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Botany Bay penal colony is established in Australia. |
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The Marylebone Cricket Club codifies the rules of cricket in its Code of Laws, which are universally adopted by the game. (MCC remains the custodian and arbiter of Laws relating to cricket around
the world.) |
Sir John Soane
painted
by Thomas Lawrence
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Sir John Soane begins his re-design of the Bank of England building, the first Greek revival
building in England. |
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January: The first edition of The Times of London is published. |
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May: The last volumes of Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire are published. |
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August: Mozart composes the "Jupiter Symphony" (Symphony No. 41). |
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August: Louis XVI of France agrees to convene the Estates-General for the first time since 1614. |
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November: The first Regency Crisis is brought about by George's III's first bout of madness. |
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William Blake, British poet, painter, and printmaker publishes Songs of Innocence. |
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Title page from Blake's
Songs of Innocence
Click on image to see a
larger version.
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Pears' soap is introduced by London soapmaker Andrew Pears, whose oval and translucent product will gain worldwide distribution. |
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January: The first national elections are held in the United States. |
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March: The newly ratified Constitution of the United States is put into action as the first government begins operations. |
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May: In France, the Estates-General convenes for the first time in 175 years. |
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June: At the Estates General, representatives of the Third Estate -- ie the general populace and not the clergy (First Estate) or the nobility (Second Estate) -- declare themselves the National Assembly of France. |
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July: Storming of the Bastille by citizens of Paris marks the beginning of the French Revolution. |
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August: The National Assembly of France adopts the Declaration of the Rights of Man. |
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December: George III recovers, ending the Regency Crisis. |
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Mozart composes "Cosi Fan Tutte." |
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Portrait of Elizabeth Farren by Thomas Lawrence, exhibited at the Royal Acadmey in
1790.
This portrait, along with another of Queen Charlotte, met with great public and critical acclaim, and were praised above even the work of co-exhibitor Josuah Reynolds for their naturalistic freshness and vivacity.
Click on image to see a
larger version.
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George Stubbs paints Lion Attacking a Horse. Its commingling of the horrific and the sublime, its exaltation of nature and the emotions mark it as a forerunner of the Romantic movement. |
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The British make an alliance with the Nizam of Hyderabad, and a third Anglo-Mysore War begins. |
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July: Adam Smith, Scottish economist and philosopher, dies at age 67. |
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October: Mozart's Concerto for Pianoforte and Orchestra in D major ( Coronation) is performed for the first time at the coronation of Leopold II in Frankfurt-am-Main. |
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November: Edmund Burke publishes Reflections on the Revolution of France, which condemns the revolution as the beginning of mob rule. |
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William Wilberforce
painted by
Karl Anton Hickel
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London furniture maker Thomas Sheraton publishes The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Drawing Book, advocating a style more severe than those of Chippendale and Hepplewhite. It was immediately influential throughout England. |
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March: Thomas Paine publishes the Rights of Man, Parts I & II. The book is banned and Paine is charged with seditious libel, and tried in absentia after he flees to Paris. |
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March: Haydn's Symphony No. 93 in D minor and Symphony No. 96 in D major ( Miracle) are performed for the first time at London's Hanover Square Rooms |
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April: William Wilberforce introduces the first Parliamentary bill to abolish the slave trade, but it is rejected. |
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June: The French Royal Family is captured at Varennes when they try to flee Paris in disguise. |
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July: The Priestly Riots take place in Birmingham, in which the rioters attacked and burned the houses, chapels, and homes of religious dissenters who supported the French Revolution. |
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July: 50 people are killed in Paris in the "Massacre of the Champs de Mars" when the National Guard fired into a mob gathered to sign petitions to overthrow the monarchy. |
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August: 100,000 slaves revolt in the French-controlled colony of San Domingo in the West Indies. |
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September: Mozart's "Magic Flute" premiers in Vienna. |
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December: Mozart dies at age 35. |
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January: Mary Wollstonecraft publishes her Vindication of the Rights of Woman, for which she is called by reviewers a "hyena in petticoats." |
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March: The guillotine is adopted as the official means of execution in France, and remains so until the death penalty is abolished in 1981. The last execution by guillotine is in 1977. |
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March: Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor, dies and is succeeded by his son, Francis II, who will be the last Holy Roman Emperor. |
Lieutenant General Lafayette
painted by
Joseph Désiré Court.
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March: Sierra Leone is established under British rule as a home for former slaves. |
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April: France declares war against Austria and Prussia. |
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August: Lafayette, leader of the French National Guard, is declared a traitor by the National Assembly and is imprisoned for 5 years. |
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August: French Legislative Assembly is dissolved. |
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August: A Paris mob storms the Tuileries Palace and 600 of the king's Swiss guardsmen are massacred. King Louis XVI is arrested and taken into custody. He and his family are held as prisoners in the Temple. |
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August: Coalition Armies (Austrian, Prussian, and French Royalist troops) attack France. |
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September: 1200 political prisoners are murdered in Paris during a wave of mob violence known as the September Massacres. Three Roman Catholic bishops and over 200 priests are slaughtered. |
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September: The French National Convention abolishes the monarchy and officially declares France a republic. |
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December: Thomas Paine is found guilty of sedition (for publishing the Rights of Man) and is sentenced to death in absentia. |
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The first Bank of England £5 note is issued in response to the need for smaller denomination banknotes to replace gold coin during the French Revolutionary Wars (previously the smallest note issued had been £10). |
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The Death of Marat
by Jacques-Louis David.
David was a close friend of Marat, as well as a strong supporter of Robespierre and the Jacobins. Determined to memorialize his friend, David not only organized for him a lavish
funeral, but painted his portrait soon afterwards. Despsite the haste in which it was painted, it is generally considered to be David's best work, a definite step towards
modernity, and an inspired political statement.
Click on image to see a
larger version. |
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Lansdown Crescent is completed in Bath. |
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January: Louis XVI's brother, the Comte de Provence, who fled France in 1791, proclaims himself regent for his 7-year-old nephew Louis-Charles, Duc de Normandie, who is proclaimed Louis XVII by royalist émigrés. |
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February: The French Republic declares war on England, Holland, and Spain. |
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February: England declares war on France. |
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July: Radical Jacobin Jean-Paul Marat is assassinated by Girondist sympathizer Charlotte Corday, who stabs him in his bath. She not only holds him responsible for the September Massacres, but believes Marat to be the centerpoint for everything that is
threatening a true Republic, and believes that his death will be
the death of violence throughout the nation. Instead her action leads to reprisals that utlimately bring on the Reign of Terror. |
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September: The Reign of Terror begins in France. The National Convention is taken over by radical Jacobins who embark on a systematic and lethal repression of perceived enemies of the Revolution. Within the next 12 months, as many as 40,000 executions will take place. |
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October: The French National Convention adopts the Republican Calendar, with 12 30-day months beginning with the Year One of the revolution (September
22, 1792). |
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October: Jacques-Louis David paints The Death of Marat, one of the most famous images of the French Revolution. |
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November: The Louvre Palace is opened to the public as a museum. |
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William Blake publishes Songs of Experience, which includes the poem "The Tyger." |
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Fashion plate from a
1794 edition of the
Gallery of Fashion
from Candice's collection.
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February: The French Assembly abolishes slavery. |
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March: The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, which had been razed in 1791, re-opens in a new building designed by Henry Holland. |
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April: The first edition of Niklaus von Heideloff's upscale and exclusive fashion magazine, The Gallery of Fashion, is published. |
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April: Britain signs a treaty with Prussia and the Netherlands against France. |
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April: Joséphine de Beauharnais (future wife of Napoleon) is arrested along with her husband, the Vicomte de Beauharnais, during the Reign of Terror. The vicomte is executed. Josephine will be released in July. |
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May: Habeas Corpus is supended in England. |
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June: A Royal Navy fleet under the command of Admiral Lord Howe defeats a
French fleet in the North Atlantic, capturing six French ships and
sinking a seventh. |
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July: Robespierre is arrested and executed, ending the Reign of Terror in France. |
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August: British forces take Corsica from the French after bombardment by
Captain Horatio Nelson, who lost the sight in his right eye due to an injury in the battle. |
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November: The Treason Trials exonerate three key British Radicals ( Thomas Hardy, John Thelwall, John Horne Tooke) who had been charged with high treason. The trials had been orchestrated by Prime Minister William Pitt as a part of his campaign to cripple the radical movement in Britain, in hopes of avoiding a French-style revolution in England. |
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Famine in England is brought on by bad harvests and a wartime economy. |
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Methodists secede from the Church of England. |
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Napoleon Bonaparte rises to prominence in France through a series of brilliant military victories in Italy. |
Louis XVII of France
painted by
Alexander Kucharsky
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Haydn completes the last of his 12 London Symphonies. |
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January: Josiah Wedgwood, English potter and prominent abolitionist, dies at age 64. |
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March: Ludwig van Beethoven's Concerto No. 2 in B flat major for Pianoforte and Orchestra is performed in Vienna, marking his debut as composer and piano virtuoso. |
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June: The son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette (known as Louis XVII though he never ruled) dies in the Temple Prison in Paris at age 10 and his body is dumped in a mass grave. His heart is stolen and kept by a royalist physician. When the French government announces his death, many doubt the news, giving rise to apochryphal legends of his escape, and to future claimants to the French throne. However, DNA tests performed in 2000 on the heart confirm that it indeed belonged to Louis. |
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October: Directory Goverment (the Directoire) is elected in France. |
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October: George III is attacked by an angry mob and narrowly escapes assault. |
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November: William Pitt introduces the infamous "Gagging Acts" or "Two Bills": the Seditious Meetings Bill forbids large meetings and political lectures, and Treasonable Practices Bill makes it a treasonable offense to incite hatred of the king, his government, or the constitution in speech or writing.. |
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Title page from the 1796
first edition of Camilla:
Or A Picture of Youth
"By the Author of Evelina
and Cecilia"
from Candice's collection.
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British forces take Malacca and Ceylon, and seize all Dutch property in the Far East except Java. |
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January: British forces under the command of Lieutenant-General Sir Ralph Abercromby arrive at
Jamaica and take the Caribbean islands of St. Lucia,
Demerara, St. Vincent, and Grenada. |
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April: Napoleon leads the French victory over Austria. |
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May: Napoleon enters Milan and establishes the Lombard Republic. |
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May: Vaccination against small pox is introduced by Edward Jenner. |
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June: Scottish physician-explorer Mungo Park reaches the Niger, becoming
the first European to reach the West African interior. |
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October: Spain, now aligned with France, declares war on Britain. |
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Richard Wellesley (Earl of Mornington and later Marquess Wellesley) becomes Governor-General of India. |
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January: The first edition of the weekly fashion magazine, Journal des Dames et des Modes is published in Paris. |
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January: London haberdasher John Hetherington leaves his shop in the Strand wearing England's first silk top hat and attracting a crowd of spectators whose
shoving causes police to arrest him. He is charged with disturbing the peace and wearing "a tall structure having a shining luster calculated to frighten timid people." Within a month he is overwhelmed
by orders for the silk hats. |
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February: The Bank of England issues the first £1 note. |
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February: A British fleet under the command of Admiral Jervis defeats a larger Spanish fleet near Cape St. Vincent, Portugal. Captain Horatio Nelson distinguishes himself by seizing four Spanish ships; he is promoted to Rear Admiral and is knighted. Jervis is granted an earldom. |
Mary Wollstonecraft
painted by John Opie
only months before her
death in 1797.
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February: The Spanish Governor of Trinidad peacefully surrenders the colony over to a British naval force. |
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March: John Adams becomes the second President of the United States. |
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April - June: Naval mutinies occur at Spithead and Nore over sailors' pay and living conditions. |
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May: Napoleon conquers Venice, ending the city's 1070 years of independence. |
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July: British statesman, orator, and political theorist Edmund Burke dies at age 68. |
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September: Mary Wollstonecraft dies at age 38 after complications from the birth of her daughter, Mary. |
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October: France and Austria sign peace treaty. |
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The first volume of Joanna Baillie's Plays of the Passions is published anonymously. |
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Beethoven composes the "Pathétique" Sonata (Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Opus 13).
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January: The first monthly issue of the Lady's Monthly Museum is published. |
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February: Napoleon occupies Rome, and begins his campaigns in Egypt and the Middle East. |
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March: French forces invade the Papal States and establish the Roman Republic. |
Nelson as Hero of the Nile
in a caricature by Gillray. |
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April: France annexes Geneva. |
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May: Society of United Irishmen spearhead the Irish Rebellion against British rule, which lasts through the end of summer when the British finallly put down the rebellion. |
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May: Napoleon dispatches 167 scientists in an expedition to Egypt, as a prelude to a military expedition. |
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June: Napoleon seizes Malta from the Order of St. John (Knights Hospitaller). |
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July: Napoleon enters Egypt, and fights successfully against the greater forces of the Marmelukes in the Battle of the Chobrakit and the Battle of the Pyramids. |
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August: Napoleon establishes the Institut d'Égypte, staffed with French scholars and scientists who are charged with the research, study and publication of physical, industrial and
historical facts about Egypt, especially its tombs and temples. |
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August: Nelson is victorious at the Battle of the Nile, capturing or destroying all but two French ships of the line, stranding Napoleon in Egypt and frustrating his plans to strengthen the French position in the Mediterrean. His brilliant victory gains him the title Baron Nelson of the Nile. |
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September: Haydn's Mass in D minor ( Nelson Mass) is premiered at the court of Prince Nicolaus II Esterházy of Hungary. He has written the work without knowing of
Nelson's victory in the Battle of the Nile, but people will soon begin calling it the Nelson Missa. |
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October: Elizabeth Inchbald's play Lover's Vows is performed for the first time at Covent Garden. It is an immediate success, but gains even more fame when it is featured in Jane Austen's novel Mansfield Park. |
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Mungo Park's Travels in the Interior of Africa is published. |
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The Royal Institution is founded by leading scientists, with the mission of supporting scientific education and research. |
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Henry Fuseli exhibits a series of paintings from subjects from the works of John Milton, with a view to forming a Milton gallery corresponding to Boydell's Shakespeare gallery. Also situated in Pall Mall, it is a commercial failure and closes in 1800. |
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The first Combination Act is passed by Parliament, prohibiting trade unions and collective bargaining. |
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Tipoo Sultan
by Edward Orme. |
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January: The first edition of the magazine Fashions of London and Paris is published. |
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January: Parliament passes the world's first general income tax bill, as a means to pay for the war with France. |
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February: Napoleon invades Syria and defeats superior Ottoman forces in several battles. |
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March: Napoleon captures Jaffa in Palestine and his troops kill more than 2,000 Albanian captives. |
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July: The Rosetta Stone is discovered by the French in Egypt. |
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July: Napoleon defates 10,000 Ottoman troops at Aboukir. |
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November: The Directoire government in France is overthrown in a coup d'état by Napoleon, who establishes the Consulate, with himself as First Consul. |
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Portrait of Mme. Récamier
by Jacques Louis David.
Juliet Récamier, a Parisian socialite, disliked the portrait and commissioned another from David's pupil, François Gérard. His portrait, which she liked, is featured on the cover of Candice's Just One of Those Flings.
Click on image to see a
larger version.
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A new edition of Lyrical Ballads is published, with a Preface by William Wordsworth (expanded in the 1802 edition) that stands as a Romantic manifesto on the nature of poetry. |
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London's Royal College of Surgeons is founded. |
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April: Beethoven premiers his Symphony No. 1 in C major in Vienna. |
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May: An assissination attempt is made on George III at Drury Lane Theatre. |
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May: Napoleon crosses the Alps and invades Italy. |
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June: Napoleon drives the Austrians from Italy (which they had conquered while he was busy in Egypt) in the Battle of Marengo. |
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September: At the invitation of the Maltese, British troops liberate the Islands of Malta and Gozo from the French. |
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December: Peace negotiations between France and Austria break down, and Napoleon sends General Moreau into Austria, where he is victorious at the Battle of Hohenlinden. |
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December: Washington, DC is officially established as the capital of the United States. |
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Architects Charles Percier and Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine publish the Recueil de décorations intérieures, a compilation of drawings of contemporary design that will set the standard for the Empire style of interior decoration that spreads throughout Europe. |
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Lord Elgin, with permission of the Turkish government that controls Athens, begins the removal of sculptured portions of the Parthenon, a task that takes five years to complete. |
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Beethoven completes the "Moonlight Sonata" (Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Opus 27). |
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January: the Act of Union with Ireland creates the United Kingdom. |
The Union Jack becomes
the new flag of the
United Kingdom in 1801,
incorporating the
Cross of St. George
(England), the Cross
of St. Andrew (Scotland),
and the Cross of
St. Patrick (Ireland). |
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February: The Treaty of Lunéville, between France and the Holy Roman Empire, is signed, giving France control up to the Rhine and the French client republics in Italy and the Netherlands. Britian is now the sole nation fighting against France. |
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February: The government of William Pitt collapses over the issue of Catholic emancipation. Pitt had made veiled promises of emancipation in order to secure the Act of Union, but George III would not support it, and Pitt resigned. |
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March: England conducts its first census. |
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March: The London Stock Exchange is founded. |
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April: The U.S. Library of Congress is founded. |
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April: At the Battle of Copenhagen, Lord Nelson deals a death blow to the League of Armed Neutrality (Russia, Denmark, Sweden, and Prussia) with his destruction of the Danish fleet. When he returns to England in June, he is elevated to a viscount. |
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June: Cairo falls to British troops. |
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August: The West India Docks open after a two-year design and construction project by William Jessop. Built on the Isle of Dogs, they are the first large wet docks built in the Port of London, and can accommodate 600 ships. |
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October: The Treaty of London is signed, a preliminary peace treaty ending the war between France and Britain. |
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December: Richard Trevithick builds and demonstrates the first steam-powered road locomotive. |
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The Factories Act (sometimes called the "Health and Morals of Apprentices Act") is passed, regulating factory conditions, especially in regard to child workers in cotton and woollen mills. |
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The Rosetta Stone.
The Ptolemaic stela includes three translations of a single passage: in hieroglyphics, Demotic, and Greek. It was ultimately the key to understanding the previously undecipherable ancient hieroglyphic language. French scholar Jean-François Champollion is credited with the first translation in 1822. The stone has been on display at the British Museum since 1802.
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The second volume of Joanna Baillie's Plays of the Passions is published under her name. |
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Henry Holland converts York House on Piccadilly (for ten years a residence of the Duke of York) into the Albany apartments, 69 sets of rooms for bachelors. |
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Sculptor Antonio Canova's Perseus With the Head of Medusa is so admired that it is placed in one of the stanze of the Vatican hitherto reserved for the most precious works of antiquity. |
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