1790 to 1794

1790

x - |U.S.| Population c. 4 million; Native Americans were not counted.
apr 17 - Benjamin Franklin ?*+ dies in Philadelphia at age 84. His funeral four days later draws over 20,000 mourners.
jul 10 - The House of Representatives votes to locate the national capital on a 10 square-mile site along the Potomac, with President George Washington + choosing the exact location.
x - |England ?+| The hydraulic press is invented.
c - French Jews given citizenship

1791

jun 20 to 21 - Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette attempt to flee in disguise from France, but are apprehended at Varennes, and are brought back to Paris.
oct 01 - |FRANCE| Legislative Assembly convenes.
x - Louis XVI accepts a constitution.
x - French National Assembly passes the Le Chapelier law, which prohibits economic associations, ending the guild system.
x - France enacts the Ordinance of 1791, establishing new infantry tactics for use by French armies.
x - Thomas Paine *¢ [b.1737-d.1809] writes The Rights of Man *, which advocated the abolition of slavery, female emancipation, and republicanism.
x - The Society of the United Irishmen established.
x - American Bill of Rights adopted.
x - John Wesley, founder of the Methodist church, dies at age 88.
x - Catholic Relief Act permits mass, travel, and schools for Catholics in England.
x - The Constitution Act is passed by the British parliament - the act is concerned with the governing of Quebec.

1792

apr 20 - France declares war on Austria.
apr 20 - An insurrection in Paris fails.
apr - France declares war on Prussia.
aug 10 - Paris mob, inflamed partly by the writings of Jean Paul Marat, storms the Tuileries Palace and establishes a new city government.
sep 09 - Mobs across France enter jails and kill hundreds of royalist sympathizers who had recently been arrested.
sep 21 - National Convention meets for first time, abolishes the monarchy, establishes a republic, and tries King Louis XVI for treason. The King is convicted by a majority of one vote.
x - Napoleon ?+ promoted to Captain.
x - Mary Wollstonecraft [b.1759-d.1797] a proto-feminist, writes A Vindication of the Rights of Woman *. Her daughter Mary marries a poet named Shelley.
x - Mechanical semaphore signaler built in France.
x - In Britain, postal money orders.
x - Postal Act gives mail regularity throughout U.S.
x - Russo-Turkish war ends.

1793

jan 21 - King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette are guillotined in Paris. The regicide causes the European monarchies to band together in the Brunswick Manifesto.
jul 13 - Charlotte Corday, an aristocrat from Caen with sympathies for the Girondists, arranges a meeting with Marat, secretes a knife, and stabs him to death in his bath, for which she is guillotined.
aug 09 - Arch Chancellor of France Cambaceres presents a plan for a new Civil Code for France, but it is rejected.
sep 09 - Napoleon takes command of the artillery of the Jacobin forces beseiging Toulon.
sep 15 - |FRANCE| National Convention divides public education into three ranks: primary, secondary, and higher education.
oct 15 - |FRANCE| National Convention issues Decret de la Convention Nationale du 5 octobre 1793 * outlining a new calendar for the country.
nov 24 - The French Republican calendar+ goes into affect. - France adopts a new "de-Christianized" calendar, retroactive to 1792. The calendar begins on September 22, and consists of 12 months of 30 days apiece, with each month being divided into decades of ten days. The end of the year had 5 days (6 during leap years) designated by Roman numerals. The remained the official calendar of France until 1806
x - Relief Act of 1793; Irish Parliament granted new powers.
x - Beginning of the Reign of Terror in France.
x - Poland is divided between Russia and Prussia.
x - Upper Canada abolishes slavery.
x - The Holy Roman Empire declares war on France.

1794

jul 27 - Robespierre is arrested and guillotined the next morning.
dec 16, 17 - The City of Toulon falls to a seige in which Napoleon distinguishes himself by the use of artillery.
x - William Blake [b.1757- d.1827] published Songs of Experience.
x - First letter carriers appear on American city streets.
x - Panorama, forerunner of movie theaters, opens.
x - Signaling system connects Paris and Lille.
x - The French capture the Rhineland.
x - Tadeusz Kosciuszko heads the failed revolution in Poland.
x - |FRANCE| End of the Terror