1792

Events

January–March

• January 9 - The Treaty of Jassy ends the Russian Empire's war with the Ottoman Empire over Crimea.
• February 20 - The Postal Service Act, establishing the United States Post Office Department, is signed by President George Washington.
• February 20 - The Parliament House in Dublin catches fire during a legislative session. "Although in imminent danger of the roof falling in," it is noted later, "the House did not adjourn until a proper motion had been put and carried in the affirmative.
• March 1 - Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor, the last emperor, takes office.
• March 16 - King Gustav III of Sweden is shot in the back by Jacob Johan Anckarström, at a midnight masquerade at the Royal Opera in Stockholm; he lives until March 29, and is then succeeded by his 14-year-old son, Gustav IV Adolf.
• March 20 - A new capital of North Carolina, and seat of the newly formed Wake County, is established after North Carolina State senator and surveyor William Christmas submits his design for the city. A few months later, the capital is officially named Raleigh, in honor of Sir Walter Raleigh.

  April–June

• April 2 - The Coinage Act is passed, establishing the United States Mint.
• April 5 - United States President George Washington vetoes a bill designed to apportion representatives among U.S. states. This is the first time the presidential veto is used in the United States.
• April 20 - France declares war against Austria, beginning the War of the First Coalition.
• April 21 - Tiradentes, a leading figure in the Inconfidência Mineira conspiracy, is executed in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
• April 25
• * Highwayman Nicolas Pelletier becomes the first person executed by guillotine in France.
• * La Marseillaise, the French national anthem, is composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle.
• May 11 - Robert Gray's Columbia River expedition: Captain Robert Gray, on the Columbia Rediviva, becomes the first white man to discover the mouth of the Columbia River.
• May 17 - The Buttonwood Agreement is signed, beginning the New York Stock Exchange.
• May 18 - War in Defence of the Constitution: Russia invades Poland.
• May 21 - An old lava dome collapses in Kyūshū, Japan, due to activity of Mount Unzen volcano; the resulting avalanche and tsunami kills about 14,300 people.
• June 1 - Kentucky becomes the 15th state of the United States of America.
• June 4 - Captain George Vancouver claims Puget Sound for Great Britain.
• June 13
• * Vancouver becomes the first European to enter Burrard Inlet.
• * Prussia declares war against France.

  July–September

• July 18 - Polish–Russian War - Battle of Dubienka: Soldiers of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, led by Tadeusz Kościuszko, resist an attack from Imperial Russian Army forces five times their size.
• August 10 - French Revolution: The Tuileries Palace is stormed, and Louis XVI of France is arrested and taken into custody.
• September - Macartney Embassy: George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney, sails from Portsmouth in HMS Lion, as the first official envoy from Great Britain to China.
• September 2-7 - French Revolution - September Massacres: Rampaging mobs slaughter three Roman Catholic bishops and more than 200 priests, together with at least 1,000 criminals.
• September 11 - Six men steal some of the former French Crown Jewels from a warehouse, where the revolutionary government had stored them.
• September 14 - Thomas Paine flees from England to France, after being indicted for treason. He is tried in absentia during December and outlawed.

• September 20 - French Revolution - Battle of Valmy: The French revolutionary army defeats the Prussians under the Duke of Brunswick, after a 7-hour artillery duel.
• September 21 - French Revolution: A Proclamation of the abolition of the monarchy by the French Convention goes into effect, and the French First Republic is established, effective the following day.
• September 22 - French Revolution: The Era of the historical French Republican Calendar begins.

  October–December

• October 3 - A militia departs from the Spanish stronghold of Valdivia to quell a Huilliche uprising in southern Chile.
• October 12 - The first Columbus Day celebration in the United States is held in New York City, 300 years after his arrival in the New World.
• October 13 - Foundation of Washington, D.C.: The cornerstone of the United States Executive Mansion is laid.

• October 29 - Mount Hood is named after British Admiral Lord Hood by Lt. William Broughton of the Vancouver Expedition, who spots the mountain near the mouth of the Willamette River.
• November 6 -
• *At the Battle of Jemappes, Austrian armies under the command of Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen, are defeated in Belgium by the French Army, led by General Charles François Dumouriez.
• *The second United States presidential election is held. Incumbent President George Washington receives all 132 electoral votes for President, and incumbent Vice-President John Adams is re-elected with 77 of 132 votes, with George Clinton receiving 50.
• November 19 - France's National Convention passes a resolution pledging French support for the overthrow of the governments of other nations.
• December 3 - George Washington is re-elected President of the United States.
• December 26 - The trial of Louis XVI of France begins.

  Date unknown

• The Baptist Missionary Society is founded in Kettering, England.
• Tipu Sultan invades Kerala, India, but is repulsed.
• Hungarian astronomer Franz Xaver von Zach publishes The Tables of the Sun, an essential early work for navigation.
• Claude Chappe successfully demonstrates the first semaphore line, between Paris and Lille.
• Scottish engineer William Murdoch begins experimenting with gas lighting.
• George Anschutz constructs the first blast furnace, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
• Thomas Holcroft produces the play Road to Ruin in London.
• Barthélemy Catherine Joubert, future French general, becomes sub-lieutenant.
• Johann Georg Albrechtsberger becomes Kapellmeister in Vienna.
• The State Street Corporation is founded, in Boston, Massachusetts.
• Shiloh Meeting House, predecessor of Shiloh United Methodist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, is founded.
• Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is published.
• The Insurance Company of North America is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
• The first written examinations in Europe are held at Cambridge University, England.

  Births

January–June

• January 12 - Johann Arfvedson, Swedish chemist
• February 15 - Floride Calhoun, Second Lady of the United States
• February 17 - Karl Ernst von Baer, German naturalist
• February 29 - Gioachino Rossini, Italian composer
• March 3 - Johann Karl Ludwig Gieseler, German church historian
• March 4
• * Isaac Lea, American conchologist, geologist and publisher
• * Samuel Slocum, American inventor
• March 7 - John Herschel, English mathematician, astronomer
• April 1 - Karl Gottlob Zumpt, German scholar
• April 2 - Francisco de Paula Santander, President of Colombia
• April 4 - Thaddeus Stevens, American politician
• April 23 - Thomas Romney Robinson, Irish astronomer, physicist
• April 25 - John Keble, English churchman, poet
• May 10 - Willie Person Mangum, American politician
• May 13 - Pope Pius IX, Italian churchman
• May 15 - James Mayer de Rothschild, German-born banker
• May 17 - Anne Isabella Milbanke, English wife of Lord Byron
• May 18 - Margaret Ann Neve, Guernesiaise supercentenarian
• May 21 - Gaspard-Gustave Coriolis, French engineer, scientist
• June 13 - William Austin Burt, American inventor,
• June 15 - John Pascoe Fawkner, pioneer, newspaper publisher in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
• June 16 - John Linnell, English painter
• June 21 - Ferdinand Christian Baur, German theologian

  July–December

• July 7 - William Henry Smith, British businessman
• July 10
• * George M. Dallas, American Senator, 11th Vice President of the United States
• * Captain Frederick Marryat, British author
• July 27 - Maria Quitéria, Brazilian national heroine
• August 4 - Percy Bysshe Shelley, English poet
• August 13 - Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, queen of William IV of the United Kingdom
• August 18 - John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
• August 22 - John Church Hamilton, American historian
• August 26 - Manuel Oribe, 2nd President of Uruguay
• September 2 - Vicente Ramón Roca, 3rd President of Ecuador
• September 19 - William Backhouse Astor, Sr., American business tycoon
• September 26 - William Hobson, first Governor of New Zealand
• October 29 - Thomas Livingstone Mitchell, explorer, Surveyor-General of New South Wales, Australia
• November 4 - Carlos Antonio López, president of Paraguay
• November 10 - Samuel Nelson, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
• November 11 - Mary Anne Evans, wife of Benjamin Disraeli
• November 28 - Victor Cousin, French philosopher
• December 1 - Nikolai Lobachevsky, Russian mathematician
• December 5 - Andrés de Santa Cruz, Peruvian military officer, seventh President of Peru and President of Bolivia
• December 6 - William II of the Netherlands

  Date unknown

• Matteo Carcassi, Italian musician, composer
• Nodira, Uzbek poet and stateswoman
• Erike Kirstine Kolstad, Norwegian actress

  Deaths

January–June

• January 17 - George Horne, British academic and Bishop of Norwich
• February 15 - John Witherspoon, Scottish American signer of the Declaration of Independence
• February 23 - Sir Joshua Reynolds, English painter
• March 1
• * Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor
• * Jean Godin des Odonais, French cartographer and naturalist
• March 1 - Angelo Emo, Venetian admiral and statesman
• March 3 - Robert Adam, British architect
• March 10 - John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
• March 23 - Luís António Verney, Portuguese philosopher and pedagogue
• March 29 - King Gustav III of Sweden
• April 3 - Sir George Pocock, British admiral
• April 4 - James Sykes, American politician
• April 14 - Maximilian Hell, Slovakian astronomer
• April 23 - Karl Friedrich Bahrdt, German theologian, adventurer
• April 30 - John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, English statesman
• May 10 - John Stevens, American delegate to the Continental Congress
• May 12 - Charles Simon Favart, French dramatist
• May 24 - George Brydges Rodney, 1st Baron Rodney, British naval officer
• June 4 - John Burgoyne, British general
• June 22 - Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, Arabian Wahhabi preacher

  July–December

• July 3 - Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel
• July 18 - John Paul Jones, American naval captain
• July 29 - René Nicolas Charles Augustin de Maupeou, Chancellor of France
• August 3 - Richard Arkwright, English inventor
• August 5 - Frederick North, Lord North, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
• August 25 - Jacques Cazotte, French writer
• September 3 - Marie Thérèse Louise of Savoy, Princesse de Lamballe, French princess, courtier to Marie Antoinette
• September 8 - Charles d'Abancour, French statesman
• September 16 - Nguyễn Huệ, Vietnamese emperor
• September 18 - August Gottlieb Spangenberg, German religious leader
• September 25 - Adam Gottlob Moltke, Danish statesman
• September 29 - George Browne, Russian-Irish field-marshal
• October 7 - George Mason, American patriot
• October 14 - Sophie Charlotte Ackermann, German actress
• October 21 - Anders Rudolf du Rietz, Swedish general, count and politician
• October 22 - Guillaume Le Gentil, French astronomer
• October 28
• * Paul Möhring, German physician and scientist
• * John Smeaton, English civil engineer
• November - Samuel Hearne, English explorer, fur-trader, author and naturalist
• December 8 - Henry Laurens, political leader during the American Revolutionary War, father of John Laurens
• December 15
• * Joseph Martin Kraus, Swedish composer
• * Hugh Pigot, British Royal Navy admiral