Timeline 1790-1799
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1790 Jan 2,
Mozart's opera "Cosi fan tutti" premiered in Vienna. [see Jan 26]
(MC, 1/2/02)
1790 Jan 4, President Washington
delivered the 1st "State of the Union" address.
(MC, 1/4/02)
1790 Jan 6, Johann Trier (73),
composer, died.
(MC, 1/6/02)
1790 Jan 21, Joseph Guillotine
proposed a new, more humane method of execution: a ma-chine designed to
cut off the condemned person's head as painlessly as possible.
(HN, 1/21/99)
1790 Jan 26, Mozart's opera "Cosi
Fan Tutte" premiered in Vienna. [see Jan 2]
(MC, 1/26/02)
1790 Feb 1, The US Supreme Court
convened for 1st time in Royal Exchange Building, New York City, the
nations temporary capital.
(www.supremecourthistory.org)
1790 Feb 6, The last stone of the
Bastille, torn down by order of the French revolutionary leaders, was
presented to the National Assembly.
(ON, 4/01, p.3)
1790 Feb 11, The first petition to
Congress for emancipation of the slaves was made by the Society of
Friends.
(HNQ, 1/11/99)
1790 Feb 20, Holy Roman Emperor
Joseph II (48) died.
(AP, 2/20/98)(MC, 2/20/02)
1790 Feb 26, As a result of the
Revolution, France was divided into 83 departments.
(HN, 2/26/99)
1790 Mar 1, President Washington
signed a measure authorizing the first US Census. The Connecticut
Compromise was a proposal for two houses in the legislature-one based
on equal representation for each state, the other for population-based
representation-that resolved the dispute between large and small states
at the Constitutional Convention. Connecticut delegate Roger Sherman's
proposal led to the first nationwide census in 1790. The population was
de-termined to be 3,929,625, which included 697,624 slaves and 59,557
free blacks. The most populous state was Virginia, with 747,610 people
and the most populous city was Philadelphia with 42,444 inhabitants.
(HNQ, 9/17/98)(HNQ, 7/13/01)(AP, 3/1/08)
1790 Mar 8, George Washington
delivered the first State of the Union address.
(HN, 3/8/98)
1790 Mar 14, Captain Bligh
returned to England with news of the mutiny on the Bounty.
(ON, 3/04, p.9)
1790 Mar 21, Thomas Jefferson
reported to President Washington in New York as the new secretary of
state.
(AP, 3/21/97)
1790 Mar 22, Thomas Jefferson
(1743-1826) became the first US Secretary of State. As Sec-retary of
State, he served on the first Board of Arts, the body that reviewed
patent applications and granted patents. Jefferson was one of a
triumvirate that served as both America’s first pat-ent commissioner
and first patent examiner.
(HN,
3/22/97)(www.archipelago.org/vol10-34/matsuura.htm)
1790 Mar 24, King George ordered
the Admiralty to capture Fletcher Henderson for the mutiny on the
Bounty.
(ON, 3/04, p.9)
1790 Mar 26, US Congress passed a
Naturalization Act. It required a 2-year residency.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1790 Mar 27, The shoelace was
invented.
(MC, 3/27/02)
1790 Mar 29, John Tyler, the 10th
president of the United States (1841-1845), was born in Charles City
County, Va. He was also the first vice-president to succeed to office
on the death of a president.
(AP, 3/29/97)(HN, 3/29/99)(MC, 3/29/02)
1790 Mar 31, In Paris, France,
Maximilien Robespierre was elected president of the Jacobin Club.
(HN, 3/31/99)
1790 Apr 3, Revenue Marine Service
(US Coast Guard) was created.
(MC, 4/3/02)
1790 Apr 10, President George
Washington signed into law the first United States Patent Act. The
Patent Board was made up of the Secretary of State, Secretary of War
and the Attorney General and was responsible for granting patents on
"useful and important" inventions. In the first three years, 47 patents
were granted. Until 1888 miniature models of the device to be pat-ented
were required. [see July 31]
(HN, 4/10/98)(HNQ, 8/6/99)(AP, 4/10/07)
1790 Apr 17, Benjamin Franklin
(born 1706), American statesman, died in Philadelphia at age 84. He
mechanized the process of making sounds from tuned glass with his glass
armonica. In 2000 H.W. Brands authored his Franklin biography: "The
First American." In 2003 Walter Isaacson authored "Benjamin Franklin:
An American Life." In 2005 Philip Dray authored “Steal-ing God’s
Thunder,” an account of Franklin’s work with lightning rods.
(AP, 4/17/97)(WSJ, 9/20/00, p.A24)(WSJ, 7/3/03,
p.D8)(WSJ, 8/15/05, p.D8)
1790 May 21, Paris was divided
into 48 zones.
(HN, 5/21/98)
1790 May 26, Territory South of
River Ohio was created by Congress.
(HN, 5/26/98)
1790 May 29, Rhode Island became
the last of the 13 original colonies to ratify the United States
Constitution. They held out for an amendment securing religious
freedom. The state was largely founded by Baptists fleeing persecution
in Massachusetts.
(SFC, 6/24/96, p.A19)(AP, 5/29/97)(HN, 5/29/98)
1790 May 31, The US copyright law
was enacted.
(MC, 5/31/02)
1790 Jun 9, The "Philadelphia
Spelling Book" was the first US work to be copyrighted.
(WSJ, 6/14/00, p.A1)(MC, 6/9/02)
1790 Jun 9, Civil war broke out in
Martinique.
(HN 6/9/98)
1790 Jul 3, In Paris, the Marquis
of Condorcet proposed granting civil rights to women.
(HN, 7/3/98)
1790 Jul 9, The Swedish navy
captured one third of the Russian fleet at the naval battle of
Svensksund in the Baltic Sea.
(HN, 7/9/98)
1790 Jul 12, The French Assembly
approved a Civil Constitution providing for the election of priests and
bishops.
(HN, 7/12/98)
1790 Jul 16, The District of
Columbia was established as the seat of the United States gov-ernment.
(AP, 7/16/97)
1790 Jul 17, Economist Adam Smith
(b.1723), Scottish moral philosopher and a pioneer of political
economy, died. In 2001 Emma Rothschild authored "Economic Sentiments:
Adam Smith, Condorcet, and the Enlightenment." In 2002 Peter J.
Dougherty authored "Who’s Afraid of Adam Smith."
(WSJ, 6/21/01, p.A16)(WSJ, 11/13/02,
p.D10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Smith)
1790 Jul 26, US passed the
Assumption bill making it responsible for state debts.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1790 Jul 26, An attempt at a
counter-revolution in France was put down by the National Guard at
Lyons.
(HN, 7/26/98)
1790 Jul 31, The U.S. Patent
Office granted its first patent to Samuel Hopkins of Vermont,
de-veloper of a new method the manufacture of pot and pearl ash,
potash. [see Apr 10]
(HN, 7/31/98)(HNQ, 8/6/99)
1790 Aug 1, The first enumeration
by the U.S. Census Bureau was completed. It showed a population of
3,939,326 located in 16 states and the Ohio territory with 697,624
slaves. Virginia was the most populous state with 747,610 inhabitants.
The census compilation cost $44,377.
(HN, 8/1/01)(MC, 8/1/02)
1790 Aug 2, The enumeration for
the first United States census began; the final total was 3,929,214.
(AP, 8/2/06)
1790 Aug 4, US Treasury Secretary
Alexander Hamilton urged that ten boats for the collection of revenue
be built. This was to stop smuggling, especially of coffee, which was
hampering trade. The Coast Guard was born as the Revenue Cutter
Service. The Coast Guard was em-powered to board and inspect any vessel
in US waters and any US boat anywhere in the world.
(Smith., 8/95, p.25)(HFA, '96, p.36)(SFC, 5/20/96,
p.A-16)(AP, 8/4/00)
1790 Aug 9, The Columbia returned
to Boston Harbor after a three-year voyage, becoming the first ship to
carry the American flag around the world.
(AP, 8/9/97)
1790 Sep 4, Jacques Necker was
forced to resign as finance minister in France.
(HN, 9/4/98)
1790 Oct 3, John Ross, Chief of
the United Cherokee Nation from 1839 to 1866, was born near Lookout
Mountain, Tennessee. Although his father was Scottish and his mother
only part Cherokee, Ross was named Tsan-Usdi (Little John) and raised
in the Cherokee tradition. A set-tled people with successful farms,
strong schools, and a representative government, the Chero-kee resided
on 43,000 square miles of land they had held for centuries.
(LCTH, 10/3/99)
1790 Oct 21, Alphonse-Marie Louis
de Lamartine, writer (Rene), was born in Macon, France.
(MC, 10/21/01)
1790 Oct 21, The Tricolor was
chosen as the official flag of France.
(HN, 10/21/98)
1790 Oct 23, Slaves revolted in
Haiti.
(MC, 10/23/01)
1790 Oct 28, NY gave up claims to
Vermont for $30,000.
(MC, 10/28/01)
1790 Nov 11, Chrysanthemums were
introduced into England from China.
(MC, 11/11/01)
1790 Nov 17, August Ferdinand
Mobius, mathematician, inventor (Mobius strip), was born.
(MC, 11/17/01)
1790 Dec 6, Congress moved from
New York City to Philadelphia, where Washington served out his two
terms. He is the only president who never resided in the White House.
(AP, 12/6/97)(HNPD, 12/22/98)
1790 Dec 17, An Aztec calendar
stone was discovered in Mexico City.
(HFA, '96, p.44)(MC, 12/17/01)
1790 Dec 19, Sir William Parry,
England, Arctic explorer, was born.
(HN, 12/19/98)
1790 Dec 20, In Pawtucket, Rhode
Island, 23-year-old British subject Samuel Slater began production of
the first American spinning mill. The British jealously guarded their
technological superiority in the early stages of the Industrial
Revolution, making it illegal for machinery, plans and even the men who
built and repaired them to leave the country. After serving a 7-year
mill apprenticeship in England, Slater recognized the potential offered
in America. He memorized the plans for intricate machine
specifications, disguised himself as a farm worker and in 1789 sailed
to a new life across the Atlantic. Slater entered into a partnership
with Rhode Island mer-chant Moses Brown and built a small spinning
mill--the equivalent of 72 spinning wheels. At first, Slater's Mill
employed only a handful of children between the ages of 7 and 12, but
by 1800, he had more than 100 employees. By the time of Slater's death
in 1835, he owned or had an inter-est in 13 textile mills and left an
estate of almost $700,000. From this small beginning, America's own
Industrial Revolution grew. [see Dec 21]
(AP, 12/20/97)(HNPD, 12/20/98)(WSJ, 9/23/04, p.D10)
1790 Dec 21, Samuel Slater opened
the first cotton mill in the United States in Rhode Island. [see Dec 20]
(HN, 12/21/98)
1790 Dec 23, Jean François
Champollion, French founder of Egyptology, was born. He deci-phered the
Rosetta Stone.
(HN, 12/23/99)
c1790 Henry Fuseli painted his
famous work "The Nightmare" wherein a sleeping woman has a glowing
demon on her chest and a lantern-eyed stallion parting the curtains
behind. He also painted "Woman Standing at a Dressing Table or Spinet"
about this time.
(SFC, 10/31/96, p.E1)(WSJ, 4/1/99, p.A20)
1790 Ito Jakuchu (1716-1800),
Japanese painter, created his "Compendium of Vegetable and Insects."
(WSJ, 12/1/98, p.A20)(SFC, 1/14/06, p.E1)
1790 Thomas Rowlandson, English
artist, painted "The Lock-Up."
(WSJ, 4/1/99, p.A20)
1790 Goethe’s "Faust: Ein
Fragment," first appeared.
(V.D.-H.K.p.239)
1790 Alexander Hamilton published
his "Report on the Public Credit."
(WSJ, 12/3/01, p.A17)
1790 Emmanuel Kant published his
"Critique of Judgement." His analysis of the nature of art and
aesthetic experience proved to be a major influence on modern ideas.
These ideas were later revisited by Murdoch in her 1998 work
"Existentialists and Mystics." [see 1781]
(WSJ, 2/17/98, p.A20)
1790 Beethoven composed his
"Cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph II."
(WSJ, 8/17/00, p.A20)
1790 The opera "The Philosopher’s
Stone" was composed and first performed. A 1997 score showed that a
number of composers wrote various sections. Mozart’s name was
associated with the 2nd act finale and a duet. It was a singspiel based
on fairytales with a libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. Other composers
included Johann Baptist Henneberg, Benedikt Schack, Franz Haver Gerl
and Emanuel Schikaneder.
(SFC, 6/13/97, p.C11)(WSJ, 11/4/98, p.A20)
1790 The Episcopal Church was
founded.
(SFC, 5/16/96, p.A-11)
1790 The US government issued $80
million in bonds to cover Revolutionary War debts and their trade
established the financial activity on Wall Street.
(WSJ, 10/9/97, p.A16)
1790 The US Trade and Intercourse
Act prohibited states from acquiring land from Indians without federal
approval.
(SFC, 1/13/99, p.A9)(SSFC, 8/29/04, p.M5)
1790 US Minister to France,
Gouverneur Morris, said that the French "have taken Genius in-stead of
Reason for their Guide, adopted Experiment instead of Experience, and
wander in the Dark because they prefer Lightning to Light." In 2000
Susan Dunn published "Sister Revolu-tions: French Lightning, American
Light."
(SFEC, 5/7/00, Par p.28)
1790 The celerifere bicycle
appeared in Paris about this time and was a two-wheeled, un-steerable
vehicle that the rider propelled by striking his feet on the ground.
This was improved upon with a bar to steer the front wheel in 1816 by
Baron von Drais of Germany, and was called a draisine. The ordinary,
which had a high front wheel, wire-spoked wheels and solid rubber
tires, was developed in the 1870s.
(HNQ, 10/29/99)
1790 The US census categorized the
population as "free white person, all other free persons except
Indians, and slaves."
(SFC,12/26/97, p.A21)
1790 The US population was 20%
African and numbered about 760,000.
(SFC, 12/18/96, p.A25)
1790 Fletcher Christian landed at
Pitcairn Island.
(SFC, 6/13/97, p.A14)
1790 In Australia Pemulway, an
Aboriginal warrior, speared and killed the governor’s game-keeper at
Botany Bay and waged war against the British for 12 years. His head was
later sent to England. Eric Willmot later authored "Pemulway, the
Rainbow Warrior."
(SFEC, 9/10/00, p.T4)
1790 In the Sandwich Islands
[Hawaii] King Kamehameha built the Puukohola Heiau temple on the Big
Island near the village of Kawaihau. It was built to the war god
Ku-Ka’ili-moku. The king’s armies soon swept over all the Hawaiian
islands and united the people for the first time.
(SFEC, 9/7/97, p.T8)
1790 Pineapples were introduced to
the Sandwich Islands later called Hawaii.
(SFEC,11/9/97, Z1 p.2)
1790 The Haleakala Volcano on Maui
erupted.
(SFEC, 8/27/00, p.T8)
1790 La Fenice opera house in
Venice was designed. It burned down for the 1st time in 1836.
(WSJ, 9/24/05, p.P12)
1790 A bronze Buddha was cast in
Japan. In 1945 it was donated by the Gump family to the city of San
Francisco. It resides in the Japanese Tea Garden and was in need of
$81,000 worth of repairs.
(SFC, 12/30/96, p.A11)
1790 In Porto, Portugal, the House
of Sandeman winery was found by the Scot, George San-deman.
(SFEC, 7/12/98, p.T8)
1790s Denmark became the 1st
country to abolish slavery.
(WSJ, 2/26/02, p.A22)
1790s Floreana Island in the
Galapagos began serving as a mail drop for whalers and seal hunters.
(SFEC, 11/19/00, p.T8)
c1790s King Kamehameha
slaughtered virtually everyone on the island of Lanai (which means day
of conquest) after being thwarted in his bid to conquer Maui.
(SSFC, 8/26/01, p.T10)
1790-1799 In 2009 Marcus Daniel authored “Scandal
& Civility: Journalism and the Birth of Ameri-can Democracy,” a
study of the American press during this period.
(WSJ, 3/3/09, p.A11)
1790-1799 The revolutionary tide that swept Europe
during this period was later covered by R.R. Palmer in his book “The
Age of the Democratic Revolution.”
(WSJ, 8/25/07, p.P9)
1790-1830 The “Dalton Minimum,” a period of low solar
activity and especially cold climate, began this year and lasted to
1830.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalton_Minimum)
1790-1848 Nicola Vaccai, Italian composer. He
composed a version of "I Capuletti ed I Montecchi," that was also done
by Bellini.
(WSJ, 11/10/98, p.A20)
1790-1869 Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine,
French poet, historian and statesman.
(WUD, 1994, p.803)
1790s Tadeusz Kosciusko returned
to Poland and united the country in the battle against Prus-sian and
Russian domination.
(SFEC, 11/24/96, T7)
1790s The solitaire of Rodrigues,
a flightless pigeon, was last seen.
(NH, 11/96, p.24)
1791 Jan 14, Calvin Phillips,
shortest known adult male (67 cm; 2' 2"), was born.
(MC, 1/14/02)
1791 Feb 12, Peter Cooper,
industrialist, philanthropist (Cooper Union), was born.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1791 Feb 20, Carl Czerny, pianist,
composer (Schule der Virtuosen), was born in Vienna, Aus-tria.
(MC, 2/20/02)
1791 Feb 25, President George
Washington signed a bill creating the Bank of the United States.
(HN, 2/25/99)
1791 Mar 3, Congress established
the U.S. Mint.
(HN, 3/3/99)
1791 Mar 3, The 1st Internal
Revenue Act taxed distilled spirits and carriages.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1791 Mar 4, President Washington
called the US Senate into its 1st special session.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1791 Mar 4, Vermont was admitted
as the 14th state. It was the first addition to the original 13
colonies.
(HN, 3/4/98)(AP, 3/4/98)
1791 Mar 4, 1st Jewish member of
US Congress, Israel Jacobs (Pennsylvania), took office.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1791 Mar 6, Anna Claypoole Peale,
painted miniatures, was born.
(MC, 3/6/02)
1791 Mar 10, John Stone of
Concord, Mass, patented a pile driver.
(MC, 3/10/02)
1791 Mar 10, Pope condemned
France's Civil Constitution of the clergy.
(MC, 3/10/02)
1791 Mar 11, Samuel Mulliken of
Philadelphia was the 1st to obtain more than 1 US patent.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1791 Mar 21, Captain Hopley Yeaton
(1740-1812) of New Hampshire became the first com-missioned officer of
the US Revenue Cutter Service.
(www.uscg.mil/history/WEBCUTTERS/Scammel_1791.html)(http://tinyurl.com/goke5)
1791 Mar 23, Etta Palm, a Dutch
champion of woman's rights, set up a group of women's clubs called the
Confederation of the Friends of Truth.
(HN, 3/23/99)
1791 Mar 4, Vermont was admitted
as the 14th state. It was the first addition to the original 13
colonies.
(HN, 3/4/98)(AP, 3/4/98)
1791 Mar 29, Pres. George
Washington and French architect Pierre Charles L’Enfant exam-ined the a
site along the Potomac River that would become the US capital. Maryland
and Vir-ginia had ceded land to the federal government to form the
District of Columbia. Chosen as the permanent site for the capital of
the United States by Congress in 1790, President Washington was given
the power by Congress to select the exact site—an area ten-miles
square, made up of land given by Virginia and Maryland. Washington
became the official federal capital in 1800. In 2008 Fergus Bordewich
authored “Washington: The Making of the American Capital.”
(HNQ, 8/13/00)(HN, 8/2/98)(WSJ, 8/8/08, p.A13)
1791 Apr 23, The 15th president of
the United States, James Buchanan, was born in Franklin County, Pa.
(AP, 4/23/97)
1791 Apr 12, Francis Preston
Blair, Washington Globe newspaper editor, was born.
(HN, 4/12/98)
1791 Apr 15, Surveyor General
Andrew Ellicott consecrated the southern tip of the triangular District
of Columbia at Jones Point.
(WSJ, 7/25/00, p.A20)
1791 Apr 18, National Guardsmen
prevented Louis XVI and his family from leaving Paris.
(HN, 4/18/98)
1791 Apr 23, James Buchanan, was
born in Franklin County, Pa. He was the fifteenth U.S. president
(1857-1861) and the only president not to marry.
(AP, 4/23/97)(HN, 4/23/99)
1791 Apr 27, Samuel F.B. Morse,
inventor, was born in Boston. He created the telegraph and the code
which bears his name. Morse was a well-known painter who gained a wide
reputation as a portrait artist. He graduated from Yale in 1810 and
then studied painting in England for several years. Morse painted two
notable portraits of Lafayette, was a founder of the National Academy
of Design in 1826 and became professor of painting and sculpture at New
York Uni-versity in 1832-a position he held until his death in 1872.
Morse invented the first practical re-cording telegraph in America and
developed the Morse code, revolutionizing communication.
(HN, 4/27/99)(HNQ, 2/26/00)
1791 Apr, William Wilberforce
again introduced a motion in British Parliament for the abolition of
the slave trade, but lost by a vote of 163 to 88.
(ON, 4/05, p.2)
1791 May 3, Poland adopted a new
Constitution. It was designed to redress long-standing po-litical
defects of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and its traditional
system of "Golden Lib-erty." The constitution put Lithuania under
Polish domination. It is generally regarded as Europe's first and the
world's second modern codified national constitution, following the
1788 ratification of the US Constitution.
(SFC, 4/25/09,
p.B1)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_May_3,_1791)(Voruta
#27-28, 7/1996, p.13)
1791 May 8, Capt. Edward Edwards
set sail from Tahiti in the Pandora with the Bounty muti-neers
abandoned by Fletcher Henderson.
(ON, 3/04, p.9)
1791 May 9, Francis Hopkinson
(53), US writer, music, lawyer, died.
(MC, 5/9/02)
1791 May 14, In Mexico a time
capsule was placed atop a bell tower at Mexico City's Metro-politan
Cathedral when the building's topmost stone was laid, 218 years after
construction had begun. Workers restoring the church found it in
October, 2007.
(AP, 1/15/08)
1791 May 16, James Boswell’s
celebrated 2-volume work, "The Life of Samuel Johnson," was published.
In 2001 Adam Sisman authored "Boswell’s Presumptuous Task," an account
of how Boswell came to write the Johnson biography.
(WSJ, 8/24/01, p.W8)(ON, 11/06, p.10)
1791 May 28, Joseph Schmitt (57),
composer, died.
(MC, 5/28/02)
1791 May 29, Pietro Romani,
composer, was born.
(SC, 5/29/02)
1791 Jun 9, John Howard Payne,
American playwright and actor, was born.
(HN, 6/9/01)
1791 Jun 20, King Louis XVI of
France attempted to flee the country in the so-called Flight to
Varennes, but was caught.
(AP, 6/20/97)
1791 Jun 21, King Louis XVI and
the French royal family were arrested in Varennes. In 2003 Timothy
Tackett authored "When the King Took Flight," an examination of the
political culture during this period of transformation.
(HN, 6/21/98)(SSFC, 5/18/03, p.M6)
1791 Jul 7, Benjamin Rush, Richard
Allen and Absalom Jones founded the Non-denominational African Church.
(HN, 7/7/98)
1791 Jul 13, The bones of the
greatest French satirist, philosopher, and writer, Voltaire (Jean-Marie
Arouet) were enshrined in the Pantheon in Paris.
(MC, 7/13/02)
1791 Jul 14-1791 Jul 17, Riots
took place in Birmingham, England. The houses of Joseph Priestley and
other political dissenters were burned to the ground. Priestley had
rejected various supernatural elements of Christianity, criticized the
Church of England, and supported the French Revolution.
(SFC, 1/9/09,
p.E3)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priestley_Riots)
1791 Jul 16, Louis XVI was
suspended from office until he agreed to ratify the constitution.
(HN, 7/16/98)
1791 Jul 17, National Guard troops
opened fire in Paris on a crowd of demonstrators calling for the
deposition of the king.
(HN, 7/17/99)
1791 Jul 24, Robespierre expelled
all Jacobins opposed to the principles of the French Revo-lution.
(HN, 7/24/98)
1791 Jul 25, Free African Society
(FAS) leaders drew up a plan to organize the African Church. Richard
Allen purchased a site for a church for the African-American community
in Philadelphia. It later stood as the oldest parcel of land
continuously owned by African Ameri-cans. The Richard Allen Museum
contains 19th century artifacts from the church.
(www.pbs.org)
1791 Jul 26, Franz Xavier Wolfgang
Mozart, 6th child of Austrian composer WAM, was born.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1791 Aug 1, Robert Carter III, a
Virginia plantation owner, freed all 500 of his slaves in the largest
private emancipation in U.S. history.
(HN, 8/1/98)
1791 Aug 2, Samuel Briggs and his
son patented a nail-making machine.
(MC, 8/2/02)
1791 Aug 4, The chief item in the
Peace of Sistova agreement between the Austrian Empire and Turkey was
the return of Belgrade to Turkey. The peace initiative resulted from
the terms of the Convention of Reichenbach between Prussia and Austria.
Belgrade had been taken in 1789 by the Holy Roman emperor Joseph II.
(HNQ, 6/25/99)
1791 Aug 14, Haitian slaves, led
by voodoo priest Boukman Dutty, gathered to plan a revolu-tion.
(SFCM, 5/30/04, p.9)( http://tinyurl.com/yun3k3)
1791 Aug 26, John Fitch and James
Rumsey, rival inventors, were both granted a US patent for a working
steamboat.
(MC, 8/26/02)(WSJ, 7/27/04, p.D10)
1791 Aug 29, The Pandora under
Capt. Edward Edwards sank in Endeavour Strait (later Tor-res Strait)
between Australia and New Guinea. 33 crewmen and 4 prisoners died. They
man-aged to use small boats and arrived in Timor on Sep 16.
(ON, 3/04, p.9)
1791 Sep 1, Lydia Sigourney, US
religious author (How to Be Happy), was born.
(SC, 9/1/02)
1791 Sep 3, The French National
Assembly passed a French Constitution passed.
(MC, 9/3/01)
1791 Sep 5, Giacomo Meyerbeer,
Vogelsdorf Germany, opera composer (Les Huguenots, Le Prophete), was
born.
(MC, 9/5/01)
1791 Sep 6, Mozart’s last opera
"La Clemenza di Tito," premiered in Prague. It was composed for the
coronation festivities of the King of Bohemia.
(WSJ, 4/10/00, p.A44)(MC, 9/6/01)
1791 Sep 9, French Royalists took
control of Arles and barricaded themselves inside the town.
(HN, 9/9/98)
1791 Sep 13, France's King Louis
XVI accepted a constitution.
(MC, 9/13/01)
1791 Sep 14, Louis XVI solemnly
swore his allegiance to the French constitution.
(HN, 9/14/98)
1791 Sep 22, Michael Faraday
(d.1867), English physicist, was born in London. He demon-strated that
a magnetic field induces a current in a moving conductor. He invented
the dynamo, the transformer and the electric motor.
(V.D.-H.K.p.269)(HN, 9/22/00)
1791 Sep 26, J.L.A. Theodore
Gericault, French painter, was born.
(MC, 9/26/01)
1791 Sep 27, Jews in France were
granted French citizenship. Jews were granted religious and civic
rights in 1791.
(HN, 9/27/98)(WSJ, 8/7/00, p.A13)
1791 Sep 30, Mozart's opera "The
Magic Flute" premiered in Vienna, Austria.
(AP, 9/30/97)
1791 Oct 1, In Paris, the National
Legislative Assembly held its first meeting.
(HN, 10/1/98)
1791 Nov
3, Gen. St. Clair moved his force of approximately 1,400 men to some
high ground on the upper Wabash River. St. Clair was looking for the
forces of Michikinikwa (Chief Little Tur-tle 1752-1812), who had
recently defeated Gen. Josiah Harmar’s (1753-1813) army. St. Clair
deployed only minimal sentry positions. [see Nov 4]
(DoW, 1999, p.168)
1791 Nov 4, General Arthur St.
Clair, governor of Northwest Territory, was badly defeated by a large
Indian army near Fort Wayne. Miami Indian Chief Little Turtle
(1752-1812) led the pow-erful force of Miami, Wyandot, Iroquois,
Shawnee, Delaware, Ojibwa and Potawatomi that in-flicted the greatest
defeat ever suffered by the U.S. Army at the hands of North American
Indi-ans. Some 623 regulars led by General Arthur St. Clair were killed
and 258 wounded on the banks of the Wabash River near present day Fort
Wayne, Indiana. The staggering defeat moved Congress to authorize a
larger army in 1792.
(HNQ, 8/10/98)(HN, 11/4/98)
1791 Dec 4, Britain's Observer,
oldest Sunday newspaper in world, was 1st published.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1791 Dec 5, Austrian composer
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died in Vienna, Austria, at age 35. His first
opera was "Idomeneo." In 1920 Hermann Abert authored “W.A. Mozart.” In
1991 Georg Knepler authored "Wolfang Amade Mozart," a Marxist view of
Mozart in his times. In 1995 May-nard Solomon published a
psychoanalytic biography of Mozart. In 1999 Peter Gay authored a
Penguin short life of Mozart and Robert W. Gutman authored the
comprehensive biography "Mozart."
(SFEC, 2/2/97, DB. p.54)(AP, 12/5/97)(WSJ, 12/2/99,
p.A20)(WSJ, 3/1/08, p.W8)
1791 Dec 15, The US Bill of
Rights, the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, took ef-fect
following ratification by Virginia. The First Amendment declared the
separation of church and state and guaranteed freedom of religion,
speech, the press and assembly. In 2007 An-thony Lewis authored
“Freedom for the Thought That We Hate: A biography of the Frist
Amendment.”
(SFC, 6/24/96, p.A19)(AP, 12/15/97)(SFC, 1/21/04,
p.D2)(Econ, 1/12/08, p.75)
1791 Dec 17, NYC traffic
regulation created the 1st 1-way street.
(MC, 12/17/01)
1791 Dec 22, Alexander Hamilton
paid a $600 installment of $1,000 in blackmail to James Reynolds, who
threatened to expose Hamilton’s relationship with Reynolds’ wife.
Hamilton had begun a relationship with Maria Reynolds during the
summer. A 2nd payment was made Jan 3.
(WSJ, 11/19/98, p.1,12)(ON, 10/05, p.5)
1791 Jose Cardero, a Spanish
artist in California, painted "Vista del Presidio de Monterey."
(SFC, 4/21/99, p.E6)
1791 Alexander Hamilton authored
his “Report on the Subject of Manufactures.”
(Econ, 9/1/07, p.74)
1791 The opera "The Beneficent
Dervish" was initially attributed to Emanuel Schikaneder but a 1997
find indicated that Mozart wrote the work. Schikaneder was a Vienna
theater impresario who had commissioned "The Magic Flute."
(SFC, 6/13/97, p.C11)
1791 The Berlin Sing-Academie was
established.
(SFC, 8/6/99, p.C13)
1791 In Berlin, Germany, the
Brandenburg Gate was completed. It stood 66 feet tall and 213 feet
wide, and was topped by the copper Quadriga, a sculpture of a goddess
riding into the city aboard a chariot. It was restored in 2002.
(AP, 10/2/02)
1791 James Madison opposed the
plans of Alexander Hamilton for a National Bank. Hamilton started the
1st Bank of the US. It did the work of a central bank even though
private investors held most of its shares. It was dissolved in 1811.
(WSJ, 12/20/95, p.A-12)(WSJ, 11/19/04, p.A8)(Econ,
12/24/05, p.91)
1791 Aaron Burr (1756-1836), later
US vice president (1801-1805), was elected as US Sena-tor from New York
(1791-1797).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Burr)
1791 The US Providence Bank was
later reported to have profited from traffic in slaves to the New
World. The bank eventually became part of FleetBoston Financial Corp.
(SFC, 3/10/00, p.D3)
1791 A document was released in
2004 from Pittsfield, Mass., that contained a 1791 bylaw to protect the
windows of a new meeting house from baseball players.
(SFC, 5/12/04, p.A2)
1791 William Sprague opened the
1st US carpet mill in Philadelphia.
(SFCM, 10/10/04, p.8)
1791 Legend says the Harel family
began making Camembert cheese before this time. The family had given a
priest refuge, who in gratitude gave them the recipe. In 2003 Pierre
Boisard authored "Camembert: A National Myth."
(SSFC, 7/27/03, p.M3)
1791 Frantisek Koczwara, a
Bohemian musician, died in a London brothel from auto-asphyxiation.
(SSFC, 3/18/01, DB p.49)
1791 Grigory A. Potemkin (b.1739),
Russian army officer, statesman, Catherine II's lover, died. In 2002
Simon Sebag Montefiore authored "Prince of Princes: The Life of
Potemkin."
(MC, 9/13/01)(WSJ, 2/14/02, p.A18)
1791 John Wesley (b.1703), English
evangelist and theologian, died. He founded the Method-ist movement.
(WUD, 1994, p.1622)(WSJ, 6/13/03, p.W19)
1791 In Australia officials
granted parcels of land around Sydney to convicts who have served their
time, beginning years of dispossession of Aborigines that continued as
white settlers dis-persed throughout Australia. Clashes between
Aborigines and settlers led to tens of thousands of deaths among
Aborigines and hundreds of settler deaths.
(AP, 1/30/08)
1791 Sheikh Mansur, Chechen
leader, was captured and died in the Schlusselburg Fortress.
(www.chechnyafree.ru)
1791 The United Irishmen Society
was formed. Inspired by the French Revolution many Catholics and
Protestants took up the cause of Irish nationalism during the next
decade.
(SFEC, 12/22/96, Z1 p.6)
1791 The Marquesas Islands were
officially discovered. Over a 30 year period western dis-eases ravaged
the populace and only about 2,000 of 100,000 people survived.
(SFEC, 8/25/96, p.T6)
1791 In St. Domingue Toussaint
L’Ouverture joined the slave rebellion against plantation own-ers and
later led a colonial revolt against France. In 1995 Madison Smart Bell
authored "All Souls Rising," a novel set in this period.
(SFEC, 1/26/97 BR, p.10)(SSFC, 4/8/01, BR p.4)(SFCM,
5/30/04, p.10)
1791-1824 Theodore Gericault, French painter. He
painted "Mounted Officer of the Imperial Guard."
(AAP, 1964)(WUD, 1994, p.593)
1792 Jan 17, One of the first US
Treasury bonds was issued to Pres. George Washington and bears the
earliest use of the dollar sign.
(WSJ, 5/29/98, p.W9)
1792 Jan 28, Rebellious slaves in
Santo Domingo launched an attack on the city of Cap.
(HN, 1/28/99)
1792 Feb 7, Cimarosa's opera "Il
Matrimonio Segreto," premiered in Vienna.
(MC, 2/7/02)
1792 Feb 15, Jean-Baptiste-Joseph
Delambre (42), astronomer and surveyor, was elected to the French
Academy of Sciences to help establish the length of a proposed new unit
of meas-urement, the meter.
(ON, 2/09, p.8)
1792 Feb 20, President Washington
signed an act creating the U.S. Post Office. [see Feb 20, 1789, May 8,
1794]
(HN, 2/20/98)(AP, 2/20/98)
1792 Feb 21, US Congress passed
the Presidential Succession Act. [see Mar 1]
(MC, 2/21/02)
1792 Feb 23, Joseph Haydn’s 94th
Symphony in G premiered.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1792 Feb 23, Humane Society of
Massachusetts was incorporated. It erected life-saving sta-tions for
distressed mariners.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1792 Feb 23, Joshua Reynolds (68),
English portrait painter (Simplicity), died.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1792 Feb 29, The composer
Gioacchino Antonio Rossini (d.1868) was born in Pesaro, Italy. His work
included the opera "La Donna del Lago," based on the Walter Scott
romance "The lady of the Lake."
(WUD, 1994, p.1246)(WSJ, 7/29/97, p.A12)(AP,
2/29/00)(HN, 2/29/00)
1792 Mar 1, US Presidential
Succession Act was passed. [see Feb 21]
(SC, 3/1/02)
1792 Mar 4, Oranges were
introduced to Hawaii.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1792 Mar 10, John Stuart (78), 3rd
earl of Bute, English premier (1760-63), died.
(MC, 3/10/02)
1792 Mar 16, Sweden's King Gustav
III was shot and mortally wounded during a masquerade party by a former
member of his regiment. He was murdered by Count Ankarstrom at an
opera. It became the inspiration for Giuseppe Verdi's Un Ballo in
Maschera. Gustav died 13 days later.
(AP, 3/16/06)(WSJ, 1/28/07, p.P10)
1792 Mar 20, In Paris, the
Legislative Assembly approved the use of the guillotine.
(HN, 3/20/99)
1792 Mar 23, Franz Joseph Haydn’s
"Symphony No. 94 in G Major," also known as the "Sur-prise Symphony,"
was performed publicly for the first time, in London.
(AP, 3/23/97)
1792 Mar 29, Gustav III, King of
Sweden (1771-92), died of wounds inflicted by an assassin on March 16.
(AP, 3/16/06)
1792 Mar/Apr, Speculator William
Duer defaulted on Hamilton’s freshly exchanged "Stock in the Public
Funds," and caused the first American stock market crash. Hamilton
injected liquidity, asked the banks not to call in loans and allowed
merchants to pay customs duties with short-term notes.
(WSJ, 3/24/97, p.A16)(WSJ, 8/14/01, p.A12)
1792 Apr 1, Gronings feminist Etta
Palm demanded women's right to divorce.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1792 Apr 2, Congress passed the
Coinage Act, which authorized establishment of the U.S. Mint. It
established the US dollar defined in fixed weights of gold and silver.
State chartered banks issued paper money convertible to gold or silver
coins to ease business transactions. U.S. authorized $10 Eagle, $5
half-Eagle & 2.50 quarter-Eagle gold coins & silver dollar,
dollar, quarter, dime & half-dime.
(HFA, '96, p.28)(AP, 4/2/97)(WSJ, 1/13/98, p.A1)(HN,
4/2/98)
1792 Apr 4, American abolitionist
Thaddeus Stevens, U.S. Radical Republican congressional leader, was
born in Danville, Vt..
(AP, 4/4/98)(HN, 4/4/98)
1792 Apr 5, George Washington cast
the first presidential veto, rejecting a congressional measure for
apportioning representatives among the states.
(AP, 5/5/97)(HN, 5/5/97)
1792 Apr 20, France declared war
on Austria, Prussia, and Sardinia, marking the start of the French
Revolutionary wars.
(AP, 4/20/97)(HN, 4/20/98)
1792 Apr 21, Jose da Silva Xavier,
Tiradentes, considered by many to be Brazil's George Washington, was
drawn and quartered by the Portuguese. He was hung in Rio de Janeiro.
His body was broken apieces. With his blood, a document was written
declaring his memory infa-mous. His head was exposed in Vila Rica.
Pieces of his body were exposed in the cities be-tween Vila Rica and
Rio, in an attempt to scare the people who had listened to the
independ-ence ideas of Tiradentes.
(AP,
4/19/03)(www.v-brazil.com/culture/historic-characters/tiradentes.html)
1792 Apr 22, President Washington
proclaimed American neutrality in the war in Europe.
(HN, 4/22/98)
1792 Apr 24, Capt. Claude Joseph
Rouget de Lisle, an officer stationed in Strasbourg, com-posed "La
Marseillaise," which later became the national anthem of France.
(AP, 4/24/97)(HN, 4/24/98)
1792 Apr 25, Highwayman Nicolas
Jacques Pelletier became the first person under French law to be
executed by guillotine.
(AP, 4/25/97)(HN, 4/25/98)
1792 Apr 30, John Montague (73),
4th Earl of Sandwich, English Naval minister, died.
(MC, 4/30/02)
1792 May 7, Capt. Robert Gray
discovered Gray's Harbor in Washington state.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1792 May 8, US established a
military draft.
(MC, 5/8/02)
1792 May 8, British Capt. George
Vancouver sighted and named Mt. Rainier, Wash.
(MC, 5/8/02)
1792 May 11, The Columbia River
was discovered and named by Captain Robert Gray.
(HN, 5/11/98)(MC, 5/11/02)
1792 May 12, A toilet that flushed
itself at regular intervals was patented.
(MC, 5/12/02)
1792 May 13, Giovanni-Maria
Mastaia-Ferretti, later Pope Pius IX, "Pio Nono" (1846-78), was born at
Sinigaglia.
(PTA, 1980, p.510)(MC, 5/13/02)
1792 May 16, Denmark abolished
slave trade.
(MC, 5/16/02)
1792 May 17, Stock traders signed
the Buttonwood Agreement in New York City at the Ton-tine Coffee House
Company near a Buttonwood tree, where business had been transacted in
the past. 24 merchants formed their exchange at Wall and Water Streets
where they fixed rates on commissions on stocks and bonds. This later
developed into the New York Stock Exchange. A market crash and almost
total halt in credit, trading and liquidity prompted the Buttonwood
Agreement under the influence of Alexander Hamilton. The organization
drafted its constitution on March 8th, 1817, and named itself the "New
York Stock & Exchange Board."
(WSJ, 3/24/97, p.A19)(HN,
5/17/98)(www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/crash/timeline/)
1792 May 18, Russian troops
invaded Poland.
(HN, 5/18/98)
1792 May 19, The Russian army
entered Poland.
(DTnet 5/19/97)
1792 May 21, Gustave-Gaspard
Coriolis (d.1843), French engineer and mathematician, was born. He
became first person to describe the Coriolis force.
(SFC, 5/21/09,
p.D10)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaspard-Gustave_Coriolis)
1792 Jun 1, Kentucky became the
15th state of the Union.
(AP, 6/1/97)
1792 Jun 4, Captain George
Vancouver claimed Puget Sound for Britain. Englishman George Vancouver
sailed into the SF Bay on his ship Discovery in this year and explored
the Santa Clara Valley. Vancouver sailed the Inside Passage, the
1000-mile waterway between Puget Sound and Alaska.
(SFEC, 3/1/98, p.W34)(HN, 6/4/98)(WSJ, 11/5/99,
p.W12)
1792 Jun 4, John Burgoyne,
soldier, playwright, died.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1792 Jul 18, American naval hero
John Paul Jones died in Paris at age 45. His body was pre-served in rum
in case the American government wished him back. In 1905 his body was
trans-ported to the US and placed in a crypt in Annapolis. In 2003 Evan
Thomas authored "John Paul Jones: Sailor, Hero, Father of the American
Navy."
(AP, 7/18/97)(SSFC, 6/22/03, p.M3)
1792 Jul 30, The French national
anthem "La Marseillaise" by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, was first
sung in Paris.
(AP, 7/30/99)
1792 Aug 4, Percy Bysshe Shelley
(d.1822), English poet and author who wrote "Prometheus Unbound," was
born in Field Place, England. He married Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin,
author of "Frankenstein." He wrote the poem "Adonais."
(WUD, 1994, p.1314)(HN, 8/4/98)
1792 Aug 5, Frederick 7th baron
Lord North (60), English premier, died. He presided over Brit-ain's
loss of its American colonies (1770-82).
(MC, 8/5/02)
1792 Aug 10, Some 10,000 Parisians
attacked the Tuileries Palace of Louis XVI at the instiga-tion of
Georges Jacques Danton (33), after Louis ordered his Swiss guard to
stop firing on the people. The mob massacred some 600 guardsmen. The
king was later arrested, put on trial for treason, and executed the
following January.
(PC, 1992, p.345)(AP, 8/10/07)(ON, 2/09, p.8)
1792 Aug 11, A revolutionary
commune was formed in Paris, France.
(HN, 8/10/98)
1792 Aug 13, Revolutionaries
imprisoned the French royal family, including King Louis XVI and Marie
Antoinette. [see Aug 10]
(MC, 8/13/02)
1792 Aug 18, Lord John Russel,
Prime Minister of England from 1846 to 1852 and 1865 to 1866, was born.
(HN, 8/18/98)
1792 Aug 29, The English warship
Royal George capsized in Spithead and 900 people were killed.
(MC, 8/29/01)
1792 Sep 2, Verdun, France,
surrendered to the Prussian Army.
(HN, 9/2/98)
1792 Sep 2, In the "September
Massacres"- French mobs removed nobles and clergymen from jails,
slaughtering them.
(MC, 9/2/01)
1792 Sep 3, In France Princess de
Lamballe (b.1749), the best friend of Marie Antoinette, was killed and
her body mutilated by an angry mob. Her head was displayed under the
window of Marie Antoinette, interned in Temple Prison.
(SSFC, 4/23/06,
p.G5)(www.batguano.com/vigeeart100.html)
1792 Sep 5, Maximilien Robespierre
was elected to the National Convention in France.
(HN, 9/5/98)
1892 Sep 18, At Spithaead,
England, verdicts and sentences were announced for the 10 pris-oners
from the mutiny on the Bounty. 4 men were acquitted, and 6 were found
guilty and con-demned to death. 2 of the condemned were pardoned and
another was freed on a technicality. 3 were later hanged.
(ON, 3/04, p.9)
1792 Sep 21, Collot D'Herbois
proposed to abolish the monarchy in France. The French Na-tional
Convention voted to abolish the monarchy. 1st French Republic formed
(AP, 9/21/97)(MC, 9/21/01)
1792 Sep 22, The first French
Republic was proclaimed.
(AP, 9/22/06)
1792 Sep 27, George Cruikshank,
London, caricaturist (Oliver Twist), was born.
(MC, 9/27/01)
1792 Oct 7, James Mason (b.1725),
American Revolutionary statesman, died at Gunston Hall Plantation,
situated on the Potomac River some 20 miles south of Washington D.C.
Mason framed the Bill of Rights for the Virginia Convention in June
1776. This was the model for the first part of fellow Virginian Thomas
Jefferson's Declaration of Independence and the basis of the first 10
Amendments to the federal Constitution. In 2006 Jeff Broadwater
authored “George Mason.”
(HNQ,
2/18/99)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Mason)(WSJ, 9/13/06, p.D10)
1792 Oct 12, Columbus Day was 1st
celebrated in the US.
(MC, 10/12/01)
1792 Oct 13, The "Old Farmer's
Almanac" was 1st published. [see Nov 25]
(MC, 10/13/01)
1792 Oct 13, The cornerstone of
the executive mansion, later known as the White House, was laid during
a ceremony in the District of Columbia.
(AP, 10/13/97)(HN, 10/13/98)
1792 Nov 6, Battle at Jemappes:
French army beat the Austrians.
(MC, 11/6/01)
1792 Nov 13, Edward John
Trelawney, traveler and author (Adventure of a Younger Son), friend of
Byron and Shelley, was born in England.
(MC, 11/13/01)
1792 Nov 25, The Farmer's Almanac
was 1st published. [see Oct 13]
(MC, 11/25/01)
1792 Dec 5, George Washington was
re-elected president; John Adams was re-elected vice president.
(AP, 12/5/97)
1792 Dec 8, The 1st cremation in
US: Henry Laurens.
(MC, 12/8/01)
1792 Dec 11, France's King Louis
XVI went before the Convention to face charges of treason. Louis was
convicted and executed the following month.
(AP, 12/11/97)
1792 Dec 12, In Vienna Ludwig Van
Beethoven (22) received 1st lesson in music composition from Franz
Joseph Haydn.
(MC, 12/12/01)
1792 Dec 15, Alexander Hamilton,
US Sec. of the Treasury, was accused of teaming with Mr. James Reynolds
to speculate illegally in government securities. Hamilton then
acknowledged to three lawmakers, including James Monroe, that he had
paid hush money to Mr. Reynolds to cover an affair with Reynolds’ wife.
(WSJ, 11/19/98, p.A12)(ON, 10/05, p.5)
1792 Dec 26, Charles Babbage
(d.1871), English inventor of the calculating machine, was born.
(HN, 12/26/98)
1792 John Trumbell painted his
portrait of Alexander Hamilton.
(WSJ, 10/20/04, p.D12)
1792 Captain Bligh published "A
Voyage to the South Sea" after his return from the Mutiny on the Bounty.
(WSJ, 7/7/98, p.A14)
1792 James Madison published an
essay in a newspaper on property and slaves. In this es-say Madison
extended the idea of property from material possessions to the property
in his opinions, especially his religious beliefs.
(V.D.-H.K.p.227)
1792 Mary Wollstonecraft (Godwin)
wrote her essay "Vindication of the Rights of Woman." She married
Godwin in 1797 after learning that she was pregnant and died in
childbirth.
(SFEM, 6/28/98, p.28)(Econ, 2/26/05, p.84)
1792 Construction began on the
Royal Chapel at Carmel, Ca. It was dedicated in 1795.
(SSFC, 1/4/09, p.B3)
1792 An edition of the Bible was
first printed in New York.
(WSJ, 8/7/98, p.W13)
1792 A US Militia Act was created.
(SFC, 3/2/02, p.A21)
1792 US veterans hired William
Hull to petition congress for more compensation.
(Econ, 10/4/08, p.32)
1792 The dime coin "dismes" were
first produced. Then came "half-dismes," or what we call nickels.
(SFEC, 1/12/97, zone 3 p.4)
1792 Explorer Jose Longinos
Martinez wrote in his diary about grizzly maulings that killed 2
Indians in California.
(SFC, 8/18/96, p.A6)
1792 Archibald Menzies, Scottish
doctor/surgeon, was the naturalist aboard the Discovery un-der Captain
George Vancouver. He collected his first California poppy and
classified it incor-rectly as Celandine, an old world member of the
same family (Papaveracae). [see 1794,1816,1825-1833]
(NBJ, 2/96, p.12)
1792 Three English sailors
wandered from Vancouver’s supply ship Daedalus, anchored in Waimea Bay.
They were captured and killed by native Hawaiians.
(SFCM, 3/11/01, p.87)
1792 Pierre Ordinaire, French
chemist, invented absinthe as a digestive or all-purpose tonic. It
quickly caught on as an apéritif. Ordinaire invented absinthe in
1797. It was popularized by Henri-Louis Pernod, who opened his first
distillery in Switzerland before moving to Pontarlier, France, in 1805.
(WSJ, 12/24/96, p.A1)(WSJ, 1/22/99, p.W8)(SFC,
3/24/00, p.A3)
1792 Arthur Phillip, the 1st
governor of New South Wales, Australia, returned to England
ac-companied by Bennelong, an Aboriginal who had earlier attacked and
wounded him. Philip later gave Bennelong a house on a point in Sydney
Cove. In 1973 it became the site of the Sydney Opera House.
(Econ, 7/15/06, p.83)
1792 In England consumers began an
organized boycott against West Indian sugar. The Anti-Saccharine
Society displayed a cross-section of a slave ship with men shackled
head-to-toe like sardines.
(Econ, 12/23/06, p.94)
1792 William Wilberforce
introduced a new motion in British Parliament for the gradual
aboli-tion of the slave trade. The “gradual” wording, proposed by home
office minister Henry Dundas, led to passage of the bill in the House
of Commons 230 to 85.
(ON, 4/05, p.2)
1792 James Penny, Liverpool slave
trader, was presented with a magnificent silver epergne for speaking in
favor of the slave trade to a parliamentary committee. Liverpool’s
Penny Lane was named after him.
(SSFC, 7/9/06,
p.A2)(www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/maritime/slavery/liverpool.asp)
1792 The British St. George’s Bay
Company transported a 2nd group of settlers to Freetown. This included
1,196 Blacks from Nova Scotia, 500 Jamaicans and dozens of rebellious
slaves from other colonies.
(MT, summer 2003, p.8)
1792 Niagara-on-the-Lake became
the 1st capital of the Upper Canada (later Ontario). The Parliament met
for 5 sessions before moving to York (Toronto).
(WSJ, 7/25/02, p.D10)
1792 The Chinese poet Shih
Tao-nan, shortly before succumbing to the plague noted: "Few days
following the death of the rats, Men pass away like falling walls."
(NG, 5/88, p.678)
1792 The crown jewels of France
were stolen including the 67 carat Blue Diamond.
(THC, 12/3/97)(EB, 1993, V6 p.51)
1792 The La Felecia opera house in
Venice opened.
(SFC, 6/27/96, p.D3)
1792 In Mexico Campeche’s northern
fort, the Reducto de San Jose, was built. It later housed the Museo de
Barcas y Armas.
(SSFC, 1/25/09, p.E5)
1792 In Scotland gas lighting was
developed.
(SFC, 7/14/99, p.4)
1792 Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab
(b.1703), conservative Islamic theologian, died. He founded Wahhabism
and set out his ideas in “The Book of Unity” (1736). In 2004 Natana J.
Delong-Bas authored “Wahhabi Islam: From Revival and Reform to Global
Jihad.”
(www.concise.britannica.com)(WSJ, 7/20/04, p.D8)
1792-1793 Francisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes
(1746-1828), Spanish painter, went deaf from an unexplained illness.
(WSJ, 5/10/02, p.W8)(Econ, 10/18/03, p.81)
1792-1796 In St. Petersburg, Russia, Catherine the
Great commissioned the building of the neo-classical rococo Alexander
Palace for her eldest grandson, the future Alexander I.
(WSJ, 9/9/97, p.A16)
1792-1867 Giovanni Pacing, Italian composer. His work
included "Maria, Regina d’Inghilterra," based on Victor Hugo’s drama
"Marie Tudor."
(WSJ, 11/10/98, p.A20)
1792-1868 Gioacchino Antonio Rossini, Italian
composer. His work included the opera "La Donna del Lago," based on the
Walter Scott romance "The Lady of the Lake."
(WUD, 1994, p.1246)(WSJ, 7/29/97, p.A12)
1793 Jan 3, Lucretia Coffin
Mott women’s rights activist, was born. She was a teacher, minis-ter,
antislavery leader and founder of the 1st Women’s Rights Convention.
(440 Int'l. 1/3/99)(HN, 1/3/02)
1793 Jan 9, The first US manned
balloon flight occurred as Frenchman Jean Pierre Blanch-ard, using a
hot-air balloon, flew between Philadelphia and Woodbury, N.J. He stayed
airborne for 46 minutes, traveled close to 15 miles and set down at the
"old Clement farm" in Deptford, New Jersey. [see Jun 23, 1784, Mar 9,
1793]
(WSJ, 3/31/98, p.A1)(AP, 1/9/99)(ON, 6/09, p.2)
1793 Jan 19, French King Louis XVI
was sentenced to death. [see Jan 21]
(MC, 1/19/02)
1793 Jan 21, Louis XVI (38), last
of the French Bourbon dynasty, was executed on the guillo-tine. The
vote in the National Convention for execution for treason won by a
margin of one vote. The Great Terror followed his execution.
(WUD, 1994, p.1677)(V.D.-H.K.p.231)(NH, 6/97,
p.23)(AP, 1/21/98)
1793 Jan 23, Prussia and Russia
signed an accord on the 2nd partition of Lithuania and Po-land. The 2nd
partition of Poland. Polish patriots had attempted to devise a new
constitution which was recognized by Austria and Prussia, but Russia
did not recognize it and invaded. Prussia in turn invaded and the two
agreed to a partition that left only the central portion of Po-land
independent.
(WUD, 1994, p.1677)(LHC, 1/23/03)
1793 Feb 1, Ralph Hodgson of
Lansingburg, NY, patented one of the world’s greatest inven-tions this
day: Oiled silk.
(440 Int'l, 2/1/1999)
1793 Feb 1, France declared war on
Britain and the Netherlands.
(HN, 2/1/99)
1793 Feb 12, The US federal
government passed its first fugitive slave law. This gave slave holders
the right to reclaim their human property in free states.
(HN, 2/12/97)(WSJ, 1/30/03, p.D8)
1793 Feb 25, The department heads
of the U.S. government met with President Washington at his Mt.
Vernon home for the first Cabinet meeting on record.
(AP, 2/25/98)(MC, 2/25/02)
1793 Mar 2, Sam Houston, the first
president of the Republic of Texas (1836-38, 1841-44), was born near
Lexington, Va. He fought for Texas' independence from Mexico; President
of Republic of Texas; U.S. Senator; Texas governor
(AP, 3/2/98)(HC, Internet, 2/3/98)(SC, 3/2/02)
1793 Mar 3, Charles Sealsfield,
writer (The Making of America), was born.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1793 Mar 4, George Washington was
inaugurated as President for the second time. His 2nd inauguration was
the shortest with just 133 words. Since George Washington’s second
term, In-auguration Day had been March 4 of the year following the
election. That custom meant that de-feated presidents and congressmen
served four months after the election. In 1933, the so-called Lame Duck
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution moved the inauguration of newly
elected presi-dents and congressmen closer to Election Day. The 20th
Amendment required the terms of the president and vice-president to
begin at noon on January 20, while congressional terms begin on January
3.
(HN, 3/4/98)(HNPD, 3/4/99)(SC, 3/4/02)
1793 Mar 4, French troops
conquered Geertruidenberg, Netherlands.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1793 Mar 5, Austrian troops crush
the French and recapture Liege.
(HN, 3/5/99)
1793 Mar 18, The 2nd Battle at
Neerwinden: Austria army beat France.
(MC, 3/18/02)
1793 Mar 26, Pro-royalist uprising
took place in Vendée region of France.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1793 Apr 1, The volcano
Unsen on Japan erupted killing about 53,000.
(OTD)
1793 Apr 14, A royalist rebellion
in Santo Domingo was crushed by French republican troops.
(HN, 4/14/99)
1793 Apr 17, The Battle of Warsaw
was fought.
(HN, 4/17/98)
1793 Apr 22, Pres. Washington
attended the opening of Rickett's, the 1st circus in US.
(MC, 4/22/02)
1793 May 7, Pietro Nardini (71),
composer, died.
(MC, 5/7/02)
1793 May 25, Father Stephen
Theodore Badin became the 1st US Roman Catholic priest or-dained.
(SC, 5/25/02)
1793 Jun 2, Maximillian
Robespierre, a member of France’s Committee on Public Safety,
initi-ated the "Reign of Terror," a purge of those suspected of treason
against the French Republic. Months of the Great Terror, followed the
Revolution in France as thousands died beneath the guillotine.
(V.D.-H.K.p.231)(HN, 6/2/98)
1793 Jun 20, Eli Whitney
petitioned for a cotton gin patent in Philadelphia.
(www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3h1517t.html)
1793 Jun 24, The first republican
constitution in France was adopted.
(AP, 6/24/97)
1793 Jul 13, John Clare, English
poet, was born.
(HN, 7/13/01)
1793 Jul 13, Pierre Dupont de
Nemours was ordered arrested in Paris on charges of plotting with
rebels against the French Revolutionary National Assembly.
(MC, 7/13/02)
1793 Jul 13, French revolutionary
writer Jean Paul Marat was stabbed to death in his bath by Charlotte
Corday, who was executed four days later. In 1970 Marie Cher authored
"Charlotte Corday, and Certain Men of the Revolutionary Torment."
(AP, 7/13/97)(ON, SC, p.8)
1793 Jul 23, Roger Sherman
(b.1721) of Connecticut, signer of the Declaration of Independ-ence,
died. He was only man to sign the four most important documents that
were most signifi-cant in the formation of the United States. Sherman
signed the Association (the 1774 compact to boycott British goods), the
Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation and
Con-stitution. Sherman was among the first to declare that Parliament
had no right to legislate for the colonies. He was a delegate to the
Continental Congress, served in the first U.S. House of
Representatives and was a U.S. senator.
(HN, 4/19/97)(HNQ, 7/10/99)
1793 Jul 23, The French garrison
at Mainz, Germany, fell to the Prussians.
(HN, 7/23/98)
1793 Jul 24, France passed the 1st
copyright law.
(MC, 7/24/02)
1793 Jul 27, In France,
Robespierre became a member of the Committee of Public Safety.
(HN, 7/27/98)
1793 Aug 14, Republican troops in
France laid siege to the city of Lyons.
(HN, 8/14/98)
1793 Aug 22, Louis Duke de
Noailles (80), marshal of France, was guillotined.
(MC, 8/22/02)
1793 Aug 27, Maximilien
Robespierre was elected to the Committee of Public Safety in Paris,
France.
(HN, 8/27/98)
1793 Aug 28, Adam-Philippe
Custine, Duke de Lauzun (French duke, general, fought in American
Revolution, hero in both countries), was guillotined in Paris.
(MC, 8/28/01)
1793 Aug 29, Slavery was abolished
in the French colony of Santo Domingo (Haiti).
(HN, 8/29/98)(MC, 8/29/01)
1793 Sep 5, The Reign of Terror
began during the French Revolution as the National Conven-tion
instituted harsh measures to repress counter-revolutionary activities.
One delegate, claim-ing that the middle class Girondist (moderates)
leaders be sentenced to death cried, "It is time for equality to wield
its scythe over all the heads. Very well, Legislator, place Terror on
the agenda!" The delegates agreed to arrest all suspects and
dissenters, try them swiftly in the kan-garoo courts known as the
Revolutionary Tribunals, and sentence them uniformly to death.
(MC, 9/5/01)(AP, 9/4/07)
1793 Sep 6, French General Jean
Houchard and his 40,000 men began a three-day battle against an
Anglo-Hanoverian army at Hondschoote, southwest Belgium, in the wars of
the French Revolution.
(HN, 9/6/98)
1793 Sep 18, President George
Washington laid the foundation stone for the U.S. Capitol on Jenkins
Hill.
(AP, 9/18/97)(SFC, 7/18/98, p.A15)(HN, 9/18/98)
1793 Oct 8, John Hancock, US
merchant and signer (Declaration of Independence), died at 56.
(MC, 10/8/01)
1793 Oct 10, The rebellious French
city of Lyons surrendered to Revolutionary troops.
(MC, 10/10/01)
1793 Oct 16, During the French
Revolution, Marie Antoinette was beheaded. Prosecutors claimed she had
sexually abused her son and financially abused the French
Monarchy. In mourning for her husband, Louis XVI, who had been
guillotined the previous January, clad in rags, her once-dazzling locks
shorn by the executioner's assistant, she even suffered the indig-nity
of a crude sketch by the great French painter, Jacques Louis David.
Antoinette bore herself with a regal indifference to her martyrdom.
Madame Tussaud used her severed head as a model for her wax bust death
mask. In 2001 Antonia Fraser authored "Marie Antoinette: The Journey."
(SFEC, 11/17/96, p.T5)(AP, 10/16/97)(WSJ, 10/5/01,
p.W13)
1793 Oct 28, Eliphalet Remington,
US gun maker, was born.
(MC, 10/28/01)
1793 Oct 28, Eli Whitney applied
for a patent on the cotton gin, a machine which cleaned the
tight-clinging seeds from short-staple cotton easily and effectively--a
job which was previously done by hand. The patent was granted the
following March. [see Mar 13, Jun 20, 1793, Mar 14, 1794]
(AP, 10/28/97)(HN, 10/28/98)
1793 Oct 31, Execution of 21
Girondins (moderates) in Paris, stepping up the Reign of Terror. Pierre
V. Vergniaud (40), French politician and elegant, impassioned orator of
Girondins, was guillotined.
(MC, 10/31/01)
1793 Nov 3, Stephen Fuller Austin
was born. He colonized Texas.
(MC, 11/3/01)
1793 Nov 8, The Louvre opened in
Paris as a museum. It was originally constructed as a for-tress in the
early thirteenth century.
(HN, 11/6/98)(MC, 11/8/01)
1793 Nov 10, France outlawed the
forced worship of God.
(MC, 11/10/01)
1793 Nov 12, Jean-Sylvain Bailley
(53), French astronomer and mayor of Paris, was guillo-tined.
(MC, 11/12/01)
1793 Nov 19, The Jacobin Club was
formed in Paris. Robespierre (1758-1794), Jacobin leader: "Terror is
nothing but justice, prompt, severe and inflexible."
(SSFC, 10/28/01, p.C5)(MC, 11/19/01)
1793 Nov 26, Republican calendar
replaced the Gregorian calendar in France.
(MC, 11/26/01)
1793 Nov, In France Philippe
Aspairt, a hospital porter, ventured alone into the limestones quarries
south of Paris, site of the new cemetery, and got lost. Workmen found
his bones 11 years later.
(Hem., 3/97, p.119)
1793 Dec 6, Marie Jeanne Becu,
Comtesse du Barry, flamboyant mistress of Louis XV, was guillotined in
Paris.
(MC, 12/6/01)
1793 Dec 9, Noah Webster
established NY's 1st daily newspaper, American Minerva.
(MC, 12/9/01)
1793 Dec 19, French troops
recaptured Toulon from the British.
(HN, 12/19/98)
1793 Dec 20, Joseph Legros (54),
composer, died.
(MC, 12/20/01)
1793 Dec 23, Thomas Jefferson
warned of slave revolts in West Indies.
(MC, 12/23/01)
1793 Antonio Canova created his
clay model for the sculpture "Penitent Magdalen." The final marble
version was completed in 1809.
(WSJ, 1/29/02, p.A18)
1793 Jacques-Louis David painted
"Death of Marat."
(SFEC, 3/21/99, BR p.5)
1793 Pierre-Paul Prud’hon
(1758-1823), French artist, painted "Cupid Laughs at the Tears He
Causes."
(WSJ, 4/8/98, p.A20)
1793 William Blake produced his
"Labors of the Artist, the Poet, and the Musician." He painted "Aged
Ignorance."
(LSA, Spring 1995, p.17)(NH, 4/97, p.6)
1793 Augustin Ximenez (1726-1817),
Marquis of Ximenez, a Frenchman of Spanish origin, wrote a poem with
the line “Attaquons dans ses eaux la perfide Albion,” which means "Let
us at-tack perfidious Albion in her waters." The poet of perfidy later
lectured French soldiers that “Il est beau de perir,” which means “it
is beautiful to perish.”
(SSFC, 1/14/07, p.M4)(http://tinyurl.com/ye6bd7)
1793 The German Reformed Church
was established in the US by Calvinist Puritans.
(SFC, 7/21/97, p.A11)
1793 Capt. George Vancouver
introduced cattle to the islands of Hawaii and wrested from King
Kamehameha the concession that women as well as men be allowed to eat
the meat. The king agreed if separate animals were used.
(SFEM, 2/8/98, p.10)
1793 The 1st US half-cent and on
cent coins were minted. For almost 6 decades the obverse side carried
an image of Lady Liberty.
(SFC, 9/11/96, p.A4)(WSJ, 12/12/03, p.W15)
1793 Cape Girardeau, Missouri, was
first founded where the present day Cape Rock Park sits, when Don Louis
Lorimier was given a land grant by the Spanish government. The City of
Cape Girardeau celebrated its 200th year in 2006.
(www.cityofcapegirardeau.org/)
1793 In Vermont Captain John
Norton founded a stoneware pottery shop in Bennington. The wares were
rarely marked until 1823. Various members of the family worked at the
pottery until it closed shop in 1894.
(SFC, 2/18/98, Z1 p.3)
1793 The Spanish Governor of Alta
California made the first official notice of the fire problem in
California. He warned military officers, missions and civil authorities
of the problem.
(SFC, 10/23/96, p.A8)
1793 There was a yellow fever
epidemic in Philadelphia. Stephen Girard risked his life and fortune in
stopping the epidemic.
(WSJ, 1/2/97, p.6)
1793 Alexander Mackenzie,
Scottish-born fur trader, reached the Pacific coast completing his
crossing of North America. He began the trip in 1789. He raised
Britain's claims to the pacific Northwest.
(SFEC, 5/25/97, Z1 p.7)(SFC, 1/31/04, p.D12)
1793 The British took over the
island of St. Vincent and a series of wars ensued against the black
Caribs.
(SFC, 7/25/07, p.E2)
1793 China’s Emperor Qianlong
turned away the British fleet under Lord George Macartney with the
declaration that China had all things in abundance and had no interest
in “foreign manufactures.”
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R51)(Econ, 9/16/06, p.13)
1793 The courthouse at the St.
Maarten Island Dutch capital of Philipsburg was built.
(SFEC,2/16/97, p.T7)
1793 The Minton dishware company
was established in Stoke, Staffordshire, England.
(SFC,11/5/97, Z.1 p.3)(SFC, 3/19/08, p.G6)
1793-1795 The British engaged in the ill-fated
Flanders Campaign.
(SSFM, 4/1/01, p.42)
1793-1801 In Afghanistan Zaman Shah ruled. Constant
internal revolts continued.
(www.afghan, 5/25/98)
1793-1835 Felicia Dorothea Browne Hemans, English
poet: "Though the past haunt me as a spirit, I do not ask to forget."
(AP, 12/31/98)
1793-1860 Thomas Addison, English physician,
discovered Addison’s disease, a usually fatal dis-ease caused by the
failure of the adrenal cortex to function and marked by a bronze-like
skin pigmentation, anemia, and prostration.
(AHD, 1971, p.15)
1793-1863 Sam Houston, US soldier and political
leader. He was president of the Republic of Texas from 1836-1838.
(WUD, 1994, p.689)
1794 Jan 13, President Washington
approved a measure adding two stars and two stripes to the American
flag, following the admission of Vermont and Kentucky to the union. The
number of stripes was later reduced to the original 13.
(AP, 1/13/01)
1794 Jan 14, Dr. Jessee Bennet of
Edom, Va., performed the 1st successful Cesarean section operation on
his wife.
(MC, 1/14/02)
1794 Feb 4, France’s First
Republic (Convention) voted for the abolition of slavery in all French
colonies. The abolition decree stated that "the Convention declares the
slavery of the Blacks abolished in all the colonies; consequently, all
men, irrespective of color, living in the colonies are French citizens
and will enjoy all the rights provided by the Constitution." Slavery
was restored by the Consulate in 1802, and was definitively abolished
in 1848 by the Second Republic, on Victor Schoelcher’s initiative.
(www.ambafrance-uk.org/Slavery-Slavery-was-abolished-in.html)
1794 Feb 4, Slaves in Haiti won
emancipation.
(AP, 4/7/03)(WSJ, 3/1/04, p.A16)
1794 Feb 10, Joseph Haydn’s 99th
Symphony in E, premiered.
(MC, 2/10/02)
1794 Feb 11, A session of US
Senate was 1st opened to the public.
(MC, 2/11/02)
1794 Feb 14, 1st US textile
machinery patent was granted, to James Davenport in Phila.
(MC, 2/14/02)
1794 Feb 21, Antonio Lopez de
Santa Anna, Mexican Revolutionary, was born.
(HN, 2/21/98)
1794 Mar 3, 1st performance of
Joseph Haydn’s 101st Symphony in D.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1794 Mar 3, Richard Allen founded
AME Church.
(SC, 3/3/02)
1794 Mar 14, Eli Whitney received
a patent for his cotton gin, an invention that revolutionized America's
cotton industry. He paid substantial royalties to Catherine T. Greene
and this makes his claim to the invention suspect.
(AP, 3/14/97)(SFC, 10/4/97, p.E3)
1794 Mar 22, Congress passed laws
prohibiting slave trade with foreign countries, although slavery
remained legal in the United States. Congress banned US vessels from
supplying slaves to other countries.
(HN, 3/22/01)(MC, 3/22/02)
1794 Mar 23, Josiah Pierson
patented a "cold-header" (rivet) machine.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1794 Mar 23, Lieutenant-General
Tadeusz Kosciusko returned to Poland.
(SS, 3/23/02)
1794 Mar 24, In Cracow a
revolutionary manifesto was proclaimed. The Lithuanian and Polish
nobility under the leadership of Tadas Kasciuska revolted against
Russian control.
(H of L, 1931, p. 81-82)(LHC, 3/23/03)
1794 Mar 27, The US Congress
approved "An Act to provide a Naval Armament" of six armed ships. [see
Oct 13, 1775]
(AP, 3/27/07)
1794 Mar 28, Marie-Joseph de
Condorcet (b.1743), mathematician (Theory of Comets) and philosopher,
died as a fugitive from French Revolution Terrorists.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquis_de_Condorcet)
1794 Apr 5, Georges-Jacques Danton
(34), French revolutionary leader, was guillotined along with Marie
Jean Herault de Sechelles, French author, politician, and Camille
Desmoullins, popu-lar journalist.
(MC, 4/5/02)
1794 Apr 7, In Poland at the
battle of Raclawice the revolutionary forces of Tadeusz Kosci-usko
defeated the imperial armies.
(DrEE, 9/21/96, p.5)
1794 Apr 8,
Marie-Jean-Antoine-Nicholas-Caritat, mathematician died.
(MC, 4/8/02)
1794 Apr 19, Tadeusz Kosciusko
forced Russians out of Warsaw.
(HN, 4/19/97)
1794 Apr 10, Matthew Calbraith
Perry, the American Navy Commodore who opened Japan, was born.
(HN, 4/10/98)
1794 Apr 11, Edward Everett,
governor of Massachusetts, statesman and orator, was born.
(HN, 4/11/98)
1794 May 6, In Haiti Toussaint
Louverture (L’Ouverture), Haitian rebel leader, ended his alli-ance
with the Iberian monarchy and embraced the French Republicans. An order
followed that led to the massacre of Spaniards.
(www.travelinghaiti.com/history_of_haiti/toussaint_louverture.asp)(WSJ,
1/19/07, p.W4)
1794 May 6, Jean-Jacques
Beauvarget-Charpentier (59), composer, died.
(MC, 5/6/02)
1794 May 8, Antoine-Laurent
Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry (identified oxygen), was
executed on the guillotine during France's Reign of Terror. In 2005
Madison Smartt Bell au-thored “Lavoisier in the Year One: The Birth of
a New Science in the Age of Revolution.”
(AP, 5/8/97)(SSFC, 7/3/05, p.E1)
1794 May 10, In France Elizabeth
(30), the sister of King Louis XVI, was beheaded.
(HN, 5/10/99)(MC, 5/10/02)
1794 May 18, The 2nd battle of
Bouvines was between France and Austria.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1794 May 27, Cornelius Vanderbilt
(d.1877), owner of the B & O railroad, was born on Staten Island.
He started running steamships in 1818 and shuttled passengers to the
West coast across Nicaragua for the gold rush. At age 70 he entered the
railroad business. He was never accepted into New York elite society
and died with an estimated $105 million fortune.
(HN, 5/27/98)(WSJ, 1/11/98, p.R18)
1794 May, Richard Allen purchased
a blacksmith shop in Philadelphia and had it moved near St. Thomas.
There he founded an African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church he called
Bethel, "House of God." The Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal
Church in Philadelphia was founded by Richard Allen after he was pulled
from his knees one Sunday by a white usher while praying at St. George
Methodist Episcopal Church. It later stood as the oldest parcel of land
continuously owned by African Americans. The Richard Allen Museum
contains 19th century ar-tifacts from the church. In 1997 it was the
world’s oldest AME church. The church elected its first female bishop
in 2000.
(SFC, 6/24/96, p.A19)(SFC, 7/12/00,
p.A3)(www.pbs.org)
1794 Jun 1, English fleet under
Richard Earl Howe defeated the French. (MC, 6/1/02)
1794 Jun 4, Congress passed a
Neutrality Act that banned Americans from serving in armed forces of
foreign powers.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1794 Jun 4, British troops
captured Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
(HN, 6/4/98)
1794 Jun 4, Robespierre was
unanimously elected president of the Convention in the French
Revolution.
(MC, 6/4/02)
1794 Jun 5, Congress passed the
Neutrality Act, which prohibited Americans from enlisting in the
service of a foreign power.
(AP, 6/5/99)(HN, 6/5/98)
1794 Jun 8, Maximilian
Robespierre, French Revolutionary leader, worried about the influence
of French atheists and philosophers, staged the "Festival of the
Supreme Being" in Paris.
(MC, 6/8/02)
1794 Jun 15, The Guillotine was
moved to outskirts of Paris.
(MC, 6/15/02)
1794 Jun 18, George Grote, British
historian, was born.
(MC, 6/18/02)
1794 Jun 23, Empress Catherine II
granted Jews permission to settle in Kiev.
(MC, 6/23/02)
1794 Jun 26, French defeated an
Austrian army at the Battle of Fleurus.
(HN, 6/26/98)
1794 Jul 5, Sylvester Graham,
developed graham cracker, was born.
(MC, 7/5/02)
1794 Jul 8, French troops captured
Brussels, Belgium.
(HN, 7/8/98)
1794 Jul 12, British Admiral Lord
Nelson lost his right eye at the siege of Calvi, in Corsica.
(HN, 7/12/98)
1794 Jul 13, Robespierre boycotted
the Committee of Public Safety and the National conven-tion after being
denounced as a dictator.
(MC, 7/13/02)
1794 Jul 17, In Philadelphia the
African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, one of the first black churches
in the country, opened its doors.
(www.pbs.org)
1794 Jul 23, Chaos and anarchy
were averted temporarily when Robespierre joined concilia-tion talks in
Paris.
(MC, 7/23/02)
1794 Jul 26, After remaining
uncharacteristically silent for several weeks, Robespierre de-manded
that the National Convention punish "traitors" without naming them.
(MC, 7/26/02)
1794 Jul 26, The French defeated
an Austrian army at the Battle of Fleurus in France.
(HN, 7/26/98)
1794 Jul 27, French revolutionary
leader Maximilien Robespierre was overthrown and placed under arrest;
he was executed the following day.
(AP, 7/27/00)
1794 Jul 28, Maximilien
Robespierre, a leading figure of the French Revolution, was sent to the
guillotine. Robespierre had dominated the Committee of Public Safety
during the "Reign of Terror." He asserted the collective dictatorship
of the revolutionary National Convention and at-tacked factions led by
men such as Jacques-René Hébert which he felt threatened
the govern-ment‘s power. Factions opposed to Robespierre gained
momentum in the summer of 1794. Declared an outlaw of the
National Convention, Robespierre and many of his followers were
captured and he—along with 22 of his supporters—were guillotined before
cheering crowds.
(AP, 7/28/97)(HN, 7/28/98)(HNQ, 11//00)
1794 Jul 29, Seventy of
Robespierre's followers were guillotined.
(MC, 7/29/02)
1794 Aug 7, George Washington
issued a proclamation telling a group of Western Pennsyl-vania farmers
to stop their Whiskey Rebellion. In the US in western Pennsylvania,
angry farm-ers protested a new federal tax on whiskey makers. The
protest flared into the open warfare known as the Whiskey Rebellion
between US marshals and whiskey farmers.
(http://www.ttb.gov/public_info/whisky_rebellion.shtml)(A&IP, ESM,
p.16)(HNQ, 10/14/99)
1794 Aug 20, American General "Mad
Anthony" Wayne defeated the Ohio Indians at the Bat-tle of Fallen
Timbers in the Northwest territory, ending Indian resistance in the
area.
(HN, 8/20/98)
1794 Aug 21, France surrendered
the island of Corsica to the British.
(HN, 8/21/98)
1794 Sep 10, America's first
non-denominational college, Blount College (later the University of
Tennessee), was chartered.
(AP, 9/10/97)
1794 Sep 28, The
Anglo-Russian-Austrian Alliance of St. Petersburg, which was directed
against France, was signed.
(HN, 9/28/98)
1794 Oct 10, The Russian Army
under Gen’l. Alexander Suvorov took Warsaw and captured Tadeus
Kosciusko at Maciejowice. T. Vavzeckis was became the new commander of
the revo-lutionary forces.
(Voruta #27-28, 7/1996, p.5)(HN, 10/10/98)
1794 Oct 15, US moneymakers minted
some 2,000 silver dollars of which 1,750 were deemed good enough to go
into circulation. The press initially used was designed for a smaller
coin and large scale production on a bigger press began a year later.
(SFC, 7/27/05, p.C8)
1794 Nov 3, William Cullen Bryant,
poet and journalist, was born.
(HN, 11/3/00)
1794 Nov 3, Thomas Paine was
released from a Parisian jail with help from the American am-bassador
James Monroe. He had been arrested in 1893 for not endorsing the
execution of Louis XVI and thus offending the Robespierre faction.
While in prison Paine began writing his "The Age of Reason" (1794-1796).
(HN, 11/3/99)(www.ushistory.org/Paine/index.htm)
1794 Nov 16, Warsaw capitulated to
the Russian Army and the revolution ended.
(Voruta #27-28, 7/1996, p.5)
1794 Nov 19, The United States and
Britain signed the Jay Treaty, which resolved some is-sues left over
from the Revolutionary War. This was the 1st US extradition treaty.
(AP, 11/19/97)(MC, 11/19/01)
1794 Nov 21, Honolulu Harbor was
discovered.
(MC, 11/21/01)
1794 Nov 22, Strasbourg,
Alsace-Lorraine, prohibited circumcision and the wearing of beards.
(MC, 11/22/01)
1794 Nov 28, Friedrich WLGA von
Steuben (64), Prussian-US inspector-general of Washing-ton’s army, died
in Oneida, NY. Baron von Steuben, a former Prussian captain, had
arrived in Portsmouth, New Hampshire in 1777, and despite false
credentials, was hired to drill and train Washington’s Continental
Army. His manual of arms, known as the “Blue Book,” shaped basic
training for American recruits for generations to come. In 2008 Paul
Lockhart authored “The Drillmaster of Valley Forge: The Baron de
Steuben and the Making of the American Army.”
(WSJ, 11/8/08, p.W9)(WSJ, 11/8/08, p.W9)
1794 William Blake painted "The
Ancient of Days." "He formed golden com-passes / And be-gan to explore
the Abyss." From the epic "The First Book of Urizen." Urizen is a pun
and stands for "Your Reason." On display at the Whitworth Art Gallery,
Manchester, England.
(T&L, 10/1980, p.42)(WSJ, 4/2397, p.A16)
1794 "The Book of Thell" was
printed by Blake in 14+ sets of 8 different designs.
(LSA, Spring 1995, p.18)
1794 Spanish painter Goya
completed his painting “Yard With Lunatics,” the last in a series of
uncommissioned small paintings executed during his convalescence from
an illness that left him deaf.
(WSJ, 6/18/08, p.D7)
1794 French Azilum near Towanda,
Pa., was planned as an asylum for Marie-Antoinette, her children and
other loyalists of the monarchy seeking refuge from the French
Revolution. Loyal-ists who kept their heads did come and settle.
(HT, 5/97, p.18)
1794 In the US Richard Allen was
pulled from his knees one Sunday by a white usher while praying at St.
George Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. He founded the
African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in 1787.
(SFC, 6/24/96, p.A19)(SFC, 7/12/00, p.A3)
1794 The St. Louis Cathedral in
New Orleans was rebuilt. Two previous structures had burned down.
(Hem., 1/97, p.63)
1794 George Washington established
the first national armory at Springfield, Mass. He also authorized the
arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Md., where the Shenandoah flows into the
Potomac.
(WSJ, 9/12/97, p.A20)(SFEC, 4/25/99, p.T7)
1794 The first American silver
dollar was minted. Congress decided in 1785 that the country‘s monetary
system would be based on a silver coin called a dollar, similar to that
of the Spanish dollar.
(HNQ, 1/5/00)
1794 A French inventor mixed
ground graphite with clay and water and fired it to make strong pencil
leads. [see 1765]
(WSJ, 11/24/00, p.A1)
1794 Gov. Diego Borica took
command of Alta California and remarked on the general fecun-dity of
the Bay Area.
(Bay, 4/07, p.25)
1794 Archibald Menzies introduced
the California poppy to England. The seed that he brought to Kew
Gardens did not survive. [see 1792, 1816,1825-1833]
(NBJ, 2/96, p.12)
1794 British Admiral Earl Howe
defeated the French fleet.
(SFEC,10/26/97, p.T4)
1794 Ernst Chladni, German
scientist, proposed that meteorites were masses of iron-rich
ex-traterrestrial rock, which occasionally penetrated the earth’s
atmosphere to strike the surface.
(ON, 7/02, p.5)
1794 The Royal Bayreuth porcelain
factory was founded in Bavaria. The factory stamped this date on dishes
made after 1900.
(SFC,11/5/97, Z1 p.3)
1794 Napoleon’s occupying army in
Maastricht, Netherlands, took back to France a giant di-nosaur head
that was found in a dark recess of St. Peter’s mountain in 1780. It was
named the Mosasaurus and roamed the seas some 70 million years ago. The
head was lugged to the home of Theodorus Godding, a canon at the local
church. The French say that he swapped it to Napoleon for 600 bottles
of wine. Records however seem to indicate otherwise.
(NYT, 6/7/96, p.A4)
1794 Scotland, parish of
Kirkmichael, Banffshire, on the holy well of St. Michael. (Statistical
Account of Scotland, vol. xii, p.464): Many a patient have its water
restored to health and many more have attested the efficacies of their
virtues. But as the presiding power is sometimes ca-pricious and apt to
desert his charge, it now lies neglected, choked with weeds, unhonored,
and unfrequented. In better days it was not so; for the winged
guardian, under the semblance of a fly, was never absent from his
duty... Every movement of the sympathetic fly was regarded in si-lent
awe...
(R.M.-P.H.C.p.93)
1794 The Russian Orthodox mission
was founded in Alaska. It led to the Orthodox Church in America with
600,000 members.
(WP, 6/29/96, p.B7)
1794 Ukraine’s port city of Odessa
was founded.
(Econ, 12/18/04, p.86)
1794-1824 Matthias Schmutzer, artist, produced over
1000 large-format watercolors of specimens from the imperial
gardens of Francis I. In 2006 H. Walter Lack authored
“Florilegium Imperiale: Botanical Illustrations for Francis I of
Austria.”
(WSJ, 5/27/06, p.P9)
1794-1815 An anthology of first hand reports on the
naval war between France and Britain was ed-ited by Dean King and John
B. Hattendorf and published in 1997.
(SFEC,11/2/97, Par p.10)
1794-1872 Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, German
artist.
(WSJ, 7/16/98, p.A16)
1794-1925 The Kajar Dynasty ruled over Iran. The
Gulistan Palace (constructed in this era), con-tains the much disputed
Peacock Throne.
(NG, Sept. 1939, Baroness Ravensdale, p.326)
1795 Jan 3, The 3rd division of
the Lithuanian Polish Republic was made between Russia and Austria.
(Voruta #27-28, Jul 1996, p.5)
1795 Jan 3, Josiah Wedgwood
(b.1730), British ceramics manufacturer, died. His daughter, Susannah,
was the mother of Charles Darwin. In 2004 Brian Dolan authored
“Wedgwood: The First Tycoon.”
(SSFC, 12/5/04,
p.E5)(www.wedgwoodmuseum.org.uk/wedgwood_chronology.htm)
1795 Jan 25, The Royal Chapel at
Carmel, Ca., was dedicated with a Mass of Thanksgiving. A major
renovation was undertaken in 1856.
(SSFC, 1/4/09, p.B3)
1795 Jan 26, Johann Christoph
Friedrich Bach (62), composer, died.
(MC, 1/26/02)
1795 Feb 2, Joseph Haydn’s 102nd
Symphony in B premiered.
(MC, 2/2/02)
1795 Feb 4, France abolished
slavery in her territories and conferred slaves to citizens.
(HN, 2/4/99)
1795 Feb 7, The 11th Amendment to
US Constitution was ratified.
(MC, 2/7/02)
1795 Feb 13, The University of
North Carolina became the first US state university to admit students
with the arrival of Hinton James, who was the only student on campus
for two weeks.
(AP, 2/13/04)
1795 Feb 18, George Peabody, U.S.
merchant and philanthropist, was born in South Danvers, Mass.
(HN, 2/18/98)(MC, 2/18/02)
1795 Feb 21, Francisco Manuel da
Silva, composer, was born.
(MC, 2/21/02)
1795 Feb 21, Freedom of worship
was established in France under constitution.
(MC, 2/21/02)
1795 Mar 11, Battle at
Kurdla, India: Mahratten beat Moguls.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1795 Mar 22, A Lithuanian
delegation under L. Tiskevicius went to Jekaterina II in Petersburg and
declared that Lithuania’s union with Poland was ended.
(Voruta #27-28, Jul 1996, p.5)
1795 Mar 29, Beethoven (24)
debuted as pianist in Vienna.
(MC, 3/29/02)
1795 Apr 7, The National
Convention of Revolutionary France put into effect a new calendar
system, similar to that of ancient Egypt. The year began with the
autumn equinox, and had 360 days divided into twelve months of thirty
days. Five extra days were placed at the end of the year. The months
were divided into three 10 day groups. The day was divided into 10 new
hours, each hour into 100 minutes, and each minute into 100 seconds.
(K.I.-365D, p.42)
1795 Apr 8, The Prince of Wales,
later England’s King George IV, married his German cousin, Caroline, to
produce an heir and increase his income. On their wedding night the
drunken bride-groom spent the night "under the grate, where he fell,
and where I left him." The story is told by Flora Fraser in her book:
"The Unruly Queen: The Life of Queen Caroline." Masterpiece Theater
made a TV presentation in 1997.
(SFC, 7/14/96, DB p.3)(WSJ, 1/9/97,
p.A8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_of_Brunswick)
1795 Apr 21, Vincenzo Pallotti,
Italian saint, was born.
(MC, 4/21/02)
1795 Apr 23, In Britain the trial
to impeach Warren Hastings, governor-general of India (1773-1785), on
21 charges for high crimes and misdemeanors ended after 7 years.
Hastings was ac-quitted on all charges.
(SFEC, 11/1/98, BR p.11)(WSJ, 5/1/00, p.A24)(MC,
4/23/02)
1795 Apr 28, Charles Sturt
(d.1869), explorer of Australia, was born in India. British explorer
Charles Sturt is known as the "father of Australian exploration." He
was the first to penetrate deep into Australia's interior from 1828 to
1845 during three hazardous expeditions. In 1828 he discovered the
Darling River and in January 1830 the Murray River, which he followed
until he reached present day Goolwa. His last expedition came to an end
when his eyesight was im-paired by exposure and illness. Scotsman John
McDouall Stuart was part of Stuart's final expe-dition and went on to
become a major explorer, crossing the continent from Adelaide to Port
Darwin in 1862.
(http://members.ozemail.com.au/~fliranre/home.htm)
(HN, 4/28/98)(HNQ, 5/26/98)
1795 Spring, Some 300 Indians fled
Mission Dolores in San Francisco following a year of food shortages and
disease that killed over 200. They sought refuge in the East Bay hills
and Napa.
(SFC, 9/26/03, p.D15)
1795 May 4, Thousands of rioters
entered jails in Lyons, France, and massacred 99 Jacobin prisoners.
(HN, 5/4/99)
1795 May 6, Dr. Pierre-Joseph
Dessault visited the incarcerated 10-year-old dauphin, the heir to the
French throne. He found the dying child in abject misery. The boy died
June 8.
(WSJ, 10/18/02, p.W9)
1795 May 10,
Jacques-Nicolas-Augustin Thierry, historian, was born.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1795 May 13, Joshua Ratoon Sands
(d.1883), Commander (Union Navy), was born.
(MC, 5/13/02)
1795 May 15, Napoleon entered the
Lombardian capital of Milan in triumph. After taking Milan he released
his troops on the townspeople who became victims of an orgy of
destroying, raping and killing. The events are described in the 1998
biography "Napoleon Bonaparte" by Alan Schom.
(SFEC, 1/18/98, BR p.9)(HN, 5/15/98)
1795 May 19, Johns Hopkins,
founder of Johns Hopkins University, was born.
(HN, 5/19/98)
1795 May 20, Ignac Martinovics,
Hungarian physicist, revolutionary, was beheaded.
(MC, 5/20/02)
1795 May, Mungo Park, Scottish
surgeon, sailed from England on behalf of the British African
Association to search for the Niger River.
(ON, 7/00, p.10)
1795 Jun 8, In France the Dauphin
(Louis XVII), son and sole survivor of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette,
died at age 10 after succumbing to tuberculosis in the Temple prison.
His heart was cut from his body when he died in prison, pickled,
stolen, returned, and DNA-tested two centu-ries later. In 2002 Deborah
Cadbury authored "The Lost King of France."
(SFC, 4/20/00, p.A14)(WSJ, 10/18/02, p.W9)(AP,
6/3/04)
1795 Jul 7, Thomas Paine defended
the principal of universal suffrage at the Constitutional Convention in
Paris.
(HN, 7/7/98)
1795 Jul 9, James Swan paid off
the $2,024,899 US national debt.
(MC, 7/9/02)
1795 Jul 14, "La Marseillais,"
written in 1792, became the French national anthem.
(http://tinyurl.com/7a4p9)
1795 Jul 22, Spain signed the
Peace of Basel, a treaty with France ending the War of the Pyrenees.
The treaty ceded Santo Domingo to France.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_of_Basel)
1795 Aug 3, A defeated Indian
coalition met with Gen. Anthony Wayne in a treaty council at
Greenville, Ohio. The event is the subject of a painting by Howard
Chandler Christy. From a re-view of 500 Nations by Alvin M. Josephy
Jr., published by Knopf in 1995 to accompany an 8-hour television
documentary.
(SFE Mag., 2/12/95, p. 18)
1795 Aug 15, Franz Joseph Haydn
left England for the last time.
(MC, 8/15/02)
1795 Aug 20, Joseph Haydn returned
to Vienna from England.
(MC, 8/20/02)
1795 Aug 31, Franxois-Andre
Danican Philidor, composer, died at 68.
(MC, 8/31/01)
1795 Sep 1, James Gordon Bennet
was born. He later served as the editor of the New York Sun, the first
tabloid-sized daily newspaper.
(HN, 9/1/00)
1795 Sep 16, The Capitulation of
Rustenburg: A Dutch garrison at the Cape of Good Hope surrendered to a
British fleet under Adm. George Elphinstone.
(EWH, 4th ed, p.884)
1795 Sep 17, Giuseppi Saverio
Rafaele Mercadante, composer, was born.
(MC, 9/17/01)
1795 Sep 23, A national plebiscite
approved the new French constitution, but so many voters sustained that
the results were suspect.
(HN, 9/23/99)
1795 Sep 23, Conseil of the
Cinq-Cents (Council of 500), formed in Paris.
(MC, 9/23/01)
1795 Oct 4, General Napoleon
Bonaparte led the rout of counterrevolutionaries in the streets of
Paris, beginning his rise to power. France was in the midst of economic
disaster—a factor that aided royalist counterrevolutionaries in their
attempts to incite rebellion against the young republican government.
Bonaparte, looking for a new command while on half pay in Paris, joined
the defense of the Convention against overwhelming odds.
(HN, 10/4/99)(HNQ, 10/26/00)
1795 Oct 5, The day after he
routed counterrevolutionaries in Paris, Napoleon Bonaparte ac-cepted
their formal surrender. Napoleon takes charge.
(HN, 10/5/99)
1795 Oct 11, In gratitude for
putting down a rebellion in the streets of Paris, France's National
Convention appointed Napoleon Bonaparte second in command of the Army
of the Interior.
(HN, 10/11/99)
1795 Oct 13, William Prescott,
American Revolutionary soldier, died.
(MC, 10/13/01)
1795 Oct 24, Russia, Austria and
Prussia held a convention in Petersburg to finalize the 3rd division of
the Polish-Lithuanian Republic. Most of Lithuania with Vilnius went to
Russia, War-saw and the left bank of the Nemunas River went to Prussia
and Cracow went to Austria. King Stanislovas Augustas of Poland was
forced from his capital and moved to Grodno (Gardinas).
(Voruta #27-28, 7/1996, p.5)(MC, 10/24/01)
1795 Oct 26, Napoleon Bonaparte,
second-in-command, became the army's commander when General Paul Barras
resigned his commission as head of France's Army of the Interior to
become head of the Directory.
(HN, 10/26/99)
1795 Oct 27, The United States and
Spain signed the Treaty of San Lorenzo (also known as Pinckney's
Treaty), which provided for free navigation of the Mississippi River.
(AP, 10/27/97)
1795 Oct 31, John Keats (d.1821),
English poet, was born in London.
(WUD, 1994, p.781)(AP, 10/31/97)(HN, 10/31/98)
1795 Nov 2, James Knox Polk, the
11th president of the United States, was born in Mecklen-burg County,
N.C.
(AP, 11/2/97)(HN, 11/2/98)
1795 Nov 28, US paid $800,000 and
a frigate as tribute to Algiers and Tunis.
(MC, 11/28/01)
1795 Dec 3, Rowland Hill,
introduced 1st adhesive postage stamp (1840), was born.
(MC, 12/3/01)
1795 Dec 4, Thomas Carlyle
(d.1881), English (Scot) essayist, critic and historian, friend of
Ralph Waldo Emerson, was born. His work included "The French
Revolution" and "Sartor Re-sartus." "A man doesn’t know what he knows,
until he knows what he doesn’t know." "No great man lives in vain. The
history of the world is but the biography of great men."
(V.D.-H.K.p.400)(SFEC, 6/28/98, Z1 p.8)(AP,
7/2/98)(HN, 12/4/00)
1795 Dec 14, John Bloomfield
Jarvis, civil engineer, was born.
(HN, 12/14/00)
1795 William Blake painted his
"Elohim Creating Adam."
(SFC,1/21/97, p.A20)
c1795 Wilhelm von Kobell, German
artist, made his watercolor "Staff Officers Listening to the Reading of
the Day’s Orders."
(WSJ, 7/16/98, p.A16)
1795 Charles Wilson Peale painted
"The Staircase Group: Raphaelle and Titian Ramsay Peale." He also did a
portrait of Martha Washington. [see 1853]
(SFC, 1/25/97, p.E1)(SFEC, 7/27/97, DB p.35)
1795 Kitagawa Utamoro, Japanese
artist, made his woodblock print "Oiran" about this time.
(WSJ, 4/24/96, A-12)
1795 Hutton’s "Theory of the
Earth" appeared in book form, but did not impact the reading public due
to his stiff style.
(RFH-MDHP, p.70)(DD-EVTT, p.17)
1795 Beethoven had a terrible bout
of "continual diarrhea" while finishing his B-flat piano con-certo.
(WSJ, 5/29/96, p.A1)
1795 Samuel Adams and Paul Revere
laid the cornerstone for the Massachusetts State House in Boston.
(AH, 10/07, p.73)
1795 The oldest tomato ketchup
recipe, according to Andrew F. Smith author of "Pure Ketchup: A History
of America’s National Condiment," was written in Worcester, Mass.
(SFC, 7/3/96, zz-1,p.3)
1795 Jim Beam, US producer of fine
Bourbon whiskey was founded.
(Hem., Dec. '95, p.82)
1795 Franciscan priests first
visited the site of San Ysabel in San Diego County.
(SFE, 9/16/96, p.A15)
1795 Britain reinforced its forces
in St. Domingue. It was the largest expedition that had ever left
England.
(SFCM, 5/30/04, p.12)
1795 Lime juice was issued to all
British sailors to aid in prevention of scurvy. Captain James Cook
(d.1779) had prepared a paper detailing his groundbreaking work against
scurvy. He was awarded the gold Copley Medal-one of the highest honors
of England's Royal Society. Scurvy epidemics were once common among
sailors on long voyages. Cook was the first to beat the problem,
recognizing the need for an appropriate diet for his sailors.
(HNQ, 7/21/98)
1795 The British won a battle
against the local Garifuna on St. Vincent’s Island.
(SFEC, 5/4/97, p.T11)
1795 In England the Coalport
Porcelain Works began operations about this time.
(SFC, 5/28/08,
p.G2)(www.thepotteries.org/allpotters/283.htm)
1795 In Nova Scotia, Canada, local
youths on Oak Island stumbled on an unusual depression that appeared to
lead to a shaft. For years treasure hunters dug down into what became
known as the “Money Pit.”
(WSJ, 8/31/05, p.B1)
1795 In China the end of the
Qianlong period. [see 1736-1795]
(WSJ, 8/28/97, p.A12)
1795 A set of remains that the
Spaniards believed to be of Christopher Columbus were dug up from
behind the main altar in the newly built cathedral of Santo Domingo and
shipped to a ca-thedral in Havana, where they remained until the
Spanish-American War broke out in 1898, when Spain brought them to
Seville. In 1877 workers digging inside the Santo Domingo cathe-dral
unearthed a leaden box containing 13 large bone fragments and 28 small
ones. It was in-scribed "Illustrious and distinguished male, don
Cristobal Colon." The Dominicans said these were the real remains of
Columbus and that the Spaniards must have taken the wrong remains.
(SFC, 1/18/05, p.A8)
1795 Maruyama Okyo (b.1733),
Japanese painter based in Kyoto, died. His work included a 50 mile
scene in "Both Banks of the Yodo River."
(WSJ, 12/1/98, p.A20)(SFC, 12/8/05, p.E1)
1795 The Loyal Orange Institution
was established in Portadown to proclaim Protestant as-cendancy.
(SFEC, 12/22/96, Z1 p.6)(SFC, 7/12/99, p.A19)
1795 The Persians invaded Khurasan
(province) in Afghanistan.
(www.afghan, 5/25/98)
1795 Stanislaus Augustus
Poniatowski, the last king of Poland, was forced to abdicate.
(WSJ, 2/15/00, p.A24)
1795 Poland and Lithuania were
partitioned for the last time by Russia, Prussia, and Austria.
(Compuserve, Online Encyclopedia)
1795 The South African Cape was
first occupied by the British.
(NG, Oct. 1988, p. 563)
1795 In Tripoli Pasha Yusef
Karamanli deposed his older brother Hamet in a bloodless coup.
(ON, 10/06, p.8)
1795-1805 Elias Boudinot served as the director of
the US mint.
(WSJ, 8/7/98, p.W13)
1795-1818 The US flag had 15 stars and 15 stripes
over this period.
(SFC, 7/22/97, p.A11)
1795-1818 Carl Phillip Fohr, German artist.
(WSJ, 7/16/98, p.A16)
1795-1825 Joshua Johnson, the first professional
African-American portrait painter, plied his art in Baltimore.
(SFC, 5/26/96, T-7)
1795-1840 New York state and local governments
entered into 26 treaties and several purchase agreements with the
Oneida Indians to acquire all but 32 of 270,000 acres. Almost none of
the transactions were approved by Congress as required by a 1790 law.
(SFC, 1/13/99, p.A9)
1795-1874 Peter Andreas Hansen, Danish astronomer.
(WUD, 1994, p.644)
1795-1875 Christian Gottfried Ehlenberg, German
naturalist, known especially for his studies of in-fusoria, i.e.
microscopic organisms.
(OAPOC-TH, p.71)
1795-1921 The state of Poland was gobbled up by
Russia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Prus-sia.
(SFC, 7/10/97, p.A7)
1796 Jan 5, Samuel Huntington
(64), US judge (signed Declaration of Independence), died.
(MC, 1/5/02)
1796 Jan 8, Jean-Marie Collot
d'Herbois (46), French Revolution leader, died in exile. He was a
member of the Committee of Public Safety that ruled during The Terror.
(MC, 1/8/02)
1796 Feb 17, Giovanni Pacini,
composer, was born.
(MC, 2/17/02)
1796 Feb 17, James Macpherson
(b.1736), Scottish poet, died. In 1761 he had announced the discovery
of an epic on the subject of Fingal written by Ossian (based on Fionn's
son Oisín). He then published poems by Ossian, the alleged blind
3rd century poet, which became very popular and later exposed as a
fraud.
(WSJ, 7/26/08,
p.W8)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Macpherson)
1796 Mar 1, The 1st National
Meeting was held in the Hague.
(SC, 3/1/02)
1796 Mar 9, Napoleon Bonaparte
(26) married Josephine Tascher de Beauharnais (32) in Paris.
(AP, 3/9/98)(HN, 3/9/98)
1796 Mar 19, Stephen Storace (33),
composer, died.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1796 Mar 31, Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe's "Egmont," premiered in Weimar.
(MC, 3/31/02)
1796 Apr 2, Haitian revolt leader
Toussaint L’Ouverture commanded French forces at Santo Domingo.
(AP, 4/2/99)
1796 Apr 3, The 1st elephant was
shipped to the US from Bengal, India, by Broadway show-man Jacob
Croninshield.
(SFC, 11/18/00, p.B3)
1796 Apr 13, The 1st elephant
arrived in US from India.
(MC, 4/13/02)
1796 Apr 13, Battle at Millesimo,
Italy: Napoleon beat the Austrians.
(MC, 4/13/02)
1796 Apr 22, Napoleon defeated the
Piedmontese at Battle of Mondovi.
(MC, 4/22/02)
1796 May 4, Horace Mann, "the
father of American Public Education" educator and author, was born.
(HN, 5/4/99)
1796 May 10, Napoleon Bonaparte
won a brilliant victory against the Austrians at Lodi bridge in Italy.
(HN, 5/10/99)
1796 May 14, English physician
Edward Jenner administered the first vaccination against smallpox to
his gardener's son, James Phipps (8). A single blister rose up on the
spot, but James later demonstrated immunity to smallpox. Jenner
actually used vaccinia, a close viral re-lation to smallpox. [see July
21, 1721]
(Econ, 11/22/03, p.77)(AP, 5/14/08)
1796 May 19, A game protection law
was passed by Congress to restrict encroachment by whites on Indian
hunting grounds.
(DTnet 5/19/97)
1796 May 27, James S. McLean
patented his piano.
(MC, 5/27/02)
1796 Jun 1, Tennessee became the
16th state of the Union.
(AP, 6/1/97)
1796 Jun 1, In accordance with
the Jay Treaty, all British troops were withdrawn from U.S. soil.
(DTnet 6/1/97)
1796 Jul 4, The 1st US
Independence Day celebration was held.
(Maggio)
1796 Jul 15, Thomas Bulfinch,
historian and mythologist (The Age of Fable), was born.
(HN, 7/15/01)
1796 Jul 16, Jean-Baptiste-Camille
Corot (d.1875), French painter, was born. His work in-cluded "Madame
Corot" (1833-1835) and "Interrupted Reading" (1870-1873). He led the
way toward new forms of perspective and composition that was later
mined by impressionism and photography.
(SFC, 6/4/96, p.E5)(WSJ, 10/25/96, p.A15)(WSJ,
3/25/97, p.A16)(MC, 7/16/02)
1796 Jul 21, Robert Burns
(b.1759), Scottish poet and a lyricist (Auld Lang Syne), died. In 2009
Robert Crawford authored “The Bard: Robert Burns.”
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Burns)(SSFC,
1/25/09, Books p.3)
1796 Jul 22, Cleveland, Ohio, was
founded by Gen. Moses Cleaveland. Moses Cleaveland came to where the
city of Cleveland now sits and surveyed the land. After three months he
re-turned to Connecticut. The city bears his name.
(SFC, 6/2/96, T10)(AP, 7/22/97)
1796 Jul 23, Franz Adolf Berwald,
Sweden, composer, was born.
(MC, 7/23/02)
1796 Jul 26, George Catlin,
American artist and author, was born.
(HN, 7/26/01)
1796 Jul, Mungo Park, Scottish
surgeon, reached the Niger River at Segou, (Mali). Mansong, the African
chief at Segou, gave Park enough money to return to the coast. Park
described his journey in his book: "Travels in the Interior Districts
of Africa."
(ON, 7/00, p.10)
1796 Sep 17, President George
Washington delivered his "Farewell Address" to Congress before
concluding his second term in office. Washington counseled the republic
in his farewell address to avoid "entangling alliances" and involvement
in the "ordinary vicissitudes, combina-tions, and collision of European
politics." Also "we may safely trust to temporary alliances for
ex-traordinary emergencies."
(WSJ, 5/31/96, p.A10)(WSJ, 6/17/96, p.A15)(HN,
9/17/98)
1796 Sep 19, President
Washington's farewell address was published. In it, America's first
chief executive advised, "Observe good faith and justice toward all
nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all."
(AP, 9/19/97)
1796 Nov 3, John Adams was elected
president. [see Dec 7]
(MC, 11/3/01)
1796 Nov 7, Catharina II (67),
"the Great", tsarina of Russia (1762-96), died. [see Nov 17]
(MC, 11/7/01)
1796 Nov 17, Napoleon Bonaparte
defeated an Italian army near the Alpone River, Italy, in the Battle of
Arcole.
(HN, 11/17/98)(MC, 11/17/01)
1796 Nov 17, Catharine II (67),
empress of Russia known as Catharine the Great (1762-96), died. Over
her 69 years she had at least 12 lovers including Prince Potemkin. [see
Nov 7]
(MC, 11/17/01)(WSJ, 2/14/02, p.A18)
1796 Dec 7, Electors chose John
Adams to be the second president of the United States. [see Nov 3]
(AP, 12/7/97)
1796 Dec 18, The Baltimore Monitor
appeared as the 1st US Sunday newspaper.
(MC, 12/18/01)
1796 Dec 30, Jean-Baptiste Lamoyne
(45), composer, died.
(MC, 12/30/01)
1796 Pierre-Paul Prud’hon
(1758-1823), French artist, painted "Marie-Anne-Celestine Pierre de
Vellefrey," the portrait of a little girl.
(WSJ, 4/8/98, p.A20)
1796 Jane Austen began her novel
“Pride and Prejudice.”
(Econ, 12/24/05, p.104)
1796 George Owen’s "History of
Pembrokeshire" was published. It was written in 1570 and sets forth the
principle of geological stratigraphy.
(RFH-MDHP, p.7)
1796 Immanuel Kant wrote his
"Perpetual Peace," advocating a world government.
(V.D.-H.K.p.317)
1796 The White House and Congress
engaged in its 1st struggle over background documents. Pres. Washington
denied a House request for documents on the Jay Treaty. The documents
had already been shared with the Senate.
(WSJ, 2/26/02, p.A24)
1796 Supporters of John Adams in
his victorious campaign against Thomas Jefferson, called Jefferson "an
atheist, anarchist, demagogue, coward, mountebank, trickster, and
Francoma-niac."
(WSJ, 10/8/96, p.A22)
1796 Andrew Jackson was elected as
Tennessee’s 1st congressman.
(SSFC, 10/30/05, p.M3)
1796 In [France] Michael Thonet
was born in the Rhenish village of Boppard. He invented the classic
bent wood chair.
(WSJ, 12/4/97, p.A20)
c1796 Austrian numbered bank
accounts originated during the Hapsburg era.
(SFC, 6/13/96, p.C2)
1796 The British seized the island
of Sri Lanka, then under the name of Ceylon.
(SFC, 6/20/96, p.A8)
c1796 The Orange Order was founded
to commemorate the King William of Orange Protestant victory over
Catholic King James II.
(SFC, 6/26/96, p.A8)
1796 Mary Lamb (31) killed her
mother with a carving knife. England deemed her a lunatic and released
into the custody of her brother Charles. In 1806 they published “Tales
From Shakespeare.” In 2005 Susan Tyler Hitchcock authored “Mad Mary
Lamb.”
(WSJ, 2/18/05, p.W6)
1796 Cuba exported Havana cigars
to Britain.
(WSJ, 1/11/99, p.R49)
c1796 In Lithuania Elijah ben
Solomon Zalmen, the Gaon of Vilna, urged Jews to study gram-mar,
astronomy and other disciplines as well as the Torah. His writings
survived and in 1996 were being stored under controversy in a Roman
Catholic Church in Vilnius as property of the Lithuanian National
Library.
(SFEC, 11/24/96, p.A15)
1796 Hacienda Santa Teresa began
producing rum in Venezuela. In 1885 it was bought out by the Vollmer
family.
(WSJ, 11/10/04, p.A8)
c1796 The Tutsi Banyamulenge
arrived into Zaire.
(SFC, 10/10/96, p.A14)
1796-1797 Napoleon conquered northern Italy.
(SFEC, 1/18/98, BR p.9)
1796-1799 Brazilian Baroque sculptor Aleijadinho
(Antonio Francisco Lisboa), completed his great-est work: the
sculptures of Congonhas do Campo, 66 wooden images that include the 12
prophets.
(USA Today, OW, 4/22/96, p.10)
1796-1865 Thomas Chandler Haliburton, Canadian jurist
and humorist: "When a man is wrong and won't admit it, he always gets
angry."
(AP, 6/14/99)
1797 Jan 1, Albany became the
capital of New York state, replacing New York City.
(AP, 1/1/98)
1797 Jan 11, Francis Lightfoot Lee
(62), US farmer and signer Declaration of Independence, died.
(MC, 1/11/02)
1797 Jan 14, Napoleon Bonaparte
defeated Austrians at Rivoli in northern Italy.
(HN, 1/14/99)
1797 Jan 31, Franz
Schubert, Austrian composer, was born in Lichtenthal, Austria. His
works included the C Major Symphony and The Unfinished Symphony.
(SFEC, 1/5/97, p.B11)(AP, 1/31/98)(HN,
1/31/99)(MC, 1/31/02)
1797 Feb 4, Earthquake in Quito,
Ecuador, some killed 40,000 people. Riobamba was de-stroyed.
(www.newadvent.org/cathen/13061c.htm)(http://tinyurl.com/btbdc)
1797 Feb 9, John Quincy Adams’
(Sr.) emerged victorious from America's first contested presidential
election.
(HN, 2/9/97)
1797 Feb 12, Haydn’s song "Gott
erhalte Franz den Kaiser," (popularized years later as "Deutschland
Uber Alles," by Nazis), premiered in Vienna.
(MC, 2/12/02)
1797 Feb 14, The Spanish fleet was
destroyed by the British under Admiral Jervis (with Nel-son in support)
at the battle of Cape St. Vincent, off Portugal.
(HN, 2/14/99)
1797 Feb 15, Henry Steinway
(d.1871), German-American piano maker, was born in Germany as Heinrich
Steinweg. He move to the US in 1851. The name was anglicized in 1864.
(WSJ, 7/15/06, p.P8)(http://tinyurl.com/qn6dy)
1797 Feb 19, Pope Pius VI ceded
papal territory to France in the Treaty of Tolentino.
(PC, 1992 ed, p.353)
1797 Feb 21, Trinidad, West Indies
surrendered to the British.
(HN, 2/21/98)
1797 Feb 23, Antoine d'Auvergne
(83), French opera composer (Coquette), died.
(MC, 2/23/02)
1797 Feb 26, Bank of England
issued 1st £1-note.
(SC, 2/26/02)
1797 Mar 2, The Directory of Great
Britain authorized vessels of war to board and seize neu-tral vessels,
particularly if the ships were American.
(HN, 3/2/99)
1797 Mar 2, Horace [Horatio]
Walpole (79), British horror writer, died.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1797 Mar 4, Vice-President John
Adams, elected President on December 7, to replace George Washington,
was sworn in. Adams soon selected Timothy Pickering as his secretary of
state. Pickering extended aid to Haitian slaves in their ongoing revolt
against French colonists. This policy was reversed under Jefferson.
(HN, 3/4/99)(SSFC, 11/2/03, p.M6)
1797 Mar 13, Cherubini's opera
"Medee," premiered in Paris.
(MC, 3/13/02)
1797 Mar 22, Kaiser Wilhelm I,
German Emperor (1871-88), was born.
(HN, 3/22/97)
1797 Mar 25, John Winebrenner,
U.S. clergyman who founded the Church of God, was born.
(HN, 3/24/98)
1797 Mar 26, James Hutton,
geologist, died.
(SS, 3/26/02)
1797 Mar 28, Nathaniel Briggs of
New Hampshire patented a washing machine.
(AP, 3/28/97)
1797 Apr 14, Adolphe Thiers, 1st
president of 3rd French Republic (1871-77), was born. [see Apr 18]
(MC, 4/14/02)
1797 Apr 18, Louis-Adolphe Thiers,
president of France, was born. [see Apr 14]
(MC, 4/18/02)
1797 Apr 18, France and Austria
signed a cease fire.
(MC, 4/18/02)
1797 Apr, A British armada of 68
vessels and 7,000 men under Scotsman Sir Ralph Aber-cromby attacked San
Juan, Puerto Rico. The Spanish defenses held. A procession of women
made up to look like soldiers caused the siege to be called off. An
annual parade later com-memorated this event.
(HT, 4/97, p.34)(SFEC, 2/13/00, p.T1)
1797 May 2, A mutiny in the
British navy spread from Spithead to the rest of the fleet.
(HN, 5/2/99)
1797 May 10, The 1st American Navy
ship, the "United States," was launched.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1797 May 12, Johann Hermann
Kufferath, composer, was born.
(MC, 5/12/02)
1797 May 12, George Washington
addressed the Delaware chiefs and stated: "It is the duty of all
nations to acknowledge the providence of almighty God, to obey his
will, to be grateful for his benefits, and to humbly implore his
protection and favor."
(WSJ, 6/26/01, p.A23)
1797 May 18, Frederik Augustus II,
King of Saxon (1836-54), was born.
(SC, 5/18/02)
1797 Jun 2, 1st ascent of "Great
Mountain" (4,622') in Adirondack, NY, was by C. Broadhead.
(SC, 6/2/02)
1797 Jun 11, Padre Fermin
Francisco de Lasuen and a few Spanish soldiers established Mis-sion San
Jose on a little creek and grove of trees that they called Alameda. It
was the 14th of 21 California missions. It was the end of a way of life
for the local Ohlone Indians.
(SFC, 6/12/97, p.A17)
1797 Jun 17, Aga Mohammed Khan,
cruel ruler of Persia, was castrated and killed.
(MC, 6/17/02)
1797 Jun 24, Mission San Juan
Bautista, the 15th in California, was founded in the lands of the
Mutsun Indians. Father Fermin de Lasuen blessed the future site of
Mission San Juan Bau-tista in California.
(SFC, 6/21/97, p.A16)(SJSVB, 6/24/96, p.41)(SFC,
9/3/97, p.A17)
1797 Jun, In London, England,
Hatchards bookstore on Piccadilly was founded.
(Hem., 5/97, p.99)
1797 Jul 7, The US House of
Representatives exercised its constitutional power of impeach-ment, and
voted to charge Senator William Blount of Tennessee with "a high
misdemeanor, en-tirely inconsistent with his public duty and trust as a
Senator." Blount had financial problems which led him to enter into a
conspiracy with British officers to enlist frontiersmen and Cherokee
Indians to assist the British in conquering parts of Spanish Florida
and Louisiana.
(MC, 7/7/02)
1797 Jul 9, Edmund Burke (b.1729),
Irish-born British statesman, parliament leader, died. His writing
included “Reflections on the Revolution in France,” 1790.
(WUD, 1994
p.198)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Burke)
1797 Jul 10, 1st US frigate, the
"United States," was launched in Philadelphia.
(MC, 7/10/02)
1797 Jul 25, Presidente Fermin
Francisco de Lasuen founded Mission San Miguel Archangel, the 16th
California mission. He took possession of the land on behalf of Viceroy
Branciforte. The mission facilitated travel between Mission San Luis
Obispo and Mission San Antonio.
(SB, 3/28/02)
1797 Aug 30, Mary Wollstonecraft
(Godwin) Shelley (d.1851), the creator of "Frankenstein," or the Modern
Prometheus, was born in London. Her mother died in childbirth.
(AHD, p.1193)(AP, 8/30/97)(HN, 8/30/98)(Econ,
2/26/05, p.84)
1797 Sep 6, William "Extra Billy"
Smith, Confederacy (Confederate Army), was born.
(MC, 9/6/01)
1797 Sep 20, The US frigate
Constitution (Old Ironsides) was launched in Boston. [see Oct 21]
(MC, 9/20/01)
1797 Oct 16, Lord Cardigan, leader
of the famed Light Brigade which was decimated in the Crimean War, who
eventually had a jacket named after him, was born.
(HN, 10/16/98)
1797 Oct 21, The 44-gun 204-foot
U.S. Navy frigate USS Constitution, also known as Old Ironsides, was
launched in Boston's harbor. It was never defeated in 42 battles. 216
crew mem-bers set sail again in 1997 for its 200th birthday. [see Sep
20]
(AP, 10/21/97)(SFC, 7/22/97, p.A1)(SFC,10/22/97,
p.A6)
1797 Oct 22, French balloonist
Andre-Jacques Garnerin made the first parachute descent, landing safely
from a height of about 3,000 feet; at some 2,200 feet over Paris.
(AP, 10/22/97)(HN, 10/22/98)
1797 Nov 19, Sojourner Truth
(d.1883), abolitionist and women's rights advocate, was born. "Religion
without humanity is a poor human stuff."
(HN, 11/19/98)(AP, 10/29/00)
1797 Nov 29, Domenico Gaetano
Maria Donizetti, composer (Lucia di Lamermoor, l'Elisir d'Amore), was
born.
(MC, 11/29/01)
1797 Dec 13, Heinrich Heine
(d.1856), German lyric poet, critic, satirist and journalist, was born.
His works included "Trip to the Hartz Mountains" and "Germany, a Winter
Tale." "In these times we fight for ideas, and newspapers are our
fortresses."
(AHD, p.611)(AP, 7/18/97)(HN, 12/13/99)
1797 Dec 17, Joseph Henry, US
scientist, inventor, pioneer of electromagnetism, was born. [see Dec 18]
(MC, 12/17/01)
1797 Dec 18, Joseph Henry,
inventor, scientist and the first director of the Smithsonian Inst.,
was born. [see Dec 17]
(WSJ, 12/17/97, p.A20)
1797 Dec 29, John Wilkes (b.1725),
British journalist and politician, died. He opposed King George’s
policies in Massachusetts.
(WSJ, 8/31/05,
p.B1)(www.eastlondonhistory.com/wilkes.htm)
1797 Franz Kruger (d.1857), German
Biedermeier artist of cityscapes and rural genre scenes, was born.
(SSFC, 1/27/02, p.C7)
1797 Samuel Taylor Coleridge
authored his "Rime of the Ancient Mariner."
(CW, Winter 04, p.17)
1797 John Frere published his
paper "The Beginnings of Paleolithic Archaeology." It described his
finding in 1790 Acheulean hand axes associated with the large bones of
unknown animals (actually elephants).
(RFH-MDHP, p.81)
1797 Mrs. Gannett of Mass.
(1760-1827), born as Deborah Sampson, authored her memoir. She had
fought in the American Revolution as a man under the alias Robert
Shurtleff. In 2004 Alfred F. Young authored "Masquerade: The Life and
Times of Deborah Sampson, Continental Soldier.”
(www.distinguishedwomen.com/biographies/sampson.html)(SSFC, 4/11/04,
p.M4)
1797 The first recorded
performance of an English-language drama, the tragedy Douglas, west of
the Alleghenies took place here at Washington, Kentucky.
(HNQ, 8/8/99)
1797 In San Jose the first Juzgado
(courthouse) was constructed. The Spanish Comman-dante Lt. Jose Moraga
built a 1-story, 3-room adobe structure to house the jail, assembly
hall and seat of government for the Pueblo de San Jose de Guadalupe
that served until 1850.
(SFC, 7/14/97, p.A15,16)
1797 Father Juan Norberto de
Santiago arrived in the area of Temecula in Riverside County, Ca., to
build a mission and convert the Pechanga Indians (renamed Luiseno
Indians by the Spanish).
(SSFC, 5/23/04, p.D5)
1797 James T. Callender,
journalist, published charges concerning the alleged financial
mis-deeds of Alexander Hamilton. The information came from letters that
Hamilton provided to inter-rogators around 1792 concerning funds paid
to James Reynolds to keep quiet an affair with Reynold’s wife. The
letters were passed from James Monroe to Thomas Jefferson, who passed
them to Callender. Hamilton published a 28,000-word defense,
Observations on Certain Docu-ments, that revealed his relationship with
Maria Reynolds and his payment of hush money.
(WSJ, 11/19/98, p.A12)(ON, 10/05, p.6)
1797 John Anderson, a Scottish
farm manager, convinced George Washington that distilling whiskey would
make money. In a six-week season each spring, Washington’s men netted
about a million shad and herring from the Potomac River. The catch was
then salted, packed in bar-rels, and exported. His diversified farming
was less successful, largely because of his long ab-sences from Mount
Vernon.
(AM, 9/01, p.80)(HNQ, 8/30/02)
1797 A major fire in Savannah,
Georgia destroyed two-thirds of the wood buildings from the pioneer
period.
(SFC, 6/25/95, p.T-7)
1797 Australia’s first coal mining
began at Newcastle.
(Econ, 6/6/09, p.39)
1797 Some 5,000 black Carib
Indians, also known as Garifuna or Garinagu, were exiled from St.
Vincent Island to Roatan Island off of Honduras. The Garifuna defined
themselves not by country or territory but by language and culture.
(SFEC, 5/4/97, p.T11)(SFC, 4/27/98, p.A6)
1797 French forces attacked
Britain at the port of Fishguard. The event was depicted in the
tapestry "The Last Invasion of Brittain."
(SFEC, 5/25/97, p.T5)
1797 In France Henry-Louis Pernod
began to manufacture absinthe. The drink was made with fennel and
aniseed and the oil of wormwood which contained thujone, a poisonous
ketone.
(WSJ, 1/22/99, p.W8)
1797 The wine bottles of Chateau
Lafite that date back to this year are recorked every 25 years to
safeguard the wine and prevent deterioration caused by oxidation
through decayed corks.
(WSJ, 11/26/97, p.A12)
1797 Gammarelli was founded under
Pope Pius VI as tailors to the clergy.
(SSFC, 12/28/03, p.I4)
1797 Venice, the city-state that
liked to call itself La Serenissima, lost its independence and its
empire. Ludovico Manin, the 120th doge of Venice, surrendered to
Napoleon. A few months later Napoleon traded Venice to Austria which
ruled it until 1866.
(WSJ, 1/9/97, p.A8)(SFEC, 8/24/97, p.T1)(WSJ,
9/19/97, p.A13)
1797 The Jewish ghetto in Venice
was destroyed following the Napoleon’s invasion of Italy. This began
the gradual liberation of the country’s ghettos.
(SFC, 12/2/08, p.E1)
1797 There was a naval battle at
Cape St. Vincent off the SW tip of Portugal.
(WUD, 1994, p.1412)
1797-1801 John Adams, 2nd president of the US was in
office. It was during his term that France and Britain, engaged in war
with each other, insisted on the right to seize American ships. When
the US protested French diplomats demanded bribes and a loan of $10 mil
to stop the acts of piracy. Adams published the letters of the
diplomats with the letters X,Y,Z (hence the X,Y,Z Af-fair) for the
names of the diplomats. This enraged the populace and the country
braced for war and called Washington in from Mt. Vernon to lead the
army against France. Captain Thomas Truxtom captured a French frigate
and defeated another French frigate in a sea battle and the French
backed down. It was under Adams that the Alien and Sedition Acts were
passed. These acts allowed the President sole discretion to banish
aliens from the country and jail editors for writing against the
President or Congress. This was vehemently opposed by Jefferson who led
the Southern Republicans to adopt a resolution declaring that a state
had the right to nullify a law believed to be unconstitutional.
(AHD, 1971, p.14)(A&IP, Miers, p.21)
1797-1815 Thomas Jefferson, the third president of
the United States, served as president of the American Philosophical
Society. A philosopher-statesman of the Enlightenment, Jefferson
drafted the Declaration of Independence, was George Washington’s first
Secretary of State and vice-president under John Adams. He was born in
Virginia on April 13, 1743, and died on July 4, 1826.
(HNQ, 9/24/99)
1797-1849 Mary Lyon, American educator: "There is
nothing in the universe that I fear but that I shall not know all my
duty, or shall fail to do it."
(AP, 4/27/98)
1797-1851 Mary Wollstonecraft (Godwin) Shelley
(d.1851), English novelist, author of Frankenstein. Her mother, also
Mary Wollstonecraft, died in childbirth of puerperal fever. Her death
prompted Godwin to publish her memoirs.
(AHD, p.1193)(SFEM, 6/28/98, p.29)
1797-1856 Nicholas Marcellus Hentz, a pioneer
collector of North American spiders. He was a skilled painter and has
left some 90 intricately executed watercolors of spiders. He published
descriptions in the Journal of the Boston Society of Natural History
from 1842-1850.
(NH, 7/96, p.74,75)
1797-1858 Utagawa Hiroshige, Japanese artist, made
numerous color woodblock prints.
(SFC, 12/26/98, p.C1)
1797-1863 Theophile Bra, French academic sculptor.
(SFC, 12/19/98, p.C18)
1797-1875 Sir Charles Lyell, British geologist. He
wrote the "Principles of Geology" (1830-33) and had a profound
influence upon the thinking of Charles Darwin.
(OAPOC-TH, p.71)
1798 Jan 8, The 11th Amendment to
the U.S. Constitution was declared in effect by President John Adams
nearly three years after its ratification by the states; it prohibited
a citizen of one state from suing another state in federal court.
(AP, 1/8/08)
1798 Jan 22, Lewis Morris (71), US
farmer (signed Declaration of Independence), died.
(MC, 1/22/02)
1798 Jan 30, A brawl broke out in
the House of Representatives in Philadelphia. Matthew Lyon of Vermont
spat in the face of Roger Griswold of Connecticut, who responded by
attacking him with a hickory walking stick. Lyon was re-elected
congressman while serving a jail sentence for violating the Sedition
Acts of 1798.
(AP, 1/30/98)(SFC, 4/27/00, p.A5)(WSJ, 10/29/04,
p.W10)
1798 Feb 15, The first serious
fist fight occurred in Congress.
(HN, 2/15/98)
1798 Feb 20, Pope Pius VI fled
Rome to Siena. He was later arrested and deported 1st to Florence and
then to France.
(PTA, 1980,
p.500)(www.zum.de/whkmla/region/italy/papalstate17891799.html)
1798 Mar 4, Catholic women were
force to do penance for kindling a Sabbath fire for Jews.
(SC, 3/4/02)
1798 Mar 9, Dr. George Balfour
became 1st naval surgeon in the US Navy.
(MC, 3/9/02)
1798 Mar 13, Abigail Powers
Fillmore, First Lady, was born.
(HN, 3/13/98)
1798 Mar 26, Tunis, under the rule
of Bey Hamuda Pasha, signed a treaty of peace and friendship with the
US following negotiations with William Eaton. The American
Revolutionary War veteran had been recently appointed consul to the
North African kingdom.
(ON, 10/06, p.7)
1798 Mar 29, Republic of
Switzerland formed.
(MC, 3/29/02)
1798 Apr 3, Charles B. Wilkes
(d.1877), American rear admiral and explorer, was born. In Jan, 1840,
Wilkes coasted along part of the Antarctic barrier from about 150
degrees east to 108 de-grees east, the areas that was subsequently
named Wilkes Land.
(WUD, 1994, p.1634)(HNQ, 1/12/99)
1798 Apr 7, Territory of
Mississippi was organized.
(HN, 4/7/97)
1798 Apr 19, Franz Joseph Glaser,
composer, was born.
(MC, 4/19/02)
1798 Apr 26, Ferdinand Eugene
Delacroix, French painter, lithograph, etcher (Journal), was born.
(MC, 4/26/02)
1798 Apr 28, Joseph Haydn's
oratorio "The Creation" was rehearsed in Vienna, Austria, be-fore an
invited audience.
(AP, 4/29/07)
1798 Apr 30, US Department of Navy
formed.
(MC, 4/30/02)
1798 May 2, The black General
Toussaint L'ouverture forced British troops to agree to evacu-ate the
port of Santo Domingo. After 5 years of fighting over 60% of 20,000
British troops were buried on St. Domingue.
(HN, 5/2/99)(SFCM, 5/30/04, p.12)
(AP, 5/30/04)
1798 May 10, George Vancouver
(40), British explorer, (Voyage of Discovery), died.
(MC, 5/10/02)
1798 May 19, A French armada of
335 ships carrying nearly 40,000 men set sail for Alexan-dria, Egypt,
which Napoleon planned to conquer. In 2008 Paul Strathern authored
“Napoleon in Egypt.”
(WSJ, 11/17/08, p.A17)
1798 May 24, Believing that a
French invasion of Ireland was imminent, Irish nationalists rose up
against the British occupation. It was put down by the Orange yeomanry
who were enlisted by the government to restore peace. The slogan
"Croppies lie down" originated here after some of the rebel Catholics
had their hair cropped in the French revolutionary manner.
(SFEC, 7/12/98, p.A15)(HN, 5/24/99)
1798 May 26, British killed about
500 Irish insurgents at the Battle of Tara.
(MC, 5/26/02)
1798 Jun 4, Giovanni Jacopo
Casanova (b.1725), fabled Italian seducer, adventurer, spy, li-brarian,
died of prostate cancer in Dux, Bohemia. While at Dux he authored his
memoirs: “His-tory of My Life.” The standard English edition runs over
3,600 pages. In 2008 Ian Kelly authored “Casanova: Actor, Lover,
Priest, Spy.”
(www.1911encyclopedia.org/Giovanni_Jacopo_Casanova_de_Seingalt)(WSJ,
10/24/08, p.W5)
1798 Jun 11, Napoleon Bonaparte
took the island of Malta.
(HN, 6/11/98)
1798 Jun 13, Mission San Luis Rey
[in California] was founded.
(HFA, '96, p.32)
1798 Jun 25, US passed the Alien
Act allowing president to deport dangerous aliens.
(MC, 6/25/02)
1798 Jul 1, Napoleon Bonaparte
took Alexandria, Egypt. In 1962 J.C. Herold authored "Bona-parte in
Egypt." A corps of 150 civilian artists and scientists traveled with
Napoleon’s troops to Egypt. In 2007 Nina Burleigh authored “Mirage:
Napoleon’s Scientists and the Unveiling of Egypt.”
(SFC, 9/11/97, p.E3)(HN, 7/1/98)(ON, 12/99,
p.4)(SFC, 12/14/07, p.E3)
1798 Jul 2, John Fitch, American
inventor, clockmaker, died.
(SC, 7/2/02)
1798 Jul 6, US law made aliens
"liable to be apprehended, restrained, ...& removed as alien
enemies."
(MC, 7/6/02)
1798 Jul 7, Napoleon Bonaparte's
army began its march towards Cairo, Egypt, from Alexan-dria.
(HN, 7/7/98)
1798 Jul 11, The US Marine Corps
was formally re-established by a congressional act. US Pres. John Adams
signed legislation that established the US Marine Band, composed of 32
drummers and fifers. Continental marines had existed during the
Revolutionary War, but had since been discontinued.
(SFC, 5/20/96, p.A-3)(HNQ, 8/1/99)(AP, 7/11/08)
1798 Jul 13, English poet William
Wordsworth visited the ruins of Tintern Abbey.
(HN, 7/13/01)
1798 Jul 14, The Sedition Act, the
last of four pieces of legislation known as the Alien and Se-dition
Acts, was passed by Congress, making it unlawful to write, publish, or
utter false or mali-cious statements about the U.S. president and the
U.S. government, among other things. Viola-tions were made punishable
by up to 2 years in jail and a fine of $2,000.
(AP, 7/14/97)(HN, 7/14/98)(WSJ, 10/29/04, p.W10)
1798 Jul 14, 1st direct federal
tax in US states took effect on dwellings, land and slaves.
(MC, 7/14/02)
1798 Jul 16, US Public Health
Service formed and a US Marine Hospital was authorized.
(MC, 7/16/02)
1798 Jul 21, Napoleon Bonaparte
defeated Murad Bey and his Arab Mameluke warriors on the outskirts of
Cairo at the Battle of the Pyramids, thus becoming the master of Egypt.
(WSJ, 11/17/08, p.A17)
1798 Jul 22, Napoleon captured
Cairo, Egypt.
(PC, 1992, p.354)
1798 Aug 1, Admiral Horatio Nelson
routed the French fleet in the Battle of the Nile at Aboukir Bay,
Egypt. Nelson's fleet of 14 ships led the attack on Napoleon's fleet in
Abu Qir Bay, captur-ing six and destroying seven of the 17 French
vessels. The flagship of Napoleon's fleet, L'Ori-ent, sank in the
battle. It was uncovered by a French team in 1998. More than 1,500
Frenchmen and 200 British soldiers reportedly died in the sea battle.
(AP, 4/19/05)
1798 Aug 21, Jules Michelet,
French historian who wrote the 24-volume "Historie de France," was born.
(HN, 8/21/98)
1798 Sep 2, The Maltese people
revolted against the French occupation, forcing the French troops to
take refuge in the citadel of Valetta in Malta.
(HN, 9/2/98)
1798 Sep 11, Franz E Neumann,
German mineralogist, mathematician and physicist, was born.
(MC, 9/11/01)
1798 Oct 12, The play
"Wallenstein's Camp" by Friedrich von Schiller premiered in Weimar. It
was set in 3 parts during the 30 Years War as Gen. Albrecht von
Wallenstein fought for Catholic Emp. Ferdinand II.
(www.schillerinstitute.org/fid_02-06/2005/051-2_Schiller_friends.html)(Econ,
8/25/07, p.78)
1798 Nov 1, Benjamin Lee Guinness,
Irish brewer and Dublin mayor, was born.
(HN, 11/1/00)(MC, 11/1/01)
1798 Nov 4, Congress agreed to pay
a yearly tribute to Tripoli, considering it the only way to protect
U.S. shipping.
(HN, 11/4/98)
1798 Nov 16, Kentucky became the
1st state to nullify an act of Congress.
(MC, 11/16/01)
1798 Nov 16, The British boarded
the U.S. frigate Baltimore and impressed a number of crewmen as alleged
deserters, a practice which contributed to the War of 1812.
(HN, 11/16/98)
1798 Nov 19, Theobald Wolfe Tone,
Irish nationalist (United Irishmen), died.
(MC, 11/19/01)(WSJ, 9/12/02, p.D8)
1798 Nov 30, Friedrich Fleischmann
(32), composer, died.
(MC, 11/30/01)
1798 Dec 4, Luigi Galvani (61),
Italian anatomist and physicist, died.
(MC, 12/4/01)
1798 Dec 14, David Wilkinson of
Rhode Island patented a nut and bolt machine.
(MC, 12/14/01)
1798 Dec 17, The 1st impeachment
trial against a US senator, William Blount of Ten., began.
(MC, 12/17/01)
1798 Dec 24, Russia and England
signed a Second anti-French Coalition.
(MC, 12/24/01)
1798 Eugene Delacroix (d.1863),
French artist, was born. His work included the "Baron Schwiter."
(WUD, 1994, p.381)(WSJ, 7/1/96, p.A11)
1798 Thomas Robert Malthus
authored his “An Essay on the Principle of Population As it af-fects
the future improvement of society with remarks on the speculations of
Mr. Godwin, M. Condorcet, and other writers.” His forecast for a
population crash was based on the calculation that it was impossible to
improve wheat yields as fast as people make babies. His 2nd edition in
1803 introduced the idea of moral restraint.
(www.faculty.rsu.edu/~felwell/Theorists/Malthus/essay2.htm)(Econ,
12/24/05, p.29)(Econ, 5/17/08, p.94)
1798 Samuel Solomon published
“Guide to Health or, advice to both sexes with an essay on a certain
disease, seminal weakness, and a destructive habit of private nature.
Also an address to parents, tutors, and guardians of youth. To which
one added, observations on the use and abuse of cold bathing” gave
advice on topics including abortion, onanism, asthma, barrenness and
bleeding. The main remedy for all ailments was Dr Solomon’s "Cordial
Balm of Gilead."
(http://tinyurl.com/2rrttq)(www.erudit.org/revue/ron/2001/v/n23/005993ar.html)
1798 Judith Sargent Murray wrote
"The Gleaner," a collection of essays pleading for changes in women’s
education and alternatives to marriage.
(SFEM, 6/28/98, p.29)
1798 Samuel Taylor Coleridge and
William Wordsworth published "Lyrical Ballads."
(WSJ, 4/15/99, p.A20)
1798 Beethoven completed his piano
sonata, Op. 10, No 3, begun in 1796.
(WSJ, 8/17/00, p.A20)
1798 Pres. John Adams stated: "Our
constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is
wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
(WSJ, 6/26/01, p.A23)
1798 In the Kentucky Resolutions
Thomas Jefferson protested the Alien and Sedition Acts and maintained
that "free government is founded in jealousy, not in confidence; it is
jealousy and not confidence which prescribes limited constitutions, to
bind down those whom we are obliged to trust with power."
(WSJ, 5/18/95, p.A-14)
1798 The US Supreme Court ruled in
the Calder vs. Bull case that Congress and the states could not pass
any "ex post facto law."
(SFC, 5/2/00, p.A3)
1798 Vermont Congressman Matthew
Lyon (1749-1822), Irish-born former indentured ser-vant, became the 1st
person indicted under the Sedition Act of 1918. Lyon was convicted of
se-dition after he printed his honest opinion of Pres. John Adams.
Vermont re-elected Lyon to Congress while he served his jail time. He
later represented Kentucky (1803-1811) in the US House of
Representatives.
(SFC, 3/24/00, p.B3)(WSJ, 10/29/04, p.W10)
1798 The first big US bank robbery
was at the Philadelphia Carpenter's Hall, which was leased to the Bank
of Philadelphia.
(SFEC, 2/20/00, Z1 p.2)
c1798 The Peabody Essex Museum was
founded in Marblehead, Mass., by 22 sea captains to preserve the exotic
treasures they brought back from their voyages. It is the oldest museum
in the US.
(SFEC, 7/13/97, p.T9)
1798 Henry Cavendish, English
chemist, came up with a reliable measure of the gravitational constant,
G. His value was 0.000000000067 cubic meters per kilogram per second
squared.
(NH, 11/1/04, p.20)
1798 Benjamin Thompson disproved
the caloric theory of heat proposed by Antoine Lavoisier. Thompson went
on to marry Lavoisier's widow.
(WSJ, 12/10/99, p.W12)
1798 Edmund Fanning, an American
explorer, 1st charted Tabuaeran coral atoll (part of the Gilbert
Islands, Kiribati). Fanning Island Plantations Ltd. owned the island
through the 1800s and exported coconuts.
(SSFC, 4/21/02, p.C22)
1798 Jan 1, Joseph Lancaster (19)
opened his 1st low cost school in London, England, aimed at educating
the children of poor. In 1803 he published the booklet “Improvements in
Education, As It Respects The Industrious Classes Of the Community…”
(ON, 3/06, p.9)
c1798 In Germany Aloys Hirt,
founder of the Berlin Academy of Art, laid plans for an art mu-seum to
present art in a systematic fashion. This led to the 1830 Altes Museum.
(WSJ, 7/29/98, p.A13)
1798 Napoleon annexed Egypt.
(SFC, 9/11/97, p.E3)
1798 Henri Jomini (d.1869), began
his military career volunteering his services to the French Army. With
the peace of Amiens, he left the army and wrote his "Treatise of Grand
Military Op-erations." The book impressed Napoleon enough to have
Jomini appointed a staff colonel in 1805, Jomini having volunteered
again in 1804. Jomini rose to become chief of staff under Mar-shall
Ney, but left the French army to fight for Russia in 1813 as a general
and aide-de-camp of Alexander I.
(HNQ, 9/1/00)
1798 Lord Edward Fitzgerald, an
Irish rebel, was killed. He had fathered a daughter with Elizabeth
Linley (d.1792), the wife of Richard Brinsley Sheridan.
(WSJ, 11/20/98, p.W6)
1798 Ferdinand IV, King of Naples,
fled in front of advancing French troops. He took with him some 20 art
works from the Farnese collection, which included “Antea” by
Parmigianino.
(Econ, 1/26/08, p.82)
1798 Napoleon expelled the Knights
of Malta from their base in Malta. The Sovereign Military Hospitaller
Order of St. John of Jerusalem (SMOM), without citizens or territory,
became a per-manent observer at the UN in 1994.
(WSJ, 6/28/01, p.A1)
1798-1857 Auguste Comte, the French founder of the
philosophical system of Positivism.
(WUD, 1994, p.303)(WSJ, 6/22/99, p.A22)
1798-1868 Jacques Boucher Crevecoeur de Perthes,
French customs official, collected bones and chipped implements at
Abbeville and Amiens that he recognized as the remains of man’s
handiwork.
(RFH-MDHP, p.95)
1798-1993 Instances of use of US forces abroad, a
report of 234 instances over this period other than peace time use.
http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/foabroad.htm
1779 Jan 5, Stephen Decatur, U.S.
naval hero during actions against the Barbary pirates and the War of
1812, was born.
(HN, 1/5/99)
1799 Feb 9, The USS Constellation
captured the French frigate Insurgente off the coast of Wisconsin.
(HN, 2/9/97)
1799 Feb 10, Napoleon Bonaparte
left Cairo, Egypt, for Syria, at the head of 13,000 men.
(AP, 2/10/99)
1799 Jan 14, Eli Whitney received
a government contract for 10,000 muskets.
(MC, 1/14/02)
1799 Jan 25, Eliakim Spooner of
Vermont received the 1st US patent for a seeding machine.
(MC, 1/25/02)
1799 Feb 15, The 1st US printed
ballots were authorized in Pennsylvania.
(440 Int’l., 2/15/99)
1799 Mar 2, Congress standardized
US weights and measures.
(SC, 3/2/02)
1799 Mar 6, Napoleon captured
Jaffa, Palestine.
(MC, 3/6/02)
1799 Mar 7, In Palestine, Napoleon
captured the Turkish citadel at Jaffa and his men massa-cred more than
2,000 Albanian prisoners. [see Mar 26] The prisoners were massacred
because Napoleon claimed that he could not feed them. About this time
bubonic plague broke out among his troops.
(HN, 3/7/99)(ON, 12/99, p.2)
1799 Mar 8, Simon Cameron,
political boss, was born.
(HN, 3/8/01)
1799 Mar 12, Austria declared war
on France.
(MC, 3/12/02)
1799 Mar 17, Napoleon Bonaparte
and his army reached the Mediterranean seaport of St. Jean d'Acra, only
to find British warships ready to break his siege of the town.
(HN, 3/17/00)
1799 Mar 19, Joseph Haydn’s "Die
Schopfung," premiered in Vienna.
(MC, 3/19/02)
1799 Mar 19, Napoleon Bonaparte
began the siege of Acre ( later Akko, Israel), which was defended by
Turks.
(AP, 3/19/03)
1799 Mar 26, Napoleon Bonaparte
captured Jaffa, Palestine. [see Mar 7]
(HN, 3/26/99)
1799 Mar 28, NY state abolished
slavery.
(MC, 3/28/02)
1799 Mar, Napoleon moved on to the
Turkish fortress at Acre. His 2 month siege was unsuc-cessful. In 1999
N. Schur authored Napoleon in the Holy Land."
(ON, 12/99, p.2,4)
1799 Apr 1, Narciso Casanovas
(52), composer, died.
(MC, 4/1/02)
1799 Apr 14, Napoleon called for
establishing Jerusalem for Jews.
(MC, 4/14/02)
1799 Apr 20, Friedrich von
Schiller's "Wallensteins Tod," premiered in Weimar.
(MC, 4/20/02)
1799 Apr 28, Francois Giroust
(62), composer, died.
(MC, 4/28/02)
1799 May 4, In India Tipu Sultan
was killed in a battle against 5,000 British soldiers who stormed and
razed his capital, Seringapatanam. British forces defeated the sultan
of Mysore at the Battle of Seringapatam.
(www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080048779)(SSFM,
4/1/01, p.42)
1799 May 17, Napoleon's army began
its overland retreat from Acre. The march to Jaffa took one week.
(ON, 12/99, p.4)
1799 May 18, Pierre de
Beaumarchais (b.1732), French inventor and dramatist, died. In 2007
Hugh Thomas authored “Beaumarchais in Seville.” In 2009 Susan Emanuel
translated to Eng-lish “Beaumarchais: A Biography” by Maurice
Lever (d.2006).
(www.theatrehistory.com/french/beaumarchais001.html)(SFC, 5/30/09, p.E2)
1799 May 23, Thomas Hood (d.1845),
English poet, composer (Song of the Shirt), was born. "I saw old Autumn
in the misty morn Stand shadowless like silence, listening To silence."
(AP, 9/23/98)(MC, 5/23/02)
1799 May 28, Napoleon ordered the
retreat of all troops back to Egypt from Jaffa. The march lasted 17
days with one week to cross the Sinai.
(ON, 12/99, p.4)
1799 May 20, Honore de Balzac,
French novelist, was born in Tours, France. He is consid-ered the
founder of the realistic school and wrote "The Human Comedy" and "Lost
Illusions."
(AP, 5/20/99)(HN, 5/20/99)
1799 May 20, Napoleon Bonaparte
ordered a withdrawal from his siege of St. Jean d'Acre in Egypt. Plague
had run through his besieging French forces, forcing a retreat.
(HN, 5/20/00)
1799 May 26, Alexander Pushkin,
Russian poet (d.1837), was born (OC). His bicentennial in Russia was
celebrated Jun 6,1999. [see Jun 6]
(HFA, '96, p.30)(AHD, p.1062)(SFC, 6/3/99, p.C2)
1799 Jun 6, Patrick Henry,
American orator, died at Red Hill Plantation, Va. Henry urged the
restoration of the property and rights of Loyalists after the
Revolutionary War. He believed that Loyalists would make good citizens
of the new republic. Henry also bitterly opposed the Consti-tution as a
threat to the liberties of the people and rights of the states. He
believed that once the war had been won, a central authority was no
longer needed. In 1998 Henry Mayer (d.2000) au-thored a biography of
Patrick Henry.
(SFC, 7/28/00, p.D5)(HN, 7/12/02)(AP, 6/6/08)
1799 Jun 6, Alexander Pushkin
(d.1837), Russian poet and the founder of modern Russian literature,
was born (NC). He was the descendant of an Abyssinian slave of royal
blood who was given to Peter the Great as a gift. His works included
"Boris Godunov," "Eugene Onegin," and "The Queen of Spades." [see May
26]
(HFA, '96, p.30)(AHD, p.1062)(SFC, 6/3/99, p.C2)(HN,
6/6/99)(WSJ, 7/15/99, p.A16)
1799 Jun 17, Napoleon Bonaparte
incorporated Italy into his empire.
(HN, 6/17/98)
1799 Jun 22, In France a
scientific congress adopted the length of the meter as one
ten-millionth of the distance along the surface of the Earth from its
equator to its pole, in a curved line of latitude passing through the
center of Paris. The congress used data gathered by as-tronomers,
Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Delambre and Pierre-François-André
Mechain. The estab-lished meter proved to be .2 millimeters too short,
due to incorrect latitude data gathered by Mechain.
(http://etherwave.wordpress.com/2009/01/21/hump-day-history-the-length-of-the-meter/)(ON,
2/09, p.9)
1799 Jul 11, An Anglo-Turkish
armada bombarded Napoleon Bonaparte’s troops in Alexandria Egypt. The
attack was ineffective.
(HN, 7/11/00)
1799 Jul 17, Ottoman forces,
supported by the British, captured Aboukir, Egypt from the French.
(HN, 7/17/99)
1799 Jul 25, On his way back from
Syria, Napoleon Bonaparte defeated the Ottomans at Aboukir, Egypt.
(HN, 7/25/98)
1799 Jul 30, The French garrison
at Mantua, Italy surrendered to the Austrians.
(HN, 7/30/98)
1799 Aug 2, Jacques-Etienne
Montgolfier (54), balloonist, died.
(MC, 8/2/02)
1779 Aug 10, Louis XVI of France
freed the last remaining serfs on royal land.
(HN, 8/10/98)
1799 Aug 16, Vincenzo Manfredini
(b.1737), Italian composer, died.
(MC, 8/16/02)
1799 Aug 22, Napoleon slipped
through the British blockade of the Egyptian coast and re-turned to
France.
(ON, 12/99, p.4)
1799 Aug
29, Pope Pius VI (b.1717) died in Valence, France.
(www.newadvent.org/cathen/12131a.htm)
1799 Sep 1, Bank of Manhattan
Company opened in NYC. It was the forerunner to Chase Manhattan.
(MC, 9/1/02)
1799 Oct 7, Napoleon landed at
Saint Raphael, 50 miles east of Toulon.
(ON, 1/02, p.11)
1799 Oct 16, Napoleon arrived in
Paris and met with government leaders.
(ON, 1/02, p.11)
1799 Oct 24, Carl Ditters von
Dittersdorf (59), Austrian composer, died.
(MC, 10/24/01)
1799 Nov 5, The Danish ship
Oldenborg was wrecked on her outward passage by being beached in the
roadstead at Cape Town, South Africa, during a north-westerly gale,
thus be-coming one of the 127 ships that have been lost on this
minuscule portion of the South African coast.
(www.milhist.dk/weapons/oldenbur/oldenbur.htm)
1799 Nov 9, Napoleon Bonaparte
participated in a coup and declared himself dictator, 1st con-sul, of
France.
(HN, 11/9/98)(MC, 11/9/01)
1799 Nov 22, Baroness van Dorth,
organist, was executed.
(MC, 11/22/01)
1799 Nov 29, Amos Bronson Alcott,
US educator and poet (Concord Days), was born.
(MC, 11/29/01)
1799 Dec 10, The metric system was
established in France.
(MC, 12/10/01)
1799 Dec 12, Two days before
his death, George Washington composed his last letter, to Alexander
Hamilton, his aide-de-camp during the Revolution and later his
Secretary of the Treasury. In the letter he urged Hamilton to work for
the establishment of a nationally military academy. Washington wrote
that letter at the end of a long, cold day of snow, sleet and rain that
he had spent out-of-doors. He remained outside for more than five
hours, according to his sec-retary Tobias Lear, did not change out of
his wet clothes or dry his hair when he returned home.
(HNQ, 10/25/02)
1799 Dec 13, Washington awoke the
following morning with a sore throat.
(HNQ, 10/25/02)
1799 Dec 14, George Washington
(66), the first president of the United States (1789-97), died at his
Mount Vernon, Va., home at age 67. By 8 p.m. he was aware that he was
dying, whisper-ing, "I die hard, but I am not afraid to go." Washington
died at approximately 10:30 p.m., De-cember 14, 1799, at the age of 67.
He died from the incompetence of physicians who bled him to death while
fighting pneumonia. Richard Brookhiser authored "Founding Father:
Rediscover-ing George Washington." The Washingtons at this time had 317
slaves. His 5 stills in Virginia turned out some 12,000 gallons of corn
whiskey a year.
(A&IP, ESM, p.16)(AP, 12/14/97)(WSJ, 11/6/98,
p.W15)(SFEC, 5/2/99, Z1 p.8)(SFC, 12/11/99, p.B6)(MC, 12/14/01)
1799 Dec 18, George Washington's
body was interred at Mount Vernon.
(MC, 12/18/01)
1799 Dec, 21, William Wordsworth
(29) and his sister, Dorothy, returned from a year in Ger-many to
Grasmere in the Lake District. His Lyrical Ballads written jointly with
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (27) had just been published. The ballads
launched the Great Romantic Period in English literature.
(Hem, Dec. 94, p.71)
1799 Dec 24, A Jacobin plot
against Napoleon was uncovered.
(MC, 12/24/01)
1799 Dec 25, Napoleon’s new
constitution went into effect. It gave him, as First Consul, pow-ers to
promulgate laws, nominate senior officials, control finances and
conduct negotiations with foreign powers.
(ON, 1/02, p.12)
1799 Dec 25, Chevalier De Saint
Georges (b.1739), violinist and composer, died in Paris, France.
http://ChevalierDeSaintGeorges.Homestead.com/Page1.html
1799 Dec 26, The late George
Washington was eulogized by Col. Henry Lee as "first in war, first in
peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen."
(AP, 12/26/97)
1799 Honore de Balzac (d..1850),
French novelist, was born.
(WUD, 1994, p.115)
1799 Jacques-Louis David created
his painting “Rape of the Sabines.”
(WSJ, 4/6/05, p.D11)
1799 Goya (1746-1828) made his
famous etching "The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters," in which
fluttering bats hover darkly above a man dozing at his desk.
(WSJ, 11/3/95, p.A-12)
1799 In England Richard Sheridan
wrote his play "Pizzaro." It implied an equivalence between persecuted
Indians and the Irish.
(WSJ, 11/20/98, p.W6)
1799 Antonio Salieri (1750-1825),
Italian composer, wrote his opera "Falstaff."
(WSJ, 1/14/04, p.D10)
1799 The Musun Indians built a
chapel at the California Mission San Juan Bautista.
(SFC, 9/3/97, p.A17)
1799 The first printed ballot in
the US appeared in Pennsylvania.
(BD emp. letter, 9/27/96)
1799 Lord Elgin was appointed
British ambassador to Constantinople. He was responsible for taking
down the Metopes, sculptured by Phidias, from the Parthenon, and
transporting them to England.
(RFH-MDHP, p.218)
1799 Pierre Bouchard [Boussart],
an officer in Napoleon‘s army, discovered the Rosetta Stone in the city
of Rosetta [Rashid], Egypt. The Rosetta Stone is a tablet with
hieroglyphic transla-tions into Greek. The stone is black basalt... and
bears three texts: the uppermost is in early Egyptian hieroglyphic; the
middle one in the Neo-Egyptian demotic script often used in writing
papyri; and the lowermost text is Greek. Deciphering the stone, the
work of English physicist Thomas Young and then French archaeologist
Jean-Francois Champollion, led to an under-standing of Egyptian
hieroglyphic writing. Champollion published memoirs on the decipherment
in 1822.
(NG, May 1985, R. Caputo, p.584)(RFH-MDHP,
p.182)(HN, 7/19/98)(HNQ, 7/7/00)
1799 A South African hunter shot
the last blaauwboch, the blue antelope (Hippotragus leuco-phaeus). Its
numbers had been severely reduced by the introduction of domestic sheep
by na-tive Africans as early as 400AD.
(NH, 11/96, p.24)
1799 Jean Baptiste Simeon Chardin
(b.1699), French painter, died.
(WSJ, 7/6/00, p.A24)
c1799 In China at the close of the
18th century the White Lotus Movement led a violent uprising in
northeastern China.
(WSJ, 4/26/99, p.A6)
1799 In Jaipur, India, the Hawa
Mahal (the palace of wind) a five-storied sandstone building, was built
by a Hindu king for his queen.
(Reuters, 5/14/08)
1799 The Dutch East India Company
liquidated and the Dutch government took control over the islands of
Indonesia.
(SFC, 9/8/99, p.A17)
1799 In Naples, Italy, a massacre
of innocents occurred that was blamed on British Admiral Horatio Nelson.
(WSJ, 11/5/99, p.W12)
1799 Nagasawa Rosetsu (b.1754),
Japanese painter based in Kyoto, died. His work included “Monkey on a
Rock.”
(SFC, 12/8/05, p.E1)(SFC, 1/14/06, p.E10)
1799 The Russian-American Co. was
chartered by Tsar Paul I. It expanded into Spanish Cali-fornia (see
1812) when sea otter populations declined in Alaska.
(SFC, 6/15/01, WBb p.7)
1799 Some 70 ships were lost in
the Scottish Firth of Tay.
(SFEC, 10/3/99, BR p.3)
1799 Pope Pius VI died.
(WSJ, 4/28/00, p.W8)
1799-1804 Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), German
explorer, and Aime Bonpland, botanist, led an expedition to South
America. They collected over 60,000 plants.
(CW, Spring ‘99,
p.49)(http://geography.about.com/library/weekly/aa020298.htm)
1799-1914 This period in France was covered by Robert
Gildea in his 2008 book: Children of the Revolution: The French
1799-1914.”
(Econ, 8/2/08, p.87)
Go to 1800-1810