1790s

1790s: events by year

Contents: 1790 1791 1792 1793 1794 1795 1796 1797 1798 1799

1790

January–June

• January 9 – U.S. President George Washington gives the first State of the Union Address.
• January 30 – The first boat specialized as a lifeboat is tested on the River Tyne.
• February 1 – In New York City the Supreme Court of the United States convenes for the first time.
• February 4 – Louis XVI of France declares to the National Assembly that he will maintain the constitutional laws.
• February 11 – Two Quaker delegates petition the United States Congress for the abolition of slavery.
• March 1 – The first United States census is authorized.
• 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.
• March 21 – Thomas Jefferson reports to President George Washington in New York as the new United States Secretary of State.

May 12: Battle of Reval.

• April 10 – The United States patent system is established.
• 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, 51 Swedes are killed, 250 captured, and 2 ships are sunk.
• May 29 – Rhode Island ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the last of the 13 original states to do so.
• June 9 – Royal Assent Given To The Town Of Milford Haven.
• 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.
• June 23 – The alleged London Monster is arrested in London: he later receives 40 years for 10 assaults.

July–December

• July – Louis XVI of France accepts a constitutional monarchy.
• 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 fleet: 304 Swedes are killed, 3,500 Russians killed and 6,000 captured, 51 Russian ships are sunk and 22 are taken.
• 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.
• July 14 – French Revolution: Citizens of Paris celebrate the constitutional monarchy and national reconciliation in the Fête de la Fédération.
• July 16 – The signing of the Residence Bill establishes a site along the Potomac River as the District of Columbia, the capital district of the United States
• July 27 – The Convention of Reichenbach is signed between Prussia and Austria.
• July 31 – Inventor Samuel Hopkins becomes the first to be issued a U.S. patent (for an improved method of making potash).
• 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.
• August 14 – The Treaty of Värälä ends the Russo-Swedish War.
• December 11 – Russo-Turkish War, 1787-1792: 26,000 Turkish soldiers lose their lives during Suvorov's storm of Izmail.

Date unknown

• Prime Minister of Great Britain William Pitt refuses to recognize Belgian independence.
• The first United States federal budget bill is introduced by Alexander Hamilton.
• The 1790 United States Census is taken.
• Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor starts to rule.

1791

January–June

• January 25 – The British Parliament passes the Constitutional Act of 1791, splitting the old province of Quebec into Upper and Lower Canada.
• March 2 – Long-distance communication speeds up with the unveiling of a semaphore machine in Paris.
• March 4 – Vermont is admitted as the 14th U.S. state.
• April 21 – The first of forty boundary stones delineating the borders of the new District of Columbia is laid at Jones Point Light, in Alexandria, Virginia.
• May 3 – The Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth proclaims the Constitution of May 3, 1791, the first modern codified constitution in Europe.
• June 20 – The French Royal Family is captured when they try to flee in disguise.

July–December

• July 8 – Composer Joseph Haydn awarded an honorary doctorate of music at Oxford University.
• July 14 – The Priestley Riots break out in Birmingham, England.
• July 17 – The Champ de Mars Massacre occurs during the French Revolution.
• August 4 – The Treaty of Sistova is signed, ending the Ottoman-Habsburg wars.
• August 6 – The Brandenburg Gate in Berlin is finished.
• August 26 – John Fitch is granted a patent for the steamboat in the United States.
• August 22 – A slave rebellion breaks out in the French colony of Saint-Domingue.
• September 13 – Louis XVI of France accepts the final version of the completed constitution.
• September 25 – Mission Santa Cruz is founded by Father Fermín Francisco de Lasuén, becoming the 12th mission in the California mission chain.
• September 28 – promulgation of the law on the emancipation of the french jews.
• September 30 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's singspiel Die Zauberflöte (Magic Flute) premieres in the Freihaustheater in Vienna.
• October – The Legislative Assembly (France) convenes.
• October 9 – Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad is founded by Father Fermín Francisco de Lasuén, becoming the 13th mission in the California mission chain.
• December 4 – The first issue of The Observer, the world's first Sunday newspaper, is published.
• December 5 – Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart dies.
• 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 unknown

• The first American ship reaches Japan.
• A slave rebellion begins in Haiti.
• An ordinance is written barring the game of baseball within 80 yards of the Meeting House in Pittsfield, Massachusetts (first known reference to the game of baseball in North America).
• The metric system is adopted in France.

1792

January–March

• January 9 – The Treaty of Jassy ends Russia's war with the Ottoman Empire over Crimea.
• February 20 – The Postal Service Act, establishing the United States Post Office Department, is signed by President George Washington.
• March 1 – Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor, the last emperor, takes office.
• March 16 – 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 succeeded by Gustav IV Adolf.
• March 20 – A new capital of North Carolina and county 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.

April–June

• April 2 – The Coinage Act is passed, establishing the United States Mint.
• 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.
• April 20 – France declares war against Austria.
• April 21 – Tiradentes, prime figure in the Inconfidência Mineira plot, is executed in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
• April 24 – The guillotine is first used experimentally in France.
• April 25
  • Highwayman Nicolas J. Pelletier becomes the first person executed by guillotine.
  • La Marseillaise, the French national anthem, is composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle.
• May 8 – The Revenue Commission is established.^[where?]
• May 11 – Captain Robert Gray becomes the first white man to enter the Columbia River.
• May 17 – The Buttonwood Agreement is signed, beginning the New York Stock Exchange.
• May 18 – War in defence of the constitution: Russia invades Poland.
• May 21 – An old lava dome collapses in Kyūshū, Japan when Mount Unzen volcano erupts; the resulting avalanche and tsunami kills about 14,300 people.
• June 1 – Kentucky becomes the 15th state of The United States of America.
• June 4 – Captain George Vancouver claims Puget Sound for Great Britain.
• June 13
  • Vancouver becomes the first European to enter Burrard Inlet.
  • Prussia declares war against France.

September 20: Battle of Valmy.

July–September

• August 10 – French Revolution: The Tuileries Palace is stormed, and Louis XVI of France is arrested and taken into custody.
• September – George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney sails from Portsmouth to China.
• September 2 – During what becomes known as the September Massacres of the French Revolution, rampaging mobs slaughter 3 Roman Catholic Church bishops and more than 200 priests.
• September 11 – Six men steal some of the former French Crown jewels from a warehouse where the revolutionary government had stored them.
• September 20 – Battle of Valmy: The French revolutionary army defeats Prussians under the Duke of Brunswick, after a 7-hour artillery duel.
• September 21 – The French Convention abolishes the monarchy and establishes the First Republic.
• September 22 – The Era of the historical French Republican Calendar begins.

October–December

• October 12 – The first Columbus Day celebration in the USA is held in New York, 300 years after his arrival in the New World.
• October 13 – Foundation of Washington, DC: The cornerstone of the United States Executive Mansion, known as the White House after 1818, is laid.
• October 29 – Mount Hood (Oregon) is named after the British naval officer Samuel Hood by Lt. William E. Broughton, who spots the mountain near the mouth of the Willamette River.
• December 3 – George Washington is re-elected President of the United States.
• December 26 – The trial of Louis XVI of France begins.

October 13: Washington, DC founded.

Date unknown

• The Baptist Missionary Society is founded in Kettering, England.
• Dominique-Jean Larrey, chief surgeon of the Grand Armee of France, creates the first ambulance wagons specifically designed as ambulances.
• Tipu Sultan invades Kerala in India, but is repulsed.
• Franz Xaver, Baron Von Zach, an astronomer, publishes The Tables of the Sun, an essential early work for navigation.
• Claude Chappe successfully demonstrates the first semaphore line, between Paris and Lille.
• William Murdoch begins experimenting with gas lighting.
• George Anschutz constructs the first blast furnace in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
• Thomas Holcroft produces the play Road to Ruin in London.
• Barthelemy Catherine Joubert, later general, becomes sub-lieutenant.
• Johann Georg Albrechtberger becomes Kapellmeister in Vienna.
• The State Street Corporation is founded.
• Shiloh Meeting House, predecessor of Shiloh United Methodist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, is founded.
• Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is published.

October 29: Mount Hood is named.

• The first written examinations in Europe are held at Cambridge University, England.

1793

January–June

• January 2 – Russia and Prussia partition the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
• January 9 – Jean-Pierre Blanchard becomes the first to fly in a gas balloon in the United States.
• January 21 – After being found guilty of treason by the French Convention, Citizen Capet, (a.k.a., Louis XVI of France) is guillotined.^[1]
• February 1 – France declares war on Great Britain and the Netherlands (see French Revolutionary Wars).
• February 25 – George Washington holds the first Cabinet meeting as President of the United States.
• 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.
• March 1 – John Langdon becomes President Pro Tempore of the United States Senate until March 3.
• March 4 – George Washington is sworn in as President of the United States in Philadelphia, for his second term.
• March 5 – French troops are defeated by Austrian forces and Liège is recaptured.
• March 7 – France declares war on Spain.
• March 18 – The first republican state in Germany, the Republic of Mainz, is declared by Andreas Joseph Hofmann.
• April 1 – The Unsen volcano erupts in Japan and causes an earthquake; about 53,000 are killed.
• April 6 – The Committee of Public Safety is established in France with Georges Danton as its head.
• April 25 – The pioneer parishes of New Orleans and Louisiana were erected as well as incorporated into the Diocese of Louisiana and the Two Floridas
• April 22 – George Washington signs the Neutrality Proclamation.
• May 31 – Regular troops under François Hanriot demand that the Girondins be expelled from the national convention.
• June – George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney reaches Canton, China.
• June 2 – The Girondins are overthrown.
• June 10 – 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 also becomes the first public zoo.

July–December

• July 9 – The Act Against Slavery is passed in Upper Canada.
• July 13 – Charlotte Corday kills Jean-Paul Marat in his bath.
• July 17 – Charlotte Corday is executed.
• July 22 – Alexander Mackenzie reaches the Pacific Ocean.
• July 29 – John Graves Simcoe decides to build a fort and settlement at Toronto, having sailed into the bay there.
• August 10 – French Revolution – Feast of Unity: Crowds in Paris burn monarchist emblems.
• August 23 – 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."
• September 5 – In France, the French National Convention votes to implement terror measures to repress 'counter-revolutionary' activities. The ensuing Reign of Terror lasts until the spring of 1794 and causes the deaths of 35,000–40,000 people.
• September 18 – President George Washington sets the foundation stone for the Capitol building.
• October 12 – The cornerstone of Old East, the oldest state university building in the United States, is laid in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on the campus of the University of North Carolina (the 12th of October is now celebrated at the University as University Day).
• October 14 – The trial of Marie Antoinette begins.
• October 15 – Marie Antoinette is condemned to death.
• October 16 – Marie Antoinette is executed.
• October 24 – The French Republican Calendar is officially adopted.
• October 28 – Eli Whitney applies for a patent for his cotton gin (the patent is granted the following March).
• October 31 – Arrested Girondist leaders are executed in France, by guillotine.
• November 8 – In Paris, the French Revolutionary government opens the Louvre to the public as a museum.
• December 8 – Madame du Barry is executed.
• December 9 – New York City's first daily newspaper, the American Minerva, is established by Noah Webster.
• 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 is HMS Lutine, a famous treasure ship.

Date unknown

• The British admiralty begins supplying citrus juice to Navy ships to prevent scurvy.
• In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania more than 4,000 die from yellow fever.
• Roman Catholicism is banned in France.
• The First Coalition against France is formed.
• The Holy Roman Empire declares war on France.
• The metric system is adopted in France.
• As part of their campaign against France, the British invade Haiti and take all of its coastal cities.
• The Al Bu Falah move to Abu Dhabi.
• The first year of regular production begins for the United States Mint and the half cent is minted for the first time.
• Niccolò Paganini debuts as a violin virtuoso at age 11.

1794

January–June

• February 4 – The French Republic abolishes slavery.
• February 11 – The first session of the United States Senate is open to the public.
• March 11 – Canonsburg Academy (now Washington & Jefferson College) was chartered by the General Assembly on March 11, 1794.^[2]
• March 14 – Eli Whitney is granted a patent for the cotton gin.
• March 27 – The United States Government authorizes the building of the first 6 United States Navy vessels (in 1797 the first 3 frigates, USS United States, USS Constellation and USS Constitution go into service), not to be confused with October 13, 1775 which is observed as the Navy's Birthday.
• April 5 – Georges Danton is executed.
• April 30 – Battle of Boulou: The French defeat the Spanish and Portuguese forces.
• May 8 – French chemist Antoine Lavoisier is executed by guillotine.
• May 18 – Battle of Tourcoing: French troops defeat British forces.
• May 28 – June 1 – The Glorious First of June (Battle of Ushant): British and French ships battle to a draw.
• June 4 – British troops capture Port-au-Prince in Haiti.
• 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.

July–December

• July 12 – Horatio Nelson loses the sight in his right eye at Calvi in Corsica.
• July 27 – (9 Thermidor) – Maximilien Robespierre is arrested. Executed the next day.
• September 10 – The University of Tennessee is established at Knoxville.
• October – A Federal army quells the Whiskey Rebellion in the United States.
• November 14 – The first recorded meeting of the Franklin Literary Society was held at Canonsburg Academy (now Washington & Jefferson College).^[3]

Date unknown

• Coffee is forbidden by royal decree in Sweden.
• France occupies Aachen.
• The Ayrshire (Earl of Carrick's Own) Yeomanry, a British Yeomanry Cavalry Regiment, is formed by the Earl of Cassillis at Culzean Castle, Ayrshire.
• The Reign of Terror ends.
• Colombian Antonio Nariño translates and publishes the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen.
• 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.

1795

January–June

• January 14 – The University of North Carolina (renamed The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1963) opens to students, becoming the first state university in the United States.
• January 16 – The French occupy Utrecht, Netherlands.
• January 17 – Revolution breaks out in Amsterdam.
• January 19 – The Batavian Republic is proclaimed.
• January 20 – French troops enter Amsterdam.
• January 21 – The Dutch fleet, frozen in IJsselmeer, is captured by the French 8th Hussars.^{[citation needed]}
• February 7 – The 11th Amendment to the United States Constitution is passed.
• April 5 – Peace of Basel signed between France and Prussia.
• April 7 – France adopts the metre as the unit of length.
• April 8 – George, Prince of Wales marries Caroline of Brunswick.
• May 1 – Battle of Nu'uanu: 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.
• May 15 – First Coalition: Napoleon I of France enters Milan in triumph.
• May–June – The Battle of Richmond Hill is fought in the colony of New South Wales, between the Darug people and British colonial forces.
• June 5 – The Copenhagen fire of 1795 starts in a naval warehouse.
• June 7 – The Copenhagen fire of 1795 dies out after destroying 941 houses.
• June 8 – The Dauphin, would-be-Louis XVII, dies. Louis XVIII becomes titular king of France (he becomes actual king of France on April 6, 1814).
• June 28 – The French government announces that the heir to the French throne has died of illness (many doubt the statement).
• June 27
  • Mary Robinson writes the poem January, 1795.
  • British forces land off Quiberon to aid the revolt in Brittany.
  • French troops recapture St. Lucia.

July–December

• July 25 – Construction of the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct in Wales begins.
• August 3 – The signature of the Treaty of Greenville puts an end to the Northwest Indian War.
• September 11 – Battle of Krtsanisi.
• September 21 – Battle of the Diamond: Protestant forces defeat Catholic troops in Loughgall, Ireland, leading to the foundation of the Orange Order.
• October 1 – Austrian Netherlands is annexed to the French Republic as the Belgian departments.
• October 5 – Royalist riots in Paris are crushed by troops under Paul Barras and newly reinstalled artillery officer Napoleon Bonaparte.
• October 24 – The Third Partition of Poland is made.
• October 27 – The United States and Spain sign the Treaty of Madrid, which establishes the boundaries between Spanish colonies and the United States.
• December 13 – A meteorite falls at Wold Newton, a hamlet in Yorkshire in England. This meteorite fall is subsequently used as a literary premise by the science fiction writer Philip José Farmer as the basis for the Wold Newton family stories (see Wold Newton meteorite).

Date unknown

• Sweden becomes the first monarchy to recognize the French Republic.
• The Hudson's Bay Company trading post Fort Edmonton is constructed; the city of Edmonton, Alberta eventually grows from it.
• The harvest fails in Munich.
• A large slave rebellion occurs in Curaçao.
• Spain cedes its half of Hispaniola to France.
• Sans-culottes revolt in France.
• Daniel McGinnis discovers the famed money pit on Oak Island, Nova Scotia.

1796

January–June

• 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).
• February 1 – The capital of Upper Canada is moved from Newark to York.
• February 9 – The Qianlong Emperor abdicates at age 84 to make way for his son, the Jiaqing Emperor.
• March 9 – Widow Joséphine de Beauharnais marries General Napoléon Bonaparte.
• March 30 – Carl Gauss obtains conditions for the constructibility by ruler and compass of regular polygons, and is able to announce that the regular 17-gon is constructible by ruler and compasses.

March 9: Joséphine de Beauharnais, wife of Napoleon Bonaparte

• April 2 – The only night of the would-be Shakespearean play Vortigern and Rowena (actually written by William Henry Ireland) ends in the audience's laughter.
• April 12 – War of the First Coalition – Battle of Montenotte: Napoleon Bonaparte gains his first victory as an army commander.
• April 27 – Case of the Lyons Mail: During the night of April 27, 5 highwaymen attack the mail between Paris and Lyon, kill the postmen, and steal the funds sent to the armies in Italy.
• May 10
  • Persian Expedition of 1796: Russian troops storm Derbent.
  • War of the First Coalition – Battle of Lodi: General Napoleon Bonaparte defeats Austrian rearguard in forcing a crossing of the bridge over the River Adda in Italy. The Austrians lose some 2,000 men, 14 guns, and 30 ammunition wagons.
• May 14 – Edward Jenner administers the first smallpox vaccination.
• May 15 – Napoleon's troops take Milan.
• May 20 – The last mock Garrat Elections are held in Surrey, England.
• June 1 – Tennessee is admitted as the 16th U.S. state.

July–December

• July 10 – Carl Friedrich Gauss discovers that every positive integer is representable as a sum of at most 3 triangular numbers.
• July 11 – The United States takes possession of Detroit from Great Britain under the terms of the Jay Treaty.
• July 21 – Mungo Park reaches Ségou, the capital of the Bamana Empire.
• July 22 – Surveyors of the Connecticut Land Company name an area in Ohio "Cleveland" after Gen. Moses Cleaveland, the superintendent of the surveying party.
• August 9 – Opening to traffic of the Wearmouth Bridge in England, designed by Thomas Paine in cast iron. Its span of 72 m (237 feet) makes it the world's longest single-span vehicular bridge extant at this date.^[4][5][6]
• September 8 – French Revolutionary Wars – Battle of Bassano: French forces defeat Austrian troops.
• September 17 – U.S. President George Washington issues his Farewell Address, which warns against partisan politics and foreign entanglements.
• November 3 – John Adams defeats Thomas Jefferson in the U.S. presidential election.
• November 4 – The Treaty of Tripoli (between the United States and Tripoli) is signed at Tripoli (see also 1797).
• November 6 (O.S.) – Catherine II of Russia (called Catherine The Great) dies and is succeeded by her son Paul I of Russia. His wife Sophie Marie Dorothea of Württemberg becomes Empress consort.
• November 17 – French Revolutionary Wars – Battle of Arcole: French forces defeat the Austrians in Italy.
• December 7 – The U.S. Electoral College meets to elect John Adams president.

Date unknown

• Jane Austen writes her first draft of Pride and Prejudice, under the title First Impressions. The book will not be published until 1813.
• The British government purchases a 40-acre (162,000 m²) site at Norman Cross (the first purposely built prisoner of war camp in Britain at that time).
• The British seize Ceylon from the Dutch.
• Annual British iron production reaches 125,000 tons.
• 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.

1797

January–June

• January 1 – The first New Year's Eve Party with the invention of confetti and party hats is held.^{[citation needed]}
• January 3 – The Treaty of Tripoli (a peace treaty between the United States and Tripoli) is signed at Algiers (see also 1796).
• January 7 – The parliament of the Cisalpine Republic adopts the Italian green-white-red tricolour as the official flag (this is considered the birth of the flag of Italy).
• January 15 – London haberdasher John Hetherington wears a silk top hat in public and attracts a large crowd of onlookers. He is later fined £500 for causing a public nuisance.
• February 14 – The Battle of Cape St. Vincent (1797), part of the Wars of the French Revolution.
• February 18 – Spanish Governor José Maria Chacón peacefully surrenders the colony of Trinidad to a British naval force commanded by Sir Ralph Abercromby.
• February 22 – The Last invasion of Britain begins. French forces under the command of American Colonel William Tate land near Fishguard in Wales.
• February 25 – William Tate surrenders to the British at Fishguard.
• February 26 – The Bank of England (national bank of Britain) issues the first one-pound and two-pound notes (discontinued March 11, 1988).
• March 4 – John Adams is sworn in as the 2nd President of the United States of America.
• April 16 – Spithead and Nore mutinies.
• April 17 – Sir Ralph Abercromby unsuccessfully invades San Juan, Puerto Rico in what will be one of the largest British attacks on Spanish territories in the western hemisphere, and one of the worst defeats of the English navy for years to come.
• May 10 – The first ship of the United States Navy, the frigate USS UNITED STATES, is commissioned.
• May 12 – First Coalition: Napoleon I of France conquers Venice, ending the city's 1,100 years of independence. The last doge of Venice, Ludovico Manin, steps down.
• May 30 – William Wilberforce marries Barbara Ann Spooner.

July–December

• July 24 – Horatio Nelson is wounded at the Battle of Santa Cruz, losing an arm.
• October 17 – The Treaty of Campo Formio ends the War of the First Coalition.
• October 21 – In Boston Harbor, the 44-gun United States Navy frigate USS Constitution is launched to fight Barbary pirates off the coast of Tripoli.
• December 17 – Napoleon leads a successful French charge against Fort l'Aiguilette to secure Toulon.

Date unknown

• Joseph Haydn composes the music to Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser, the tune of which also became the music to the German national anthem, Deutschland, Deutschland über alles.
• The XYZ Affair inflames tensions between France and the United States.
• Foundation of the Lautaro Lodge by Francisco de Miranda, membership will include many independence leaders such as Bernardo O'Higgins and José de San Martín.

1798

January–June

• January 22 – A coup d'état is staged in the Netherlands (Batavian Republic). Unitarian Democrat Pieter Vreede makes an end to the power of the parliament (with a conservative-moderate majority).
• February 10 – The papacy is removed from power by French General Louis Alexandre Berthier.
• March 5 – French troops enter Bern.
• March 7 – French forces invade the Papal States and establish the Roman Republic.
• April 7 – The Mississippi Territory is organized by the United States from territory ceded by Georgia and South Carolina; later it is twice expanded to include disputed territory claimed by both the U.S. and Spain (which acquired territory in trade with Great Britain).
• April 12 – Helvetic Republic, a French client republic, proclaimed following collapse of the Old Swiss Confederacy on French invasion.
• April 26 – France annexes Geneva.
• May 23 – Irish republicans and nationalists, known as the Society of United Irishmen, launch a rebellion against British rule in expectation of support from France. The United Irishmen are unique amongst Irish nationalist movements in that they unify Catholics and Protestants around republican ideals. The rebellion rages sporadically but is defeated by the British by October.
• June 12
  • The French take Malta.
  • A moderate coup d'état in the Netherlands (Batavian Republic) deposes Pieter Vreede.
• June 13 – Mission San Luis Rey de Francia is founded.

July–December

• July 1 – Napoleon's troops land in Egypt.
• July 7 – Quasi-War: The United States Congress rescinds treaties with France, sparking the war.
• July 11 – The United States Marine Corps is re/established.
• July 12 – Battle of Chobrakit between French and Mamelukes, during Napoleon's march from Alexandria to take Cairo.
• July 14 – The Alien and Sedition Acts become United States law, making it a federal crime to write, publish, or utter false or malicious statements about the United States government.
• July 16 – The Relief of Sick and Disabled Seamen Act is signed into law, creating the Marine Hospital Service, the forerunner to the current United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.
• July 21 – Battle of the Pyramids: Napoleon defeats Ottoman forces near the Pyramids.
• July 24 – Napoleon occupies Cairo.
• July 31 – A second round of elections are held in the Netherlands (Batavian Republic); no general elections this time.

August 1: Battle of the Nile.

• August 1 – Battle of the Nile (near Abu Qir): Lord Nelson defeats the French navy under Admiral Brueys; Nelson himself is wounded in the head.
• August 22 – French troops land at Kilcummin in County Mayo to assist the Irish rebellion.
• September – Charles Brockden Brown publishes the first significant American novel, the Gothic fiction Wieland: or, The Transformation; an American Tale.
• September 10 – Battle of St. George's Caye: Off the coast of British Honduras (now Belize), a group of British nationals and African slaves defeat a force sent from Mexico to drive them out.
• September 18 – Lyrical Ballads is published anonymously by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth.

Date unknown

• The first (anonymous) publication occurs of An Essay on the Principle of Population by Thomas Malthus.
• Aarau becomes the temporary capital of the Helvetic Republic.
• Alois Senefelder invents lithography.
• Eli Whitney contracts with the U.S. federal government for 10,000 rifles, which he produces with interchangeable parts.
• The first census in Brazil counts 2 million blacks in a total population of 3.25 million.
• The Ayrshire (Earl of Carrick's Own) Yeomanry, a British Yeomanry Cavalry Regiment, formed by The Earl of Cassillis at Culzean Castle, Ayrshire in 1794, is adopted onto the British Army List.

1799

January–June

• January 9 – British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger introduces an income tax of two shillings to the pound to raise funds for Great Britain's war effort in the Napoleonic Wars.
• March 1 – Federalist James Ross becomes President Pro Tempore of the United States Senate.
• March 7 – Napoleon captures Jaffa in Palestine and his troops proceed to kill more than 2,000 Albanian captives.
• March 22 – Roddy McCorley is executed in the town of Toomebridge by the British for his part in the Irish Rebellion of 1798.
• March 29 – New York passes a law aimed at gradually abolishing slavery in the state.
• May 4 – Battle of Seringapatam: Tippu Sultan is defeated and killed by the British.
• May 21 – Siege of Acre ends after two months: Napoleon's attempt to widen his Middle Eastern campaign into Syria is frustrated by Ottoman forces, and he withdraws to Egypt.
• May 27 – Battle of Winterthur: Habsburg forces secure control of north east Switzerland from the French Army of the Danube.

July–December

The Rosetta Stone

• July 7 – Ranjit Singh's men take their positions outside Lahore.
• July 12 – Ranjit Singh the Great conquers Lahore and becomes ruler of the Punjab.
• July 15 – In the Egyptian port city of Rosetta, French Captain Pierre Bouchard finds the Rosetta Stone.
• July 25 – At Aboukir in Egypt, Napoleon Bonaparte defeats 10,000 Ottoman Mamluk troops under Mustafa Pasha.
• August 27 – The British and Russians send an expedition to the Batavian Republic (now the Netherlands).
• August 30 – British forces under Sir Ralph Abercromby and Admiral Sir Charles Mitchell capture the entire Dutch fleet.
• October 6 – Battle of Castricum: Franco-Dutch forces defeat the Russo-British expedition force.
• October 9 – The HMS Lutine (a famous treasure wreck) is sunk.
• October 18 – Anglo-Russian expedition forces surrender in Holland.
• November 9 – Napoleon overthrows the French Directory.
• December
  • A new constitution is approved in a plebiscite in France.
  • Napoleon becomes First Consul.
• December 14 – George Washington, the first President of the United States, dies in Mount Vernon, Virginia.

Date unknown

• The Place Royale in Paris is renamed Place des Vosges when the Department of Vosges becomes the first to pay new Revolutionary taxes.
• The American system of manufacturing is invented.
• The small town of Tignish, PE, Canada is founded.
• 12-year-old Conrad John Reed finds what he describes as a "heavy yellow rock" along Little Meadow Creek in Cabarrus County, North Carolina and makes it a doorstop in his home. Conrad's father John Reed learns that the rock is actually gold in 1802, initiating the first gold rush in the United States.
• The assassination of the 14th Tu'i Kanokupolu, Tukuʻaho, plunges Tonga into half a century of civil war.
• The Nawab (provincial governor) of Oudh in northern India sends to George III of England the Padshah Nama, an official history of the reign of Shah Jahan.
• William Cockerill begins building cotton-spinning equipment in Belgium.
• Dutch government takes over Dutch East India Company.

Significant people

Births

Deaths

References