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The Convention of El Arish concluded by General Bonaparte with the Ottoman Turks January 24 provides for French withdrawal from Egypt (see 1799). Admiral George Keith Elphinstone, 54, Viscount Keith, rejects terms of the treaty; the Royal Navy's H.M.S. Queen Charlotte catches fire March 17, killing 700 people. General Kléber defeats the Turks at Heliopolis March 20 with a force of 10,000 men that is outnumbered six to one, but Kléber is assassinated by a Syrian fanatic at Cairo June 14 at age 47 and succeeded by General Abdullah Jacques Menou, a French convert to Islam (see 1801).
General Bonaparte advances through the St. Bernard Pass in the Alps with 40,000 men in May, taking just 6 days to accomplish what no army has done since Hannibal's Carthaginians made the alpine crossing in 218 B.C. (Bonaparte himself makes the journey in 1 day on a mule), but an Austrian army under the command of General Peter Ott defeats a French army under a General Thureau May 20 at Montebello in Italy.
Austrian troops starve Genoa into surrender June 4 after a 6-week siege in which General Masséna has bolstered the defenders' spirits and given Bonaparte time to get behind the enemy lines. Bonaparte wins a narrow victory June 14 at the Battle of Marengo, defeating Baron Michael Friedrich Benedikt von Melas, 71, and sustaining only about 6,000 casualties (dead and wounded) to the Austrians' 12,000. General Macdonald has won Napoleon's admiration by crossing the Splügen Pass from Switzerland into Lombardy, and Jean-Baptiste Bessières, 31, gains respect for his command of the consular guards, having fought with distinction at Abukir in Egypt last year as commander of Napoleon's escort. Melas signs a truce giving the French all Austrian fortresses west of the Mincio and south of the Po, and the Austrians evacuate most of northern Italy.
General Moreau takes Munich in July and goes on to gain a decisive victory over the archduke John three miles east of Munich December 3 in the Battle of Hohenlinden, even though the Austrians have about 70,000 men (50 infantry battalions, 140 cavalry squadrons) with 150 guns as compared to about 60,000 men in the French ranks (45 infantry battalions, 100 cavalry squadrons) with 100 guns. The French take 11,000 prisoners and capture 87 guns after killing or wounding 6,000 of the enemy, but cavalry officer Karl Philipp Schwarzenberg, 29, distinguishes himself by covering the Austrian withdrawal; French losses total 5,000 killed and wounded (see Treaty of Lunéville, 1801).
Paris authorities thwart a Jacobin conspiracy to assassinate the dictator Bonaparte.
An Anglo-Irish legislative union comes into effect August 1 following passage of an Act of Union that abolishes the Irish Pariament (see 1798), but many Irishmen press for Catholic emancipation and independence from Britain (see Catholic Association, 1823).
Former Hessian mercenary commander Wilhelm, freiherr von Knyphausen, dies at Kassel in Hesse-Kassel December 7 at age 84.
Russia's Czar Paul I issues a manifesto December 18 declaring the unilateral annexation of Kartalina-Kakhetia (eastern Georgia), abrogating the 1783 Treaty of Georgievsk (see 1801).
The Afghan king Zaman Shah's brother Mahmud, governor of Herat, receives men, money, and encouragement from Persia's Fath Ali Shah, takes Kandahar, and advances on Kabul (see 1793). Zaman Shah hurries home from India but is captured and handed over to Mahmud, who has him blinded and imprisoned.
Osei "The Whale" Bonshu assumes the Ashanti throne in West Africa and begins a reign as Asanthane (see 1712). The gold-encrusted throne has been received "from heaven" by fetish prophet Okomfo Anokye to create the sacred empire of the Ashanti (see 1822).
President Adams dismisses his secretary of state Timothy Pickering May 12. Now 54, Pickering will become chief justice of the Massachusetts Court of Common Pleas in 1802 and will serve as a congressman from Massachusetts from 1813 to 1817.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase and Judge Peters hold a second trial of John Fries at Philadelphia and sentence him to death on grounds of treason (see 1799). President Adams pardons Fries, and political opponents demand that Chase, now 59, be impeached (see 1805). Former associate justice John Rutledge dies at Charleston July 18 at age 60, having been insane in his final years.
U.S. Chief Justice Oliver Ellsworth helps to conclude a new treaty with France that averts a war but resigns from the high court for reasons of health and returns from Paris to his native Connecticut (see Marshall, 1801).
Congress creates the Indiana Territory out of the western part of the Northwest Territory in the Division Act of May 7.
Spain returns the Louisiana Territory to France October 1, having received it by the Treaty of Paris in 1763. A secret agreement in the Treaty of San Ildefonso signed in 1796 has obliged her to give it back; France guarantees not to transfer the territory to any power other than Spain (but see Louisiana Purchase, 1803).
Former Continental Army major general Artemas Ward dies at his native Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, October 28 at age 72.
Thomas Jefferson wins 73 electoral votes in the presidential election, as compared to 65 for President Adams and 64 for Charles C. Pinckney of South Carolina. New York lawyer Aaron Burr, now 44, also wins 73 electoral votes in a contest marked by unprecedented vitriol on both sides (Federalist newspapers have said that electing Jefferson would cause "teaching of murder, robbery, rape, adultery, and incest"), and the Federalists force the election into the House of Representatives in an effort to keep Jefferson's Democratic-Republican Party out of power and make Burr president (see 1801).
Washington, D.C., succeeds New York as the U.S. capital, 123 federal government clerks have been moved to the new city during the summer, and Congress convenes at Washington for the first time November 17.
Gabriel's Insurrection inspires Virginians to support plans for black emigration to Africa. A conspiracy organized by the slave "General Gabriel" to attack Richmond comes to light August 30 when its leader is betrayed, Governor James Monroe, 42, orders in federal militia; they suppress the insurrection with help from a thunderstorm. A trial is held October 6, and the ringleaders are executed.
Alexander von Humboldt explores the course of the Orinoco River in South America (see 1799). Covering 1,725 miles of jungle by foot and canoe in 4 months, he establishes the water link between the Orinoco and the Amazon (see nitrates, 1802).
Ottawa is founded on the Ottawa River in eastern Ontario.
The Banque de France is founded February 13 at the instigation of General Bonaparte "to counteract the displacement or dispersion of the funds serving to feed the trade of the nation, and all such influences as tended to impair the public credit and to clog the circulation of wealth in the country, influences arising from the French Revolution and expensive wars." The private bank has an initial capital reserve of 30 million francs.
Bonaparte acts to stop France's inflation and avert national bankruptcy (see 1796). He raises 5 million francs from French and Italian bankers and 9 million from a national lottery, introduces a new and tighter system of income tax collections, reduces the budgets of all his ministries, and restores confidence among the bourgeoisie. French government bonds that sold at 12 francs December 23 of last year reach 44 within the year and will advance in the next 7 years to 94.40.
Congress passes legislation to reduce the minimum amount of public land that may be sold at auction under the U.S. Land Ordinance of 1785. The bill introduced by Virginia-born congressman William Henry Harrison, now 27, of the Northwest Territory permits sale of 320-acre tracts at $2 per acre with a down payment of one fourth and the balance to be paid in three annual installments (see 1796; 1804).
Rep. Albert Gallatin (R. Pa.) submits a report in July analyzing the fiscal operations of the federal government under the Constitution (see Gallatin, 1794). A member of the new Standing Committee on Finance (later the House Ways and Means Committee) that he has been chiefly responsible for creating, Gallatin has called his report "Views of the Public Debt, Receipts, and Expenditures of the United States," and it will come to be regarded as a classic; he has worked to restrain appropriations, especially those for the military, and has come under personal attack for his efforts essentially to veto treaties by withholding appropriations (see 1801).
U.S. cotton production reaches 35 million pounds, up from 140,000 pounds in 1791, as the efficiency of Eli Whitney's cotton gin leads to rapid growth of cotton planting in the South and a boom in northern and English cotton mills (see Lowell, 1812). The cotton gin is revolutionizing the economies of the United States and Britain.
New York-born merchant Philip Hone, 19, becomes a partner with his older brother John in the auction business for which he has worked since age 16. The firm will enjoy a rapid growth, net profits will reach $159,000 by 1815, and by 1821 Hone will have an individual net worth of at least $500,000.
Cornwall engineer Richard Trevithick, 29, builds a high-pressure steam engine that will be used to power a road vehicle. Barely literate, Trevithick 3 years ago built working models of stationery and locomotive engines so compact that they could be taken in ordinary farm wagons to the Cornish mines (see 1801; Watt, 1782; Evans, 1797).
Pennsylvania engineer James Finley builds the first suspension bridge with iron chains (see 1825).
The Industrial Revolution spreads to Europe as Lieven Bauwens of Ghent smuggles in the mule jenny from England. Ghent will become the Manchester of the Continent (year approximate).
The voltaic cell invented by Italian physicist Alessandro (Giuseppe Antonio) Volta, 55, consists of several metal disks, each made of one or the other of two dissimilar metals, in alternating series, and separated by pads moistened with an electrolyte. The word volt will be derived from Volta's name (see Daniell, 1836).
Infrared rays are discovered by Sir William Herschel, who discovered the planet Uranus in 1781. He uses a sensitive thermometer to show that the invisible rays beyond the red light of the sun's spectrum are essentially heat radiation.
"Researches, Chemical and Philosophical, Chiefly Concerning Nitrous Oxide" is published by Humphry Davy, who will soon be appointed lecturer in chemistry at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, set up this year pursuant to a proposal last year by Count Rumford, now 47 (see Davy, 1799; 1807).
Vegetable Physiology (Physiologie végétale) by botanist Jean Senebier demonstrates that light is responsible for the fixation of carbon dioxide in plants and that oxygen is liberated only in the presence of carbon dioxide (see 1788; Saussure, 1804; chlorophyll, 1817).
Massachusetts schoolteacher Pliny Moody discovers the fossil remains of large birdlike footprints on sandstone slabs and attributes them to "Noah's raven." Amherst College professor Edward Hitchcock will suggest that they have been made by some extinct bird and begin collecting them in 1835. They will prove to be common in the Connecticut River Valley, and they will eventually be recognized as the fossil remains of several kinds of dinosaurs (see 1820; Owen, 1841).
"A Prospect of Exterminating the Small Pox" by Benjamin Waterhouse is published at Boston (see 1799). The disease will remain a leading cause of death and disfigurement worldwide for well over a century (see 1802).
English landowner Thomas Jones receives a gold medal and 50 guineas offered by the British government 6 years ago to the first Briton who could produce 20 pounds per acre of raw opium, which is widely used in laudanum to dull pain and produce euphoria. Jones planted five acres of his land outside London in opium poppies but suffered a variety of setbacks before reaching his goal of 21 pounds per acre (see 1820; morphine, 1806).
London's Royal College of Surgeons is founded.
The vacancy that has existed in the papacy at Rome since the death of Pope Pius VI last year ends March 14 with the consecration of the former Benedictine monk Barnaba Cardinal Chiaramonti, 57, who will reign until 1823 as Pius VII.
The Society of the Sacred Heart has its beginnings November 21 with the consecration of Burgundian-born novitiate Madeleine-Sophie Barat, 20, and three companions. Its first convent will open in September of next year at Amiens, but its members call themselves Dames de la Foi or de l'Instruction Chrétienne lest a political significance be attached to the word society. Sister Madeleine will be named mother superior in 1802 and by the time of her death in 1865 the Society will have convents not only in other parts of France but also in North America, the Italian states, Switzerland, Belgium, Algiers, England, Ireland, Spain, the Netherlands, the German states, South America, Austria, and Poland, all devoted to educating Catholic girls in the classics and religious studies.
Journalist William Cobbett returns to England after being convicted of libel at Philadelphia and paying a heavy fine (see medicine, 1799). He has been fulminating prolifically against American democracy since 1794 and making scores of enemies, but although William Pitt's Tory government offers to subsidize his journalistic endeavors he rejects any suggestion that he can be bought (see 1802).
The Library of Congress is established at Washington, D.C., April 24 by a $5,000 appropriation to purchase some 900 books and maps that arrive from London in 11 trunks aboard a British cargo vessel, The American. Included is a copy of Adam Smith's 1776 book Wealth of Nations (see 1814).
Nonfiction: The Influence of Literature upon Society (Literature et ses rapports avec les institutions sociales) by Mme. de Staël, who writes, "The entire social order . . . is arrayed against a woman who wants to rise to a man's reputation." She was permitted by General Bonaparte to return to Paris 3 years ago but soon antagonized him and retreated once again to Coppet.
Philosopher Solomon Maimon dies at Nieder-Siegersdorf in Silesia November 22 at age 46 (approximate).
Fiction: The Life and Memorable Actions of George Washington by Mason Locke Weems, 43, a Philadelphia clergyman turned book peddler whose bestseller will go through more than 70 editions, including five in German. Weems has fabricated stories, including one about young George chopping down his father's cherry tree, and he portrays Washington as a devout Christian, although the late president's diaries show that he rarely attended church; Castle Rackrent by Maria Edgeworth is about Irish life.
Poetry: An expanded version of William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 1798 book Lyrical Ballads is published with a preface by Wordsworth, who writes, "Poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge; it is the impassioned expression which is in the countenance of all science." He includes his poems "Lucy Gray," "She dwelt among the untrodden ways," and "Strange fits of passion have I known."
Poet William Cowper dies at East Dereham, Norfolk, April 25 at age 68.
Painting: Portrait of Mme. Récamier by Jacques Louis David; Kirkstall Abbey and The White House at Chelsea by English painter Thomas Girtin, 25; Portrait of a Young Woman Playing a Prelude on a Piano by Pauline Auzou; The Family of Carlos IV and Witches' Sabbath by Francisco de Goya; Woman Grimacing in Mirror at Child on Floor by Japanese painter Kitagawa Utamaro (year approximate). Japanese painter Jokin (Jakucho Ito) dies at his native Kyoto October 27 at age 84, having gained a reputation for his realistic depictions of fish, flowers, and birds, most notably fowl (which he has kept at his home), receiving one to (about two bushels) of rice for every picture he sold.
Theater: Macbeth by Friedrich von Schiller 5/14 at Weimar's Hoftheater, in a German version of the 1606 Shakespearean tragedy; Maria Stuart by Schiller 6/14 at Weimar's Hoftheater (Schiller settled at Weimar late last year to be near his friend Goethe); Coelina; or, The Child of Mystery (Coelina, ou, l'enfant du mystère) by French melodramatist (René-Charles) Guilbert de Pixérécourt, 27, 9/2 at the Théâtre l'Ambigu-Comique, Paris.
Composer Niccolo Piccinni dies at Passy outside Paris May 7 at age 72.
First performances: Symphony No. 1 in C major by Ludwig van Beethoven 4/2 at Vienna's Hofburg Theater, in a concert that includes Beethoven's Septet in E flat major for Strings and Winds, Air and Duet from the Creation, and Improvisations on Haydn's Emperor Hymn; Concerto in C minor for Pianoforte and Orchestra by Beethoven 4/5 at Vienna's Theater-an-der-Wien.
Lord Nelson moves his mistress Emma, Lady Hamilton, to England (she has borne him a daughter, Horatia). Nelson's naval victories over the French have made him a national hero, but polite society is appalled by the relationship, viewing it as "a harlot's corruption of a great man." Lady Hamilton's husband will die in 1803, leaving her his fortune, and Lord Nelson will be killed in battle 2 years later (see 1812).
President Adams moves into the U.S. Executive Mansion at Washington, D.C., November 1, having arrived at the city after a 17-day journey from Massachusetts, but the only connection between the building's ground floor and upper floor is a twisting back stairway, only a few rooms are habitable, and fires must be kept burning in all the fireplaces because the plaster is not yet dry. Designed by James Hoban and built in 8 years largely with slave labor, the 36-room stone-faced President's House at what later will be 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue occupies an 18-acre site and has cost $250,000. It will remain the largest house in America for more than 65 years and ultimately grow to have more than 130 rooms, but the nation's capitol is still just a swampy, tree stump-lined area containing a half-finished Capitol building plus a few stores, hotels, and private houses (its major thoroughfare, Pennsylvania Avenue, is not yet paved but will eventually extend for seven miles). Adams writes to his wife, Abigail, "I pray to heaven to bestow the best blessings on this house and on all that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof." Abigail arrives 2 weeks later (she hangs her laundry in the unfinished East Room of what people will be calling the White House by 1809 because its white-grey sandstone exterior stands in sharp contrast to the red brick of other buildings in the neighborhood), but her husband's defeat at the polls has meant that they will occupy the Executive Mansion for only 4 months (see 1812; 1814).
An octagon-shaped house designed by architect-inventor William Thornton is completed at Washington, D.C., for Colonel John Tayloe (see 1814).
Congress convenes in November in the north wing of the Capitol building that has been built to designs by William Thornton and built with help from James Hoban (see Latrobe, 1803).
Passenger pigeons in America are estimated to number 5 billion and provide low-cost food in the Northwest Territory (see Josselyn, 1672; Wilson, 1810).
Sugar beets have a sugar content of roughly 6 percent; efforts begin to raise the figure by selective breeding (see Achard, 1793; Delessert, 1810).
British planters establish clove plantations at Penang on the Malayan Peninsula (see Zanzibar, 1818).
Famine in China increases the importance of root crops such as sweet potatoes, which become the staple food for tens of millions in parts of the country. Maize has been planted in large areas of western China, and white potatoes, too, are widely grown, having been propagated by French missionaries in the past century for planting on land too poor for maize. The Qing court continues to eat well while peasants go hungry.
Famine conditions in Britain force people to tighten their belts as they send off soldiers to fight the French.
Sifting (or bolting) of ground grain has changed radically in the course of this century, accelerating demand for bread made from finer, whiter flour.
Spode bone china is introduced at Stoke-on-Trent by English potter Josiah Spode II, 46, who perfects a formula for combining hard feldspar paste with the ashes of calcined cattle bones (see 1770). Others have used bone ash in porcelain since 1749, but with less success. English bone china will replace hard-paste porcelain, and by 1833 there will be more than 5,000 patterns in the Spode line, a number that will be sharply reduced in later years as Spode's bone china, Lowestoft, and earthenware gain wide popularity (his firm will become part of Royal Worcester).
The U.S. census shows a population of 5,096,908; the new U.S. capital at Washington, D.C., has 2,464 residents, 623 slaves.
Puerto Rico's population reaches 155,426, up from an estimated 45,000 in 1765, as a result of immigration from the Canary Islands, Santo Domingo, and Louisiana; the island has 34 towns, and its slave population reaches 13,333, up from 5,037 in 1765.
The world's population reaches 870 million (960 million by some estimates), with some 188 million of the total in Europe (see 1000; 1850).
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