Battle of Jemappes – Austrian armies under the command of Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen are defeated in Belgium (at this time part of the Austrian Netherlands) by the French Army led by General Charles François Dumouriez.


date: November 29

text: November 29 – War of the First Coalition: The Siege of Antwerp ends with the surrender of the Austrian garrison


text: Tipu Sultan invades Kerala, India, but is repulsed.


text: Barthélemy Catherine Joubert, future French general, becomes sub-lieutenant.


date: May 11

text: May 11 – Robert Gray's Columbia River expedition: Captain Robert Gray, on the Columbia Rediviva, becomes the first white man to discover the mouth of the Columbia River.


date: September

text: September – Macartney Embassy: George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney, sails from Portsmouth in HMS Lion as the first official envoy from Great Britain to China.


date: October 29

text: October 29 – Mount Hood (Oregon) is named after British Admiral Lord Hood by Lt. William Broughton of the Vancouver Expedition, who spots the mountain near the mouth of the Willamette River.


text: James Johnstone establishes that Vancouver Island is an island.


date: March 1

text: March 1 – Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor, the last emperor, takes office.


date: October 2

text: October 2 – The Baptist Missionary Society is founded in Kettering, England.


text: Shiloh Meeting House, predecessor of Shiloh United Methodist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, is founded.


date: April 2

text: April 2 – The Coinage Act is passed, establishing the United States Mint.


date: May 17

text: May 17 – The Buttonwood Agreement is signed, beginning the New York Stock Exchange.


text: The State Street Corporation is founded, in Boston, Massachusetts.


text: The Insurance Company of North America (later Chubb) is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.


date: June 13

text: June 13 – Vancouver becomes the first European to enter Burrard Inlet.


text: George Anschutz constructs the first blast furnace in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.


text: Scottish engineer William Murdoch begins experimenting with gas lighting.


text: Claude Chappe successfully demonstrates the first semaphore line, between Paris and Lille.


text: Hungarian astronomer Franz Xaver von Zach publishes The Tables of the Sun, an essential early work for navigation.


date: February 18

text: February 18 – Thomas Holcroft produces the comedy The Road to Ruin in London.


date: April 21

text: April 21 – Tiradentes, a leading figure in the Inconfidência Mineira conspiracy, is executed in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.


date: April 25

text: April 25 – Highwayman Nicolas Pelletier becomes the first person executed by guillotine in France.


date: August 10

text: August 10 – French Revolution: Insurrection of 10 August 1792 – The Tuileries Palace is stormed and Louis XVI is arrested and taken into custody.


date: September 11

text: September 11 – Six men steal some of the former French Crown Jewels from a warehouse where the revolutionary government has stored them.


date: December 26

text: December 26 – The trial of Louis XVI of France begins.


date: May 21

text: May 21 – 1792 Unzen earthquake and tsunami: An old lava dome collapses in Kyūshū, Japan, due to activity of Mount Unzen volcano; the resulting avalanche and tsunami kill about 14,300 people.


date: January 25

text: January 25 – The London Corresponding Society is founded.


date: September 12

text: September 12 – The town of Fort Borbon is founded by Governor Joaquín Alós y Bru. Nowadays it is called Fuerte Olimpo.


date: October 12

text: October 12 – The first Columbus Day celebration in the United States is held in New York City, 300 years after his arrival in the New World.


text: Johann Georg Albrechtsberger becomes Kapellmeister in Vienna.


text: The composer Ludwig van Beethoven moves to Vienna from Bonn to study with Haydn. He would live in Vienna for the rest of his life.


text: Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, one of the earliest works of feminist literature, is published in London.


text: The first written examinations in Europe are held at the University of Cambridge in England.


date: March 7

text: March 7 – John Herschel, English mathematician and astronomer (d. 1871)

source_section: Births › January–June


text: April 2 – Francisco de Paula Santander, President of Colombia (d. 1840)


date: April 4

text: April 4 – Thaddeus Stevens, American politician (d. 1868)


text: June 13 – William Austin Burt, American inventor, "father of the typewriter" (d. 1858)


date: July 10

text: July 10 – Frederick Marryat, British naval captain and novelist (d. 1848)

source_section: Births › July–December


date: August 4

text: August 4 – Percy Bysshe Shelley, English poet (d. 1822)


date: August 13

text: August 13 – Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, queen of William IV of the United Kingdom (d. 1849)


date: August 18

text: August 18 – John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1878)


date: September 19

text: September 19 – William Backhouse Astor, Sr., American business tycoon (d. 1875)


date: September 26

text: September 26 – William Hobson, first Governor of New Zealand (d. 1842)


date: October 29

text: October 29 – Thomas Livingstone Mitchell, explorer, Surveyor-General of New South Wales, Australia (d. 1855)


date: November 10

text: November 10 – Samuel Nelson, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1873)


date: November 11

text: November 11 – Mary Anne Evans, wife of Benjamin Disraeli (d. 1872)


date: December 5

text: December 5 – Andrés de Santa Cruz, Peruvian military officer, seventh President of Peru and President of Bolivia (d. 1865)


date: January 17

text: January 17 – George Horne, British academic and Bishop of Norwich (b.1730)

source_section: Deaths › January–June


date: February 15

text: February 15 – John Witherspoon, Scottish American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1723)


date: February 23

text: February 23 – Sir Joshua Reynolds, English painter (b. 1723)


date: March 1

text: March 1 – Angelo Emo, Venetian admiral and statesman (b. 1731)


date: March 3

text: March 3 – Robert Adam, Scottish architect and designer (b. 1728)


date: April 30

text: April 30 – John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, English statesman (b. 1718)


date: May 24

text: May 24 – George Rodney, 1st Baron Rodney, British naval officer (b. 1718)


date: June 4

text: June 4 – John Burgoyne, British general (b. 1723)


date: June 22

text: June 22 – Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, Arabian Wahhabi preacher (b. 1703)


date: August 4

text: August 4 – John Burgoyne, British army officer, playwright and politician (b. 1722)

source_section: Deaths › July–December


date: September 3

text: September 3 – Marie Thérèse Louise of Savoy, Princesse de Lamballe, French princess, courtier to Marie Antoinette (killed in September Massacres) (b. 1749)


date: September 16

text: September 16 – Nguyễn Huệ, Vietnamese emperor (b. 1753)


date: November

text: November – Samuel Hearne, English explorer, fur-trader, author and naturalist (b. 1745)


date: December 8

text: December 8 – Henry Laurens, political leader during the American Revolutionary War, father of John Laurens (b. 1724)


date: January 23

text: January 23 – Second Partition of Poland: The Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Prussia partition the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

source_section: Events › January–June


date: February 25

text: February 25 – George Washington holds the first Cabinet meeting as President of the United States.


date: February 27

text: February 27 – The Giles Resolutions are introduced to the United States House of Representatives, asking the House to condemn Alexander Hamilton's handling of loans.


text: March 1–3 – John Langdon serves as President pro tempore of the United States Senate.


date: March 4

text: March 4 – George Washington is sworn in as the president of the United States in Philadelphia, for his second term.


date: March 18

text: March 18 – The first republican state in Germany, the Republic of Mainz, is declared by Andreas Joseph Hofmann.


date: April 22

text: April 22 – George Washington signs the Neutrality Proclamation.


date: June

text: June – The Macartney Embassy, a British diplomatic mission to China led by George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney, reaches Canton, but will be rebuffed by the Qianlong Emperor.


date: July 9

text: July 9 – The Act Against Slavery is passed in Upper Canada.

source_section: Events › July–December


date: August

text: August – France decrees all the slaves on Saint-Domingue to be free.


date: October 24

text: October 24 – French Revolution:The French Republican Calendar is adopted by the National Convention.


date: January 7

text: January 7 – The Ebel riot occurs in Sweden.


date: January 21

text: January 21 – French Revolution: After being found guilty of treason by the French National Convention, Citizen Capet, formerly King Louis XVI, is guillotined in Paris.


date: February 1

text: February 1 – French Revolutionary Wars: The French First Republic declares war on Great Britain, the Dutch Republic and (on March 7) Spain. During the year, the War of the First Coalition is joined by Portugal, the Holy Roman Empire, Naples and Tuscany in opposition to France.


date: March 5

text: March 5 – French troops are defeated by Austrian forces, and Liège is recaptured.


text: March 18 – Second Battle of Neerwinden: A coalition army of Habsburg monarchy and Dutch Republic troops repulses attacks from French Republican forces, near Neerwinden, Flemish Brabant.


date: April 6

text: April 6 – French Revolutionary Wars: The Committee of Public Safety is established in France, with Georges Danton as its head.


date: May 31

text: May 31 – French Revolution: Regular troops under François Hanriot demand that the Girondins be expelled from the National Convention.


date: June 2

text: June 2 – French Revolution: The Girondins are overthrown in France.


date: June 20

text: June 20–22 – Haitian Revolution: Battle of Cap-Français – French Republican troops and black slave insurgents defeat Royalist and slave owner settlers.


date: July 17

text: July 17 – French Revolution: Charlotte Corday is executed.


date: July 29

text: July 29 – John Graves Simcoe decides to build a fort and settlement at Toronto, having sailed into the bay there.


date: September 5

text: September 5 – French Revolution: The National Convention begins the 10-month Reign of Terror.


date: September 17

text: September 17 – The Army of the Eastern Pyrenees, one of the French Revolutionary armies, defeats a Spanish force at the Battle of Peyrestortes.


date: September 20

text: September 20 – British troops from Jamaica land on the island of Saint-Domingue to join the Haitian Revolution in opposition to the French Republic and its newly-freed slaves; on 22 September the main French naval base on the island surrenders peacefully to the Royal Navy.


date: October 5

text: October 5 – War of the First Coalition: Raid on Genoa – The British Royal Navy boards and captures French warships, sheltering in the neutral port of Genoa.


date: October 15

text: October 15–16 – War of the First Coalition: Battle of Wattignies – A French Republican force commanded by Jean-Baptiste Jourdan compels a Habsburg Austrian Coalition army to retire.


date: October 16

text: October 16 – French Revolution: Marie Antoinette, the widowed queen consort of Louis XVI, is guillotined in the Place de la Révolution in Paris at the conclusion of a 2-day trial before the Revolutionary Tribunal.


date: November 12

text: November 12 – French Revolution: Jean Sylvain Bailly, the first Mayor of Paris, is guillotined.


date: December 8

text: December 8 – French Revolution: Madame du Barry is guillotined.


date: December 23

text: December 23 – French Revolution: War in the Vendée: Battle of Savenay – A Republican force decisively defeats the counterrevolutionary Catholic and Royal Army, ending the Virée de Galerne.


text: Dominique Jean Larrey, chief surgeon of the French Revolutionary Army, creates the first battlefield "flying ambulance" service.

source_section: Events › Undated


date: February 11

text: February 11 – French expedition to Sardinia (Expédition de Sardaigne): A French fleet under admiral Laurent Truguet debarks troops near Cagliari in Sardinia.


date: February 22

text: February 22 – French expedition to Sardinia: A small French and Corsican force briefly occupies the small Sardinian island of La Maddalena, then withdraws to Corsica. 23-year-old lieutenant Napoleon Buonaparte is second-in-command.


date: May 25

text: May 25 – French expedition to Sardinia: The last French troops occupying the small Sardinian island of San Pietro surrender to a Spanish fleet.


date: July 20

text: July 20 – Scottish explorer Alexander Mackenzie's 1792–1793 Peace River expedition to the Pacific Ocean reaches its goal at Bella Coola, British Columbia, making him the first known person to complete a transcontinental crossing of northern North America.


text: The Al Bu Falah move to Abu Dhabi.


date: April 25

text: April 25 – The pioneer parishes of New Orleans and Louisiana are erected, as well as incorporated into the Roman Catholic Diocese of Louisiana and the Two Floridas.


date: November 10

text: November 10 – The dechristianization of France during the French Revolution reaches a climax with the celebration of the Goddess of Reason in the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris.


date: June 21

text: June 21 – The town of Hamilton, Massachusetts, is incorporated.


date: September 18

text: September 18 – The cornerstone to the future United States Capitol is dedicated by U.S. President Washington at the site of the new Federal City on the Potomac River.


text: The first year of regular production begins for the United States Mint, and the half cent is minted for the first time.


date: January 9

text: January 9 – Jean-Pierre Blanchard becomes the first to fly in a gas balloon in the United States.


date: February

text: February – In Manchester, Vermont, the wife of a captain falls ill, probably with tuberculosis. Some locals believe that the cause of her illness is that a demon vampire is sucking her blood. As a cure, Timothy Mead burns the heart of a deceased person in front of a crowd of a few hundred people.


date: April 9

text: April 9 – Edmond-Charles Genêt, France's new Minister to the United States, arrives at Charleston, South Carolina.


date: August 1

text: August 1–November 9 – The yellow fever epidemic of 1793 hits Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; 5,000 die.


date: August 23

text: August 23 – French Revolution: The following universal conscription decree is enacted in France: "The young men shall go to battle and the married men shall forge arms. The women shall make tents and clothes and shall serve in the hospitals; children shall tear rags into lint. The old men will be guided to the public places of the cities to kindle the courage of the young warriors and to preach the unity of the Republic and the hatred of kings."


date: January 13

text: January 13 – Nicolas Jean Hugon de Bassville, a representative of Revolutionary France, is lynched by a mob in Rome.


date: July 13

text: July 13 – French Revolution: Charlotte Corday kills Jean-Paul Marat in his bath.


date: December 18

text: December 18 – French forces under Dugommier capture Toulon from royalists and British forces under Vice Admiral Lord Hood. The British fire the dockyards and take 16 ships, one of which, the Lutine, becomes a famous treasure ship.


date: July 31

text: July 31 – Oulu Castle in Finland is destroyed in an explosion following the burning of a powder cellar.


text: Crowds in Paris burn monarchist emblems.


text: Eli Whitney invents a cotton gin. This causes a resurgence of slavery in the South.


date: January 2

text: January 2 – Premiere of Mozart's Requiem (completed after the composer's death in 1791 by Franz Xaver Süssmayr) in a performace for the benefit of Mozart's widow, Constanze.


date: June 10

text: June 10 – French Revolution: The Jardin des Plantes and the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle are created by the National Convention. The museum opens in Paris the following year, and the garden houses one of the first public zoos.


date: August 10

text: August 10 – French Revolution – Feast of Unity


date: September 8

text: September 8 – The first Círio de Nazaré is celebrated in Belém.


date: December 9

text: December 9 – New York City's first daily newspaper, the American Minerva, is established by Noah Webster.


text: The Louvre in Paris opens to the public as an art museum.


text: Lawrence Academy (Groton, Massachusetts) is chartered.


text: Niccolò Paganini debuts as a violin virtuoso at age 11 in his birthplace of Genoa.


date: January 3

text: January 3 – Lucretia Mott, American women's rights activist and abolitionist (d. 1880)


date: March 2

text: March 2 – Sam Houston, American President of the Republic of Texas (d. 1863)


date: March 3

text: March 3 – William Macready, English actor (d. 1873)


date: March 6

text: March 6 – William Dick, Scottish veterinarian, founder of Edinburgh Veterinary College (d. 1866)


date: June 6

text: June 6 – Edward C. Delavan, American temperance movement leader (d. 1871)


text: July 13 – John Clare, English "peasant poet" (d. 1864)


date: July 15

text: July 15 – Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps, American educator, scientist and writer (d. 1884)


date: July 18

text: July 18 – Maria Caroline Gibert de Lametz, French stage actress, later Princess Consort and regent de facto of Monaco (d. 1879)


date: August 19

text: August 19 – Barthélemy Thimonnier, French inventor (d. 1857)


date: August 25

text: August 25 – John Neal, American writer, critic, and women's rights activist (d. 1876)


date: September 5

text: September 5 – John L. Burns, American veteran of the War of 1812, civilian combatant for the Union Army during the American Civil War. (d. 1872)


date: September 25

text: September 25 – Felicia Hemans, British poet (d. 1835)


date: November 3

text: November 3 – Stephen F. Austin, American pioneer (d. 1836)


date: November 17

text: November 17 – Charles Lock Eastlake, English painter (d. 1865)


date: January 21

text: January 21 – King Louis XVI of France (executed) (b. 1754)


date: February 1

text: February 1 – William Barrington, 2nd Viscount Barrington, British statesman (b. 1717)


date: February 2

text: February 2 – Samuel Whittemore, American farmer and oldest known colonial combatant of the American Revolution (b. 1696)


date: March 20

text: March 20 – William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, Scottish judge, politician (b. 1705)


date: July 13

text: July 13 – Jean-Paul Marat, Swiss-born French Revolutionary leader (assassinated) (b. 1743)


date: July 17

text: July 17 – Charlotte Corday, French assassin of Jean-Paul Marat (executed) (b. 1768)


date: July 23

text: July 23 – Roger Sherman, American lawyer, signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1721)


date: August 28

text: August 28 – Adam Philippe, Comte de Custine, French general (executed) (b. 1740)


date: October 16

text: October 16 – Marie-Antoinette, Queen Consort of France (executed) (b. 1755)


date: October 31

text: October 31 – Jacques Pierre Brissot, French revolutionary leader (executed) (b. 1754)


text: November 3 – Olympe de Gouges, French playwright (executed) (b. 1748)


date: November 6

text: November 6 – Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, French noble, revolutionary leader (executed) (b. 1747)


date: November 8

text: November 8 – Madame Roland, French Revolutionary hostess (executed) (b. 1754)


date: November 29

text: November 29 – Antoine Barnave, French revolutionary leader (executed) (b. 1761)


date: January 13

text: January 13 – The U.S. Congress enacts a law providing for, effective May 1, 1795, a United States flag of 15 stars and 15 stripes, in recognition of the recent admission of Vermont and Kentucky as the 14th and 15th states. A subsequent act restores the number of stripes to 13, but provides for additional stars upon the admission of each additional state.


text: January 21 – King George III of Great Britain delivers the speech opening Parliament and recommends a continuation of Britain's war with France.


date: February 11

text: February 11 – The first session of the United States Senate is open to the public.


date: March 4

text: March 4 – The Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution is passed by Congress for submission to the states for ratification.


date: March 27

text: March 27 – The U.S. Senate passes a rule ending its policy of closing all of its sessions to the public.


date: April 19

text: April 19 – Britain, Prussia and the Netherlands sign a treaty of alliance against France.


date: June 17

text: June 17 – The Anglo-Corsican Kingdom is established.


date: September 28

text: September 28 – Austria, Britain and Russia ally against France.


date: October 22

text: October 22 – Fort Wayne founded in what is now the U.S. state of Indiana.


date: November 19

text: November 19 – The United States and Great Britain sign the Jay Treaty (coming into effect in 1796), which attempts to clear up some issues left over from the American Revolutionary War and secures a decade of peaceful trade between the two nations. Britain agrees to evacuate border forts in the Northwest Territory (roughly the area north of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi) and thereby end British support for the Indians.


date: March 12

text: March 12 – General Antoni Madaliński, a commander of the National Cavalry in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, disobeys an order from the ruling Russian Empire and Kingdom of Prussia imposing demobilization, advancing his troops from Ostrołęka to Kraków.


date: March 24

text: March 24 – Tadeusz Kościuszko makes his proclamation starting the Kościuszko Uprising against the Russian Empire and Kingdom of Prussia in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Prussian Partition.


date: April 4

text: April 4 – Battle of Racławice: Polish supporters of the Kościuszko Uprising defeat forces of the Russian Empire.


date: April 5

text: April 5 – Reign of Terror: Georges Danton and Camille Desmoulins are executed.


date: April 17

text: April 17–19 – Kościuszko Uprising – Warsaw Uprising: The Polish people overthrow the Russian garrison in Warsaw.


date: April 29

text: April 29–May 1 – Battle of Boulou: The French defeat the Spanish and Portuguese forces.


date: May 18

text: May 18 – Battle of Tourcoing: French troops defeat British forces.


date: May 21

text: May 21 – the French Revolutionary Government decides that the Terror would be centralised, with almost all the tribunals in the provinces closed and all the trials held in Paris.


date: May 28

text: May 28–June 1 – The Glorious First of June (Battle of Ushant): The British win a crushing tactical victory over the French fleet, but the merchant convoy escorted by the French fleet arrives safely in France.


date: May 30

text: May 30–June 4 – Battle of Port-Républicain: British troops capture Port-au-Prince in Haiti from the French.


text: June 17 – Battle of Mykonos: The British Royal Navy captures .


date: June 26

text: June 26 – Battle of Fleurus: French forces defeat the Austrians and their allies, leading to permanent loss of the Austrian Netherlands and destruction of the Dutch Republic. French use of an observation balloon marks the first participation of an aircraft in battle.


date: July 12

text: July 12 – Horatio Nelson loses the sight in his right eye in the British Siege of Calvi in Corsica.


date: July 13

text: July 13 – Battle of Trippstadt between French forces and those of Prussia and Austria (First Coalition).


text: July 13–September 6 – Kościuszko Uprising: Siege of Warsaw – The Polish people resist a siege by armies of the Russian Empire and Kingdom of Prussia.


date: July 17

text: July 17 – The sixteen Carmelite Martyrs of Compiègne are guillotined in Paris in the last stage of the French Revolution's Reign of Terror.


date: August 20

text: August 20 – Battle of Fallen Timbers in Northwestern Ohio: American troops under the command of General Anthony Wayne (nicknamed "Mad Anthony") defeat Native American tribes of the Western Confederacy.


date: August 21

text: August 21 – British troops capture Corsica following the bombardment by Nelson.


date: August

text: August – Colombian Antonio Nariño is denounced as a traitor after he translates and publishes the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.


date: October 2

text: October 2 – Battle of Aldenhoven between French forces and those of Austria.


date: October 4

text: October 4 – In the first and only instance of an incumbent United States president leading men into battle, George Washington arrives at Carlisle, Pennsylvania to guide the U.S. Army's suppression of the Whiskey Rebellion. The rebels soon disperse and the insurrection collapses by the end of the month.


date: October 10

text: October 10 – Battle of Maciejowice: Forces of the Russian Empire defeat Polish supporters of the Kościuszko Uprising; Tadeusz Kościuszko is wounded and captured.


date: November 4

text: November 4 – Battle of Praga: Russian General Alexander Suvorov storms Warsaw in the war against the Polish Kościuszko Uprising and captures Praga, one of its suburbs, unwittingly killing many civilians.


date: November 16

text: November 16 – The Kościuszko Uprising ends in the defeat of Tadeusz Kościuszko and his forces.


date: February 8

text: February 8 – Wreck of the Ten Sail on Grand Cayman.


date: May 7

text: May 7 – Maximilien Robespierre establishes the Cult of the Supreme Being as the new state religion of the French First Republic.


date: December 23

text: December 23 – St. Louis Cathedral, New Orleans is dedicated.


date: January 1

text: January 1 – The Stibo Group is founded by Niels Lund as a printing company in Aarhus (Denmark).


date: March 22

text: March 22 – Congress prohibits American ships from supplying slaves to any nation other than the United States, setting a penalty of forfeiture of the ship and a $2,000 fine.


date: March 14

text: March 14 – Eli Whitney is granted a United States patent for the cotton gin.


date: March 27

text: March 27 – The United States Government authorizes the building of the first six United States Navy vessels; in 1797 the first three frigates, , and will go into service (not to be confused with October 13, 1775, which is observed as the Navy's Birthday).


text: The Oban distillery is built in Scotland.


date: April 28

text: April 28 – Sardinian Vespers: The people of Cagliari in Sardinia oust the viceroy and his Piedmontese functionaries.


date: May 8

text: May 8 – Reign of Terror: chemist Antoine Lavoisier is tried, convicted and executed in Paris with 27 co-defendants also associated with the former ferme générale.


date: July 27

text: July 27 (9 Thermidor) – French Revolution – Thermidorian Reaction: Maximilien, Augustin Robespierre and Saint-Just are arrested on the orders of the French National Convention; they are executed the next day, ending the French Revolution's Reign of Terror.


date: August 9

text: August 9 – Napoleon is arrested and put under house arrest at Nice for his association with the Robespierres during their fall in the Thermidorian Reaction. He is later taken to Antibes and detained in a military fort.


date: December 8

text: December 8 – The Great New Orleans Fire (1794) burns over 200 buildings in the French Quarter.


date: June

text: June–July – Mount Vesuvius erupts in Italy; the town of Torre del Greco is destroyed.


date: February 4

text: February 4 – French Revolution: The National Convention of the French First Republic abolishes slavery.


date: March 11

text: March 11 – Canonsburg Academy (modern-day Washington & Jefferson College) is chartered by the Pennsylvania General Assembly.


date: June 24

text: June 24 – Bowdoin College is founded in Brunswick, Maine.


date: August 1

text: August 1 – Aristocrats in Sweden gather to mourn the demise of coffee after the beverage is forbidden by royal decree.


date: August 29

text: August 29 – Stonyhurst College is finally established as a Roman Catholic school in Lancashire, England, having had several European locations.


date: September 10

text: September 10 – The University of Tennessee is established at Knoxville.


date: November 14

text: November 14 – The first recorded meeting of the Franklin Literary Society is held at Canonsburg Academy (modern-day Washington & Jefferson College).


text: The Ayrshire (Earl of Carrick's Own) Yeomanry, a British Yeomanry Cavalry Regiment, is formed by the Earl of Cassillis at Culzean Castle, Ayrshire.


date: February 20

text: February 20 – William Carleton, Irish novelist (d. 1869)


date: March 5

text: March 5 – Robert Cooper Grier, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1870)


date: April 10

text: April 10 – Matthew Calbraith Perry, American commodore (d. 1858)


date: April 11

text: April 11 – Edward Everett, American politician (d. 1865)


date: May 24

text: May 24 – William Whewell, English scientist, philosopher and historian of science (d. 1866)


date: May 27

text: May 27 – Cornelius Vanderbilt, American entrepreneur (d. 1877)


date: June 16

text: June 16 – María Trinidad Sánchez, heroine of the Dominican War of Independence (d. 1846)


date: July 5

text: July 5 – Sylvester Graham, American nutritionist, inventor (d. 1851)


date: July 7

text: July 7 – Frances Stackhouse Acton, British botanist, archaeologist, writer and artist (d. 1881)


date: July 18

text: July 18 – Feargus O'Connor, Irish political radical, Chartist leader (d. 1855)


date: July 28

text: July 28 – Charles Longley, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1868)


date: September 24

text: September 24 – Jeanne Villepreux-Power, French marine biologist (d. 1871)


date: November 3

text: November 3 – William Cullen Bryant, American poet (d. 1878)


date: November 10

text: November 10 – Robert Towns, merchant, founder of Townsville, Queensland, Australia (d. 1873)


date: March 24

text: March 24 – Jacques Hébert, French Revolutionary leader (executed) (b. 1757)


date: March 29

text: March 29 – Marquis de Condorcet, French mathematician, philosopher and political scientist (died in prison) (b. 1743)


date: April 5

text: April 5 – Camille Desmoulins, French Revolutionary leader (executed) (b. 1760)


text: April 5 – Georges Danton, French Revolutionary leader (executed) (b. 1759)


date: April 17

text: April 17 – Angélique du Coudray, pioneering French midwife (b. 1714)


date: April 18

text: April 18 – Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (b. 1714)


date: April 23

text: April 23 – Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes, French statesman (executed) (b. 1721)


date: May 10

text: May 10 – Élisabeth of France, French princess (executed) (b. 1764)


text: July 28 – Louis Antoine de Saint-Just, French Revolutionary leader (executed) (b. 1767)


text: July 28 – Maximilien Robespierre, French Revolutionary leader (executed) (b. 1758)


text: July 28 – François Hanriot, French Revolutionary leader (executed) (b. 1761)


date: October 21

text: October 21 – Francis Light, founder of the British colony of Penang (b. 1740)


date: November 15

text: November 15 – John Witherspoon, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1723)


date: November 28

text: November 28 – Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, Prussian army officer (b. 1730)


date: January 19

text: January 19 – The Batavian Republic is proclaimed in Amsterdam, ending the Dutch Republic (Republic of the Seven United Netherlands).


date: February 7

text: February 7 – The Eleventh Amendment to the United States Constitution is passed.


text: April 5 – The Peace of Basel is signed, between France and Prussia.


text: April 23 – Sweden becomes the first monarchy to recognize the French Republic - Swedish ambassador introduced into the French Convention.


date: June 24

text: June 24 – The United States Senate ratifies the Jay Treaty with Great Britain.


date: July 22

text: July 22 – The Second Treaty of Basel is signed between the French First Republic and Spain, ending the War of the Pyrenees. Spain cedes its half of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola to France.


date: August 3

text: August 3 – The signing of the Treaty of Greenville puts an end to the Northwest Indian War.


date: August 14

text: August 14 – President Washington signs the Jay Treaty with Britain on behalf of the United States.


date: August 22

text: August 22 – French Revolution: The Constitution of the Year III is ratified by the National Convention.


date: August 28

text: August 28 – The Third Treaty of Basel is signed, between the French First Republic and the Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel.


date: September 5

text: September 5 – The United States signs a treaty with the Dey of Algiers, ruled by Baba Hassan, pledging the payment of $23,000 a year tribute to prevent piracy against American ships.


date: September 28

text: September 28 – The Alliance of St Petersburg is formed between Britain, Russia and Austria against France.


date: October 1

text: October 1 – The Austrian Netherlands is annexed to the French Republic, as the Belgian departments.


date: October 20

text: October 20 – The United States signs a treaty with Spain, opening commerce along the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico, and establishing boundaries between U.S. territory and Spanish Florida.


date: October 24

text: October 24 – The Third Partition of Poland is made, dividing the territory of the Commonwealth of Poland between the Habsburg monarchy, Prussia and the Russian Empire. On November 25, Stanisław August Poniatowski formally abdicates as last King of Poland.


date: October 27

text: October 27 – The United States and Spain sign the Treaty of Madrid, which establishes the boundaries between Spanish colonies and the U.S.


date: November 2

text: November 2 – French Revolution: The French Directory takes power; the influence of the Sans-culottes declines.


date: January 16

text: January 16 – War of the First Coalition: Flanders campaign: The French occupy Utrecht, Netherlands.


date: January 18

text: January 18 – Batavian Revolution in Amsterdam: William V, Prince of Orange, Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic (Republic of the Seven United Netherlands), flees the country.


date: January 20

text: January 20 – French troops enter Amsterdam.


date: January 23

text: January 23 – Flanders campaign: Capture of the Dutch fleet at Den Helder: The Dutch fleet, frozen in Zuiderzee, is captured by the French 8th Hussars.


date: March 13

text: March 13–14 – War of the First Coalition Battle of Genoa: The British and Neapolitan fleets are victorious over the French.


date: May 1

text: May 1 – Unification of Hawai‘i: Battle of Nuʻuanu: Kamehameha I of the Island of Hawaii defeats the Oahuans, solidifying his control of the major islands of the archipelago and officially founding the Kingdom of Hawaii.


date: May 31

text: May 31 – French Revolution: Revolutionary Tribunal suppressed.


date: May

text: May–June – The Battle of Richmond Hill is fought in the colony of New South Wales, between the Darug people and British colonial forces.


date: June 16

text: June 16–17 – War of the First Coalition: Cornwallis's Retreat – A British Royal Navy battle squadron commanded by William Cornwallis fends off a numerically superior French Navy fleet, off the coast of Brittany.


date: June 27

text: June 27 – War of the First Coalition:


date: August 17

text: August 17 – A large slave rebellion occurs in Curaçao, suppressed the following month.


date: August 25

text: August 25 – British forces capture Trincomalee, Ceylon.


date: September 11

text: September 11 – Battle of Krtsanisi: The Persian emperor Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar defeats the forces of Heraclius II of Georgia.


date: September 15

text: September 15 – French Revolutionary Wars – Invasion of the Cape Colony: British forces capture Cape Town in the Dutch Cape Colony, to use its strategic facilities against the French Navy.


date: September 21

text: September 21 – Battle of the Diamond: Protestant forces defeat Catholic troops in Loughgall, Ireland, leading to the foundation of the Orange Order.


date: October 2

text: October 2 – British forces capture the Île d'Yeu off the coast of Brittany.


date: October 5

text: October 5 – 13 Vendémiaire: Royalist riots in Paris are crushed by troops under Paul Barras and newly-reinstalled artillery officer Napoleon Bonaparte.


text: British forces land off Quiberon to aid the revolt in Brittany.


date: December 28

text: December 28 – Construction of Yonge Street, formerly recognized as the longest street in the world, begins in York, Upper Canada (modern-day Toronto).


text: Daniel McGinnis discovers the supposed Money Pit on Oak Island, Nova Scotia. (according to one story)


date: March

text: March – English Benedictine monks expelled from Douai are permitted to proceed to England.


text: Jim Beam is founded as Old Jake Beam Sour Mash.


date: July 25

text: July 25 – Construction of the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct in Wales begins.


text: The Hudson's Bay Company trading post Fort Edmonton is constructed; the city of Edmonton, Alberta, eventually grows from it.


date: April 7

text: April 7 – The metric system is adopted in France.


text: The British Royal Navy makes the use of lemon juice mandatory, to prevent scurvy.


date: April 23

text: April 23 – Former Governor-General of India Warren Hastings is acquitted by the British House of Lords of misconduct.


date: June 5

text: June 5–7 – The Copenhagen Fire of 1795, starting in a naval warehouse, destroys 941 houses.


date: January

text: January – Central England records its coldest ever month, in the CET records dating back to 1659.


date: December 13

text: December 13 – Wold Cottage meteorite: A meteorite falls at Wold Newton, a hamlet in Yorkshire in England. This meteorite fall is subsequently used as a literary premise by science fiction writer Philip José Farmer, as the basis for the Wold Newton family.


date: January 14

text: January 14 – The University of North Carolina opens to students at Chapel Hill, becoming the first state university in the United States.


date: March 29

text: March 29 – Ludwig van Beethoven makes his public debut in Vienna performing his Second Piano Concerto under the baton of his teacher Antonio Salieri.


date: April 8

text: April 8 – George, Prince of Wales, marries Caroline of Brunswick.


date: June 3

text: June 3 – The Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies are founded at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.


date: January 18

text: January 18 – Anna Pavlovna of Russia, queen consort of the Netherlands (d. 1865)


date: January 26

text: January 26 – Policarpa Salavarrieta, Colombian spy, revolutionary heroine working for the independence of Colombia (d. 1817)


date: February 18

text: February 18 – George Peabody, American businessman and "father of modern philanthropy" (d. 1869)


date: March 12

text: March 12 – William Lyon Mackenzie, Scottish-born Canadian journalist, 1st Mayor of Toronto (d. 1861)


date: May 19

text: May 19 – Johns Hopkins, American businessman and philanthropist (d. 1873)


date: May 23

text: May 23 – Charles Barry, English architect (d. 1860)


date: June 19

text: June 19 – James Braid, Scottish surgeon, hypnotism pioneer (d. 1860)


date: July 7

text: July 7 – Prince Karl Theodor of Bavaria, Bavarian field marshal (d. 1875)


date: August 25

text: August 25 – Luis José de Orbegoso, Peruvian general and politician, 11th and 12th President of Peru (d. 1847)


date: September 6

text: September 6 – Achille Baraguey d'Hilliers, Marshal of France (d. 1878)


date: September 7

text: September 7 – John William Polidori, English writer and physician (d. 1821)


date: December 3

text: December 3 – Rowland Hill, English teacher, inventor and social reformer (d. 1879)


date: December 4

text: December 4 – Thomas Carlyle, Scottish-born writer, historian (d. 1881)


date: December 21

text: December 21 – Leopold von Ranke, German historian (d. 1886)


date: January 23

text: January 23 – John Sullivan, American general in the American Revolutionary War, delegate in the Continental Congress (b. 1740)

source_section: Deaths › January–March


text: January 26 – Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach, German harpsichordist, composer (b. 1732)


date: February 11

text: February 11 – Carl Michael Bellman, Swedish poet (b. 1740)


date: April 30

text: April 30 – Jean-Jacques Barthélemy, French writer and numismatist (b. 1716)

source_section: Deaths › April–June


date: May 7

text: May 7 – Antoine Quentin Fouquier-Tinville, French revolutionary leader (executed) (b. 1746)


date: May 12

text: May 12 – Ezra Stiles, American academic, educator and author (b. 1727)


date: May 18

text: May 18 – Robert Rogers, British Army officer and American colonial frontiersman (b. 1731)


text: May 19 – Josiah Bartlett, signer of the United States Declaration of Independence (b. 1729)


date: June 8

text: June 8 – Titular King Louis XVII of France (b. 1785)


date: July 9

text: July 9 – Henry Seymour Conway, British general and statesman (b. 1721)

source_section: Deaths › July–September


date: August 31

text: August 31 – François-André Danican Philidor, French composer and chess player (b. 1726)


date: October 10

text: October 10 – Samuel Fraunces, American restaurateur (b. 1722)

source_section: Deaths › October–December


date: October 13

text: October 13 – William Prescott, American colonel during the Revolutionary War (b. 1726)


date: December 23

text: December 23 – Henry Clinton, British general (b. 1730)


date: January 16

text: January 16 – The first Dutch (and general) elections are held for the National Assembly of the Batavian Republic. (The next Dutch general elections are held in 1888).

source_section: Events › January–March


date: February 1

text: February 1 – The capital of Upper Canada is moved from Newark to York.


date: February 9

text: February 9 – The Qianlong Emperor of China abdicates at age 84 to make way for his son, the Jiaqing Emperor.


date: February 16

text: February 16 – The Kingdom of Great Britain is granted control of Ceylon by the Dutch.


date: February 29

text: February 29 – Ratifications of the Jay Treaty between Great Britain and the United States are officially exchanged, bringing it into effect.


date: March 20

text: March 20 – The U.S. House of Representatives demands that the U.S. State Department supply it with documents relating to the negotiation of the Jay Treaty; President Washington declines the request, citing that only the U.S. Senate has jurisdiction over treaties.


date: April 28

text: April 28 – In an impassioned speech, U.S. Representative Fisher Ames of Massachusetts persuades his fellow members of the House to support the Jay Treaty.

source_section: Events › April–June


date: May 20

text: May 20 – The last mock Garrat Elections are held in Surrey, England.


date: June 1

text: June 1 – Tennessee is admitted as the 16th U.S. state.


date: July 11

text: July 11 – The United States takes possession of Detroit from Great Britain, under the terms of the Jay Treaty.

source_section: Events › July–September


date: August 19

text: August 19 – Second Treaty of San Ildefonso: Spain and France form an alliance against Great Britain.


date: September 2

text: September 2 – Jewish emancipation in the Batavian Republic (Netherlands).


date: September 17

text: September 17 – U.S. President George Washington issues his Farewell Address, which warns against partisan politics and foreign entanglements. In addition, he sets a precedent by declining to run for a third term.


date: September 28

text: September 28 – Empress Catherine the Great signs an agreement with Great Britain, formally joining Russia to the coalition.


date: November 3

text: November 3 – John Adams defeats Thomas Jefferson, in the 1796 U.S. presidential election.

source_section: Events › October–December


date: November 4

text: November 4 – The Treaty of Tripoli (between the United States and Tripoli) is signed at Tripoli (see also 1797).


date: December 7

text: December 7 – The U.S. Electoral College meets to elect John Adams president of the United States.


text: The Spanish government lifts the restrictions against neutrals trading with the colonies, thus acknowledging Spain's inability to supply the colonies with needed goods and markets.

source_section: Events › Date unknown


date: February 15

text: February 15 – French Revolutionary Wars: The Invasion of Ceylon (1795) ends when Johan van Angelbeek, the Batavian governor of Ceylon, surrenders Colombo peacefully to British forces.


date: March 26

text: March 26 – Napoleon Bonaparte arrives at Nice to take command of the Army of Italy (37,000 men and 60 guns), which is scattered in detachments as far as Genoa.


date: April 12

text: April 12 – War of the First Coalition – Battle of Montenotte: Napoleon Bonaparte gains his first victory as an army commander.


date: April 16

text: April 16 – War of the First Coalition – Battle of Ceva: French troops (some 8,000 men) under General Pierre Augereau assault the Sardinian defensive positions at Ceva. After fierce fighting, the defensive system gives way under French pressure. The Sardinians are forced to withdraw. The French lose some 600 men killed or wounded.


date: April 21

text: April 21 – War of the First Coalition – Battle of Mondovi: Napoleon Bonaparte decisively defeats the army of Piedmont-Sardinia, leaving its capital of Turin defenseless. This convinces Piedmont to sign an armistice and withdraw from the war, turning the war in Italy decisively in France's favor.


date: April 26

text: April 26 – The French proclaim the Republic of Alba on the occupied territories. Two days later, King Victor Amadeus III of Sardinia signs the Armistice of Cherasco, in the headquarters of Napoleon. The fortresses of Coni, Tortoni and Alessandria, with all their guns, are given up.


date: May 6

text: May 6 – Napoleon Bonaparte forms an advanced guard (3,500 infantry and 1,500 cavalry) under General Claude Dallemagne. He sends this force along the south bank of the Po River, to cross it with boats at Piacenza.


date: May 10

text: May 10 – War of the First Coalition – Battle of Lodi: General Napoleon Bonaparte defeats the Austrian rearguard, in forcing a crossing of the bridge over the Adda River in Italy. The Austrians lose some 2,000 men, 14 guns, and 30 ammunition wagons.


date: May 30

text: May 30 - War of the First Coalition - Battle of Borghetto: French troops (28,000 men) under Napoleon Bonaparte force a crossing of the Mincio River and push the Austrian army back towards the Tyrol. The Austrians lose 572 men killed or wounded, while the French lose some 500 men.


date: June 1

text: June 1 – The French-Republican army divisions of the Army of Italy invade the territories of Venice.


date: June 4

text: June 4 - The Siege of Mantua (1796-1797) begins when Napoleon Bonaparte lays siege to the city of Mantua, Austria's final stronghold in Northern Italy. The siege and Austria's attempts to relieve it will take the majority of the Italian campaign.


date: June 23

text: June 23 – Napoleon Bonaparte seizes the Papal States, which become part of the revolutionary Cisalpine Republic. Pope Pius VI signs the Armistice of Bologna, and is forced to contribute (34 million francs).


date: July 21

text: July 21 – Mungo Park reaches Ségou, the capital of the Bamana Empire.


date: July 29

text: July 29 – The Habsburg army under Marshal Wurmser advances from the Alps, and captures Rivoli and Verona. The French abandon the east bank of the Mincio River, the outnumbered division (15,000 men) of Masséna retreats towards Lake Garda.


date: August 4

text: August 4 – French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Lonato – The French Army of Italy under Napoleon crushes an Austrian brigade.


date: August 5

text: August 5 – French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Castiglione – The French Army of Italy under Napoleon defeats the Habsburg army (25,000 men) under Marshal Wurmser, who thus fails to break the Siege of Mantua (1796–97), and is forced to retreat north up the Adige Valley.


date: September 8

text: September 8 – French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Bassano – French forces (20,000 men) under Napoleon Bonaparte and André Masséna defeat the Austrians in Veneto. Wurmser retreats towards Vicenza with just 3,500 men of his original 11,000 left to him.


date: September 9

text: September 9 – French Revolutionary Wars: Action of 9 September 1796 – A naval engagement between French and British squadrons off Sumatra ends inconclusively.


text: September 9 – Grenelle camp affair, a failed uprising by supporters of Gracchus Babeuf against the French Directory


date: September 15

text: September 15 – Siege of Mantua: Napoleon Bonaparte fights a pitched battle at La Favorita on the east side of the Mincio River. The Austrians withdraw into the fortress of Mantua, which is crowded with nearly 30,000 men. Within six weeks, 4,000 die from wounds or sickness.


date: October 19

text: October 19 – French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Emmendingen – Austrian forces force the French to retreat, but commanding generals on both sides are killed.


date: November 6

text: November 6 – French forces (9,500 men) under Masséna attack the Austrian army at Fontaniva. After a desperate assault he is outnumbered, and forced to retreat to Verona.


date: November 12

text: November 12 – Battle of Caldiero: French forces are defeated by the Austrians at Caldiero, and pushed back to Verona. This marks Napoleon's first defeat, losing nearly 2,000 men and 2 guns.


date: November 17

text: November 17 – Battle of Arcole: French forces under General Napoleon defeat the Austrians at Arcole. After a bold maneuver, he outflanks the Austrian army (24,000 men) under Freiherr József Alvinczi, and cuts off its line of retreat. Alvinczi is forced to take up a defensive position behind the Brenta River.


text: May 10 – Persian Expedition of 1796: Russian troops storm Derbent.


date: June 21

text: June 21 – Scottish explorer Mungo Park becomes the first European to reach the Niger River.


date: July 22

text: July 22 – Surveyors of the Connecticut Land Company name an area in Ohio Cleveland, after Gen. Moses Cleaveland, the superintendent of the surveying party.


text: November 12 – Groton, New Hampshire is incorporated as a town.


date: March 30

text: March 30 – Carl Gauss obtains conditions for the constructibility by ruler and compass of regular polygons, and can announce that the regular 17-gon is constructible by ruler and compasses.


date: August 9

text: August 9 – The Wearmouth Bridge in England, designed by Rowland Burdon in cast iron, opens to traffic. Its span of 72 m ft makes it the world's longest single-span vehicular bridge extant at this date.


date: December

text: December – The British government begins work on a 40-acre (162,000 m²) site at Norman Cross, for the world's first purpose-built prisoner-of-war camp.


text: Annual British iron production reaches 125,000 tons.


date: July 10

text: July 10 – Carl Friedrich Gauss discovers that every positive integer is representable as a sum of at most 3 triangular numbers.


date: May 14

text: May 14 – Edward Jenner administers the first smallpox vaccination, in England.


date: April 2

text: April 2 – The only night of the supposed Shakespearean play Vortigern and Rowena (actually written by William Henry Ireland) ends in the audience's laughter.


date: April 27

text: April 27 – Case of the Lyons Mail: During the night, five highwaymen attack the mail between Paris and Lyon, kill the postmen and steal the funds sent to the armies in Italy.


date: August 10

text: August 10 – A mob of peasants overtakes the Convent of St. Peter (Bludenz, Austria) and murders Ignaz Anton von Indermauer.


text: Rizla rolling papers established.


date: December 18

text: December 18 – British Royal Navy ship HMS Courageux is wrecked on the Barbary Coast with the loss of 464 of the 593 onboard.


date: June 6

text: June 6–7 – Ragunda lake in Sweden bursts and drains completely, leaving the Döda fallet dry.


date: March 9

text: March 9 – Widow Joséphine de Beauharnais marries General Napoleon Bonaparte.


date: October

text: October – Jane Austen begins writing her first draft of Pride and Prejudice, under the title First Impressions (the book will not be published until 1813).


text: Robert Burns's version of the Scots poem Auld Lang Syne is first published, in this year's volume of The Scots Musical Museum.


date: January 7

text: January 7 – Princess Charlotte of Wales, daughter and only child of future King George IV (d. 1817)

source_section: Births › January


date: February 17

text: February 17 – Philipp Franz von Siebold, German physician, botanist and explorer (d. 1866)

source_section: Births › February


date: February 27

text: February 27 – James Planché, British dramatist, costume designer, and antiquarian (d. 1880)


date: April 10

text: April 10 – James Bowie, American pioneer, soldier, smuggler, slave trader, and land speculator (d. 1836)

source_section: Births › April


date: April 24

text: April 24 – Giorgio Pallavicino Trivulzio, Italian politician (d. 1878)


date: May 1

text: May 1 – Junius Brutus Booth, English stage actor, father of Edwin Booth and John Wilkes Booth (d. 1852)

source_section: Births › May


date: May 4

text: May 4 – William H. Prescott, American historian and Hispanist (d. 1859)


date: May 28

text: May 28 – William Miller, Scottish engraver and watercolorist (d. 1882)


date: June 1

text: June 1 – Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot, French military engineer and physicist, "father of thermodynamics" (d. 1832)

source_section: Births › June


date: July 16

text: July 16 – Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, French landscape and portrait painter and printmaker in etching (d. 1875)

source_section: Births › July


date: August 22

text: August 22 – David Canabarro, Brazilian Gaúcho revolutionary (d. 1867)

source_section: Births › August


date: November 24

text: November 24 – Stephan Ludwig Roth, Transylvanian Saxon intellectual, pedagogue, Lutheran pastor (d. 1849)

source_section: Births › November


date: December 27

text: December 27 – Mirza Ghalib, Persian poet of Urdu (d. 1869)

source_section: Births › December


date: December

text: Edwin Beard Budding, English engineer and inventor of the lawnmower (d. 1846)


date: February 15

text: February 15 – John Caesar Australian bushranger of African descent (b. 1763)

source_section: Deaths › January–March


date: March 1

text: March 1 – Carl Fredrik Adelcrantz, Swedish architect and civil servant (b. 1716)


date: March 19

text: March 19 – Hugh Palliser, British naval officer, administrator (b. 1722)


date: April 16

text: April 16 – Molly Brant Mohawk United Empire Loyalist (b. c.1736)

source_section: Deaths › April–June


date: May 29

text: May 29 – Carl Fredrik Pechlin, Swedish politician and demagogue (b. 1720)


date: June 11

text: June 11 – Nathaniel Gorham, Massachusetts politician, merchant (b. 1738)


date: June 16

text: June 16 – Walter Stewart, Irish-born American general during the American Revolutionary War (b. 1756)


date: June 26

text: June 26 – David Rittenhouse, American astronomer, inventor, mathematician, surveyor, scientific instrument craftsman and public official (b. 1732)


date: June 30

text: June 30 – Abraham Yates Jr., American lawyer, civil servant from Albany (b. 1724)


date: August 31

text: August 31 – John McKinly, American physician, politician from Wilmington (b. 1721)

source_section: Deaths › July–September


date: October 7

text: October 7 – Thomas Reid, religiously trained Scottish philosopher (b. 1710)

source_section: Deaths › October–December


date: October 30

text: October 30 – Archibald Montgomerie, 11th Earl of Eglinton, Scottish general (b. 1726)


date: November 6

text: November 6 – Catherine the Great dies, and is succeeded by her son Paul I of Russia. His wife Sophie Marie Dorothea of Württemberg becomes Empress consort.


date: December 15

text: December 15 – Anthony Wayne, United States Army officer, statesman, and member of the United States House of Representatives (b. 1745)


date: January 3

text: January 3 – The Treaty of Tripoli, a peace treaty between the United States and Ottoman Tripolitania, is signed at Algiers (see also 1796).

source_section: Events › January–March


date: January 7

text: January 7 – The parliament of the Cisalpine Republic adopts the Italian green-white-red tricolour as their official flag (this is considered the birth of the flag of Italy).