Events in History
- Jan 11 U.S. Marshal Robert Forsyth is killed in Augusta, Georgia, trying to serve court papers, first US marshal to die carrying out his duties
- Jan 13 Congress changes US flag to 15 stars & 15 stripes
- Jan 14 Dr Jessee Bennet of Edom, Virginia, performs 1st successful Cesarean section operation in the US on his wife
- Feb 4 French National Convention proclaims abolishment of slavery
- Feb 11 1st session of US Senate open to the public
- Feb 14 1st US textile machinery patent granted, to James Davenport, Philadelphia
- Feb 26 Christiansborg Castle, Copenhagen burns down
- Feb 28 US Senate voids Pennsylvania's election of Abraham Gallatin
- Mar 3 Richard Allen founded African Methodist Episcopal Church
- Mar 12 Theatre Royal in London's Dury Lane opens after being rebuilt
Historic Invention
Mar 14 Eli Whitney patents the cotton gin machine revolutionizing the cotton industry in the southern US states
Eli Whitney
- Mar 22 Congress bans US vessels from supplying slaves to other countries
- Mar 23 Josiah Pierson patents a "cold-header" (rivet) machine
- Mar 23 Lt-general Tadeusz Kosciuszko returns to Poland
- Mar 27 The United States Government establishes a permanent navy and authorizes the building of six frigates.
- Mar 27 Denmark and Sweden form a neutrality compact
- Mar 28 Louvre opens to the public (although officially opened since August)
- Mar 28 Allies under the prince of Coburg defeat French forces at Le Cateau
- Apr 21 NYC formally declares coast of Ellis Island publicly owned, so they can build forts to protect NYC from British
- Apr 30 The Battle of Boulou is fought, in which French forces defeated the Spanish under General Union.
- May 6 Haiti, under Toussaint L'Ouverture, revolts against France
- May 17 Hard frost in southern New England
- May 18 Second Battle of Bouvines (France-Austria)
- Jun 1 Glorious First of June; first naval battle between Britain (under Admiral Lord Howe) and France (Vice-Admiral Louis Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse) during French Revolutionary Wars. Britain gains tactical win.
- Jun 5 US Congress passes the Neutrality Act, banning Americans from serving in foreign armed forces
- Jun 10 Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia forms
- Jun 10 France revolutionary regime begins trials
- Jun 16 1st stone laid at biggest Dutch grain windmill De Walvisch in Schiedam
Event of Interest
Jun 23 Russian Empress Catherine II (Catherine the Great) grants Jews permission to settle in Kiev
Catherine the Great
Battle of Fleurus
Jun 26 Battle of Fleurus: major victory by forces of the First French Republic under General Jean-Baptiste Jourdan over the Coalition Army (Great Britain, Hanover, Dutch Republic, and Habsburgs) first use of reconnaissance balloon
More >>
Coup d'état
Jul 27 Maximilien Robespierre is overthrown in a coup in Paris
Maximilien Robespierre
- Jul 28 French Revolution figure Robespierre & 22 other leaders of "the Terror" guillotined to thunderous cheers in Paris
- Jul 29 African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas in Philadelphia, dedicated
- Jul 31 All Jacobijnse clubs together in Haarlem
- Aug 1 Whiskey Rebellion begins in western Pennsylvania
- Aug 8 Joseph Whidbey and George Vancouver lead an expedition to search for the Northwest Passage near Juneau, Alaska
- Aug 16 Hungarian revolutionary Ignác Martinovics arrested in Vienna
- Aug 20 Gen "Mad Anthony" Wayne defeated the Indians at Fallen Timbers, Ohio
- Aug 26 French troops occupy Lock
Event of Interest
Sep 21 French National Convention orders the remains of Comte de Mirabeau be removed from the Panthéon after his double-dealings with court revealed
Comte de Mirabeau
- Sep 27 French troops conquer Crèvecoeur
- Oct 9 French troops occupy Hertogenbosch
- Oct 29 French troops occupies Venlo
- Oct 31 John Dalton's first lecture to Manchester Literary/Philosophical Society
- Nov 3 French troops conquer Maastricht
- Nov 7 French troops conquer Nijmegen
- Nov 9 Russian troops occupy Warsaw
- Nov 19 Jakobin Club forms in Paris
- Nov 19 Jay Treaty, first US extradition treaty, signed with Great Britain
- Nov 21 Honolulu Harbor discovered
- Nov 22 Strasbourg Alsace-Lorraine, prohibits circumcision and wearing of beards
- Dec 8 1st issue of Herald of Rutland, VT published
- Dec 15 Revolutionary Tribunal abolished in France
- Dec 30 French troops conquer Grave Neth
Birthdays in History
- Jan 25 François-Vincent Raspail, French chemist (d. 1878)
- Feb 20 William Carleton, Irish novelist (d. 1869)
- Feb 21 Antonio López de Santa Anna, President of Mexico who dominated Mexican history in the first half of the 19th century, born in Xalapa, Veracruz (d. 1876)
- Feb 25 Gerrit Schimmelpenninck, Dutch earl of Nijenhuis/Peckedam
- Mar 5 Jacques Babinet, French physicist/mathematician/astronomer
- Mar 5 Robert Cooper Grier, Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (d. 1870)
- Mar 16 Ami Boué, Austrian geologist (d. 1881)
- Mar 26 Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, German painter and designer who figured importantly in the German Nazarene movement, born in Leipzig, Saxony (d. 1872)
- Mar 31 Thompson McKennan, American politician who served as the 2nd United States Secretary of the Interior (d. 1852)
Matthew C. Perry
Apr 10 Matthew C. Perry, Commodore of the United States Navy who opened Japan to Western influence and trade, born in Newport, Rhode Island (d. 1858)
Matthew C. Perry
- Apr 11 Edward Everett, American statesman and orator, born in Dorchester, Massachusetts (d. 1865)
- Apr 12 Germinal P Dandelin, Belgian mathematician (geometry)
- Apr 15 Jean Pierre Flourens, French physiologist (d. 1867)
- Apr 17 Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius, German botanist and explorer, born in Erlangen, Germany (d. 1868)
- Apr 23 Wei Yuan, Chinese scholar and geographer of Qing Dynasty, born in Shaoyang, China (d. 1856)
- May 13 Louis-Leopold Robert, French painter (d. 1835)
- May 17 Anna Brownell Jameson, writer, born in Dublin, Ireland
- May 24 William Whewell, English polymath and philosopher (History of Inductive Science), born in Lancaster, Lancashire, England (d. 1866)
- May 27 Cornelius Vanderbilt, millionaire (B & O railroad)
- May 29 Johann Heinrich von Mädler, German astronomer (d. 1874)
- Jun 18 George Grote, British historian
- Jun 28 Allen Frances Gardiner, British naval officer and missionary in inter alia Port Natal, born in Basildon, Berkshire, England (d. 1851)
- Jul 3 Eberhard Friedrich Walcker, German organ builder (Paulskirche Frankfurt), born in Bad Cannstatt, Stuttgart, Germany (d. 1872)
- Jul 5 Sylvester Graham, Minister and noted vegetarian (developed Graham cracker), born in Suffield, Connecticut (d. 1851)
- Jul 14 John G Lockhart, [Scorpion], biographer (Life of Sir Walter Scott)
- Jul 24 Heinrich Christian Pander, Baltic German biologist and embryologist, born in Riga, Latvia (d. 1865)
- Jul 26 Johan Georg Forchhammer, Danish geologist, born in Husum, Denmark (d. 1865)
- Aug 10 Leopold Zunz, German scientist (Synagogical Poetry)
- Aug 11 James Barton Longacre, American engraver (d. 1869)
- Aug 15 Elias M. Fries, Swedish botanist (System mycologicum), born in Femsjö, Sweden (d. 1878)
- Aug 17 Prince Alexander of Hohenlohe-Waldenburg-Schillingsfürst, German priest (d. 1849)
- Aug 28 Johannes Zwijsen, Dutch archbishop (Utrecht Netherlands), born in Kerkdriel, Netherlands (d. 1877)
- Sep 9 William Lonsdale, Bath, English Geologist and Paleontologist (fossil coral)
- Oct 10 William Whiting Boardman, American politician (d. 1871)
- Oct 24 Friedrich Balduin von Gagern, German-Dutch army commandant, born in Weilburg, Germany (d. 1848)
- Oct 26 Konstantin Thon, Russian architect (Grand Kremlin Palace), born in St. Petersburg, Russia (d. 1881)
- Nov 3 William Cullen Bryant, poet (Thanatopsis)
- Nov 17 John Barrien Montgomery, Commander (Union Navy), (d. 1873)
- Nov 23 Joan F Van Oordt, vicar (Groninger direction)
- Dec 10 James Wolfe Ripley, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Windham County, Connecticut (d. 1870)
- Dec 14 Erastus Corning, American businessman and politician (d. 1872)
Weddings in History
Wedding of Interest
Sep 15 4th US President James Madison (43) weds Dolley Madison (26) in Jefferson County, West Virginia
James Madison
Wedding of Interest
Sep 22 Physicist Alessandro Volta (49) weds Teresa Peregrini
Alessandro Volta
Wedding of Interest
Nov 18 2nd Earl Grey Charles Grey (30) weds only daughter of 1st Baron Ponsonby Mary Elizabeth Ponsonby
Charles Grey
Deaths in History
Edward Gibbon
Jan 16 Edward Gibbon, English historian (The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire), dies in London at 56
Edward Gibbon
Marquis de Condorcet
Mar 28 Marquis de Condorcet, French enlightenment philosopher, is murdered or commits suicide in prison at 50
Marquis de Condorcet
- Mar 29 Marie-J-A-N C Condorcet, mathematician (Theory of Comets), dies at 50
Georges Danton
Apr 5 Georges Danton, French politician and revolutionary (1st president of the Committee of Public Safety during the French Revolution), executed by guillotine at 34
Georges Danton
- Apr 8 Marie-Jean-Antoine-Nicholas-Caritat, mathematician dies
- Apr 13 Nicolas Chamfort, French writer (b. 1741)
- Apr 18 Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (b. 1714)
- Apr 23 Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes, French statesman (executed) (b. 1721)
- Apr 27 William Jones, British Orientalist and jurist, dies at 47
- May 8 Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, father of modern chemistry (identified oxygen and hydrogen), guillotined at 50
- May 10 Élisabeth of France, princess of France, youngest sister of king Louis XVI, beheaded at 30
- Jun 8 G A Borger, writer, dies
- Jun 14 Francis Seymour-Conway, 1st Marquess of Hertford, Viceroy of Ireland, dies at 75
- Jun 18 James Murray, British military officer and administrator (b. 1721)
- Jun 19 Richard H Lee, US farmer (signed Declaration of Independence), dies at 62
- Jun 20 Félix Vicq-d'Azyr, French physician and anatomist (discover the theory of homology in biology), dies at 46
- Jun 27 Wenzel Anton Graf Kaunitz, Austrian statesman (b. 1711)
- Jun 27 Philippe de Noailles, duc de Mouchy, French soldier (b. 1715)
- Jul 17 John Roebuck, English inventor and industrialist (b. 1718)
- Jul 25 Andrea-Marie Chenier, French poet (Avis aux Francais sur leurs), dies
- Jul 28 Georges Couthon, French politician, beheaded at 39
Maximilien Robespierre
Jul 28 Maximilien Robespierre, French revolutionary (President of the National Convention, Member of Committee of Public Safety), executed by guillotine at 36
Maximilien Robespierre
- Aug 6 Henry Bathurst, 2nd Earl Bathurst, British politician (b. 1714)
- Aug 14 George Colman the Elder, English playwright, dies at 62
- Sep 4 John Hely-Hutchinson, Irish statesman (b. 1724)
- Sep 15 Abraham Clark, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1725)
- Sep 25 Paul Rabaut, French Huguenot pastor (b. 1718)
- Oct 20 James Adam, System architect (essays on agriculture), dies at about 64
- Nov 3 François-Joachim de Pierre de Bernis, French cardinal and statesman (b. 1715)
- Nov 14 Pieter Nieuwland, prodigy/"Dutch Newton", dies at 30
John Witherspoon
Nov 15 John Witherspoon, president of the College of New Jersey, dies at 71
John Witherspoon
Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben
Nov 28 Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, Prussian-American military officer (major general of the Continental Army), dies at 64
Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben