1797 in Great Britain
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 1797 in Great Britain: |
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Events from the year 1797 in the Kingdom of Great Britain.
Contents |
[edit] Events
- 15 January - London haberdasher John Hetherington wears the first top hat in public and attracts a large crowd of onlookers. He is later fined £50 for causing public nuisance. [1]
- 18 February - Spanish Governor Chacon peacefully surrenders the colony of Trinidad and Tobago to a British naval force commanded by Sir Ralph Abercromby.
- 22 February - The Last invasion of Britain begins. French forces under the command of American Colonel William Tate land near Fishguard in Wales.
- 25 February - Tate surrenders at Fishguard.
- 26 February - The Bank of England issues the first one-pound and two-pound notes (discontinued March 11, 1988).
- 16 April - Spithead and Nore mutinies.
- 17 April - Sir Ralph Abercromby unsuccessfuly invades San Juan, Puerto Rico in what would be one of the largest British attacks on Spanish territories in the western hemisphere and one of the worst defeats of the navy for years to come.
- 24 July - Horatio Nelson is wounded at the Battle of Santa Cruz, causing a loss of one arm.
[edit] Births
- 6 January - Edward Turner Bennett, zoologist and writer (died 1836)
- 9 August - Charles Robert Malden, explorer (died 1855)
- 30 August - Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, writer (died 1851)
- 16 October - James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan, military commande (died 1868)
- 14 November - Charles Lyell, geologist (died 1875)
[edit] Deaths
- 2 March - Horace Walpole, politician and writer (born 1717)
- 26 March - James Hutton, geologist (born 1726)
- 31 March - Olaudah Equiano Nigerian ex-slave and slavery abolitionist in Britain (born 1745, Nigeria)
- 25 May - John Griffin Whitwell, 4th Baron Howard de Walden, field marshal (born 1719)
- 3 August - Jeffrey Amherst, military commander (born 1717)
- 11 December - Richard Brocklesby, physician (born 1722)
[edit] References
- ^ (2006) Penguin Pocket On This Day. Penguin Reference Library. ISBN 0-141-02715-0.
