Events in History
- Jan 21 1st American novel, WH Brown's "Power of Sympathy" is published
- Jan 23 Georgetown, 1st US Catholic college, founded
Election of Interest
Feb 4 1st US electoral college chooses George Washington as President and John Adams as Vice-President
George Washington
John Adams
Constitution of the United States
Mar 4 1st US Congress meets and declares constitution in effect (9 senators, 13 reps)
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- Mar 4 US House of Representatives 1st full meeting, NYC, F Muhlenberg 1st speaker
Event of Interest
Mar 11 Benjamin Banneker and Pierre Charles L'Enfant begin to lay out Washington, D.C.
Benjamin Banneker
Pierre Charles L'Enfant
- Apr 4 1st US Congress begins regular sessions during George Washington's presidency at Federal Hall, NYC (ending 1791)
- Apr 16 George Washington heads for 1st presidential inauguration
Event of Interest
Apr 21 John Adams sworn in as 1st US Vice President (9 days before Washington)
John Adams
- Apr 23 President-elect George Washington moves into Franklin House, New York
Mutiny On The Bounty
Apr 28 Fletcher Christian leads a mutiny on HMS Bounty against its captain William Bligh in the South Pacific
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- Apr 30 George Washington is inaugurated as the first President of the United States of America
- May 5 French Estates-General meets for the first time since 1614 at Versailles, summoned King Louis XVI
- May 7 First US Presidential inaugural ball (for George Washington in NYC)
- May 12 Society of St Tammany is formed by Revolutionary War soldiers. It later becomes an infamous group of NYC political bosses
Britain Abolishes the Slave Trade
May 12 William Wilberforce makes his first major speech on abolition in the UK House of Commons, reasoning the slave trade morally reprehensible and an issue of natural justice
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Bill of Rights
Jun 8 James Madison introduces a proposed Bill of Rights in the US House of Representatives
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Event of Interest
Jun 14 Captain William Bligh and his loyal men cast off from HMS Bounty reach Timor, after sailing 5,800 km in a 6-metre launch
William Bligh
- Jun 17 French Revolution: During the meeting of the Estates-General, the Third Estate proclaims itself the 'National Assembly'
Tennis Court Oath
Jun 20 French Revolution: The Third Estate of the French Estates-General swears the Tennis Court Oath at the Palace of Versailles, swearing not to disband until a new constitution is formed
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- Jun 23 French King Louis XVI rejects the demands of the Third Estate, calling itself the National Assembly, during the opening stages of the French Revolution
- Jun 27 French Revolution: King Louis XVI orders the nobility and clergy of the Estates-General to meet with the Third Estate, by then called the National Assembly
- Jul 4 1st US tariff act signed by President Washington
- Jul 6 French Revolution: the National Assembly forms a committee of thirty members to write a new constitution
- Jul 9 French Revolution: the National Assembly renames itself the National Constituent Assembly
- Jul 11 French King Louis XVI dismisses finance minister Jacques Necker, sparking riots in Paris
Bastille Day
Jul 14 Bastille Day - the French Revolution begins with the fall of the Bastille Prison
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- Jul 15 Gilbert du Motier, marquis de La Fayette, is named by acclamation colonel-general of the new National Guard of Paris
Event of Interest
Jul 16 French King Louis XVI reinstates Jacques Necker as finance minister following riots at his dismissal
Jacques Necker
Louis XVI
- Jul 27 US Congress establishes Department of Foreign Affairs now referred to as the State Department
- Aug 1 US Customs begins enforcing Tariff Act
- Aug 4 French Revolution: The National Constituent Assembly meets and issues the first decrees that abolish centuries of feudalism in France
- Aug 7 US Congress creates the Department of War and the United States Lighthouse Establishment
- Aug 23 French Revolution: The National Assembly proclaims freedom of religious opinions
- Aug 24 French Revolution: The National Assembly proclaims freedom of speech
- Aug 26 The National Constituent Assembly adopts the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen at the beginning of the French Revolution
- Aug 27 French National Assembly issues the "Declaration of Rights of Man and Citizen"
Historic Discovery
Aug 28 William Herschel discovers Saturn's moon Enceladus
William Herschel
- Sep 2 US Treasury Department established by Congress
Event of Interest
Sep 11 Alexander Hamilton appointed 1st Secretary of the US Treasury
Alexander Hamilton
Historic Publication
Sep 12 Jean-Paul Marat publishes the first issue of his radical newspaper Le Publiciste parisien, later called L'Ami du peuple (The Friend of the People) in Paris
Jean-Paul Marat
- Sep 13 1st loan to US government (from NYC banks)
- Sep 15 US Department of Foreign Affairs, renamed Department of State
- Sep 17 William Herschel discovers Mimas, satellite of Saturn
- Sep 18 1st loan is made to pay salaries of the presidents & Congress
- Sep 22 US Congress passes act requiring the first Postmaster General to report to the President through the Secretary of the Treasury
- Sep 24 US Congress establishes Post Office Department following the new constitution
- Sep 24 US Federal Judiciary Act passes, creating a six-person Supreme Court
Event of Interest
Sep 26 Thomas Jefferson appointed 1st US Secretary of State; John Jay becomes 1st US Chief Justice
Thomas Jefferson
John Jay
- Sep 26 Edmund J Randolph becomes 1st US Attorney General
- Sep 29 US War Department established a regular army
- Oct 2 George Washington transmits the proposed Constitutional amendments (The United States Bill of Rights) to the States for ratification
- Oct 3 Washington proclaims 1st national Thanksgiving Day on Nov 26
Women's March on Versailles
Oct 5 French Revolution: Women of Paris march to Versailles in the March on Versailles to confront Louis XVI about his refusal to promulgate the decrees on the abolition of feudalism, demand bread, and have the King and his court moved to Paris
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- Oct 6 French Revolution: Louis XVI returns to Paris from Versailles after being confronted by the Parisian women on 5 October
- Oct 12 French Revolution: King Louis XVI writes secretly to the King of Spain about complaining of harsh treatment; the Count of Artois writes to the Austrian king requesting military intervention in France
- Oct 15 1st presidential tour-George Washington in New England
- Oct 21 French Revolution: The National Assembly declares martial law in France to prevent uprisings
- Nov 5 Fleeing slaves under Bonni attack military post on Suriname
- Nov 5 French National Meeting declares all citizens equal under law
- Nov 8 Bourbon Whiskey 1st distilled from corn by Elijah Craig in Bourbon, Kentucky
Event of Interest
Nov 13 Benjamin Franklin writes "Nothing . . . certain but death & taxes"
Benjamin Franklin
Birthdays in History
- Jan 3 Carl Gustav Carus, German physiologist & painter, born in Leipzig, Germany (d. 1869)
- Jan 4 Benjamin Lundy, philanthropist/abolitionist
- Jan 17 August Neander, German theologian (d. 1850)
- Feb 9 Franz Xaver Gabelsberger, German inventor of the stenography (d. 1849)
- Mar 4 Pavel P Gagarin, Russ monarch
- Mar 16 Georg Ohm, German physicist and mathematician (Ohm's law), born in Erlangen, Bavaria (d. 1854)
- May 28 Bernhard Severin Ingemann, Danish author (Tomorrow- og Aftensange), born in Torkilstrup, Denmark (d. 1862)
- Jun 15 Josiah Henson, American slave and settlement founder (d. 1883)
- Jun 30 Horace Vernet, French painter of battles and Orientalist subjects, born in Paris (d. 1863)
- Jul 6 María Isabella of Spain, Queen of the Two Sicilies (1825-30), born in Royal Palace of Madrid, Spain (d. 1848)
- Jul 19 John Martin, English painter and engraver, born in Haydon Bridge, Northumberland, England (d. 1854)
- Aug 21 Augustin-Louis Cauchy, French mathematician and physicist, born in Paris (d. 1857)
- Aug 26 Abbas Mirza, Prince of Persia (d. 1833)
- Aug 28 Stéphanie de Beauharnais, Grand Duchess of Baden, born in Versailles, France (d. 1860)
- Sep 9 William Cranch Bond, American astronomer (codiscovered Hyperion), born in Falmouth, Maine (d. 1859)
James Fenimore Cooper
Sep 15 James Fenimore Cooper, 1st major American novelist (Last of Mohicans), born in Burlington, New Jersey
James Fenimore Cooper
- Sep 28 Richard Bright, English physician (Bright's Disease/nephritis), born in Bristol, England (d. 1858)
- Oct 3 Francis Gregory, American Rear Admiral (Union Navy), born in Norwalk, Connecticut (d. 1866)
- Oct 8 John Ruggles, American politician, born in Westborough, Massachusetts (d. 1874)
- Oct 8 William John Swainson, English naturalist and artist, born in Newington, London (d. 1855)
- Oct 14 Constant van Crombrugghe, Flemish monastery founder, born in Geraardsbergen, Belgium (d. 1865)
- Oct 16 William Burton, Governor of Delaware (1859-63) (d. 1866)
- Oct 24 Jean Chrétien Baud, Dutch gov-gen of Dutch-Indies (1834-36), born in The Hague, Netherlands (d. 1859)
Weddings in History
Wedding of Interest
Oct 26 Lexicographer Noah Webster (31) weds Rebecca Greenleaf
Noah Webster
Deaths in History
Ethan Allen
Feb 12 Ethan Allen, American Revolutionary War patriot (lead the Green Mountain Boys), dies of an apoplectic fit at 51
Ethan Allen
- Feb 19 Nicholas Van Dyke, American lawyer and President of Delaware, dies at 50
- Apr 7 Peter Camper, anatomist/animal scholar, dies at 66
- Apr 7 Abd-ul-Hamid I, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1725)
- Apr 26 Peter Ivanovich Panin, Russian general (Pugatshov-uprising), dies at ~67
- May 25 Anders Dahl, Swedish botanist (b. 1751)
- Jun 12 Jean E Liotard [Turk], Swiss painter (Maria-Theresia), dies
- Jul 4 Cláudio Manuel da Costa, Brazilian poet, dies at 59
- Jul 13 Victor de Riqueti, marquis de Mirabeau, French economist, dies at 73
- Jul 14 Jacques de Flesselles, French provost (assassinated) (b. 1721)
- Jul 14 Bernard-René de Launay, governor of the Bastille, murdered during the Storming of the Bastille (b.1740)
- Jul 22 Joseph-François Foulon, French politician, dies at 74
- Aug 25 Mary Ball Washington, mother of George, dies
- Sep 23 John Rogers, American Continental Congressman (b. 1723)
- Sep 28 Thomas Day, author, killed by fall from a horse at Wargrave Berkshire
- Oct 15 John Morgan, American physician-in-chief of Continental Army and co-founder of the Medical College at the University of Pennsylvania, the first medical school in Colonial America, dies at 54
- Oct 24 Lucretia Wilhelmina van Merken, Dutch poet, dies at 68
- Oct 27 John Cook, American farmer and Governor of Delaware (b. 1730)
- Dec 3 Claude-Joseph Vernet, French painter, dies at 75
- Dec 12 John Ponsonby, Irish politician, dies at 76
- Dec 23 Charles-Michel de l'Épée, French philanthropist and developer of 'Signed French', dies at 77