1794

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Year 1794 (MDCCXCIV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Saturday of the 11-day slower Julian calendar.

Events

January–June

• February 4 – The French Republic abolishes slavery.
• February 11 – The first session of the United States Senate is open to the public.
• March 11 – Canonsburg Academy (now Washington & Jefferson College) is chartered by the General Assembly.^[1]
• March 12 – General Antoni Madaliński, a commander of the National Cavalry in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, disobeys an order from the ruling Russian Empire and Kingdom of Prussia imposing demobilization, advancing his troops from Ostrołęka to Kraków.
• March 14 – Eli Whitney is granted a patent for the cotton gin.
• March 24 – Tadeusz Kościuszko makes his proclamation starting the Kościuszko Uprising against the Russian Empire and Kingdom of Prussia in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Prussian Partition.
• March 27 – The United States Government authorizes the building of the first six United States Navy vessels (in 1797 the first three frigates, USS United States, USS Constellation and USS Constitution go into service), not to be confused with October 13, 1775 which is observed as the Navy's Birthday.
• April 4 – Battle of Racławice: Polish supporters of the Kościuszko Uprising defeat forces of the Russian Empire.
• April 5 – French Revolution: Georges Danton is executed.
• April 17–19 – Kościuszko Uprising – Warsaw Uprising: The Polish people overthrow the Russian garrison in Warsaw.
• April 29–May 1 – Battle of Boulou: The French defeat the Spanish and Portuguese forces.
• May 7 – French Revolution: Robespierre establishes the Cult of the Supreme Being as the new state religion of the French First Republic.
• May 8 – French Revolution: Chemist Antoine Lavoisier is executed by guillotine.
• May 18 – Battle of Tourcoing: French troops defeat British forces.
• May 28–June 1 – The Glorious First of June (Battle of Ushant): British and French ships battle to a draw.
• June 4 – British troops capture Port-au-Prince in Haiti.
• June 26 – Battle of Fleurus: French forces defeat the Austrians and their allies, leading to permanent loss of the Austrian Netherlands and destruction of the Dutch Republic. French use of an observation balloon marks the first participation of an aircraft in battle.

July–December

• July 12 – Horatio Nelson loses the sight in his right eye in a British military operation at Calvi in Corsica.
• July 13–September 6 – Kościuszko Uprising – Siege of Warsaw: The Polish people resist a siege by armies of the Russian Empire and Kingdom of Prussia.
• July 27 (9 Thermidor) – Robespierre is arrested; he is executed the next day, ending the French Revolution's Reign of Terror.
• August 29 – Stonyhurst College is finally established in Lancashire, having had several European locations.
• September 10 – The University of Tennessee is established at Knoxville.
• October – A Federal army quells the Whiskey Rebellion in the United States.
• October 10 – Battle of Maciejowice: Forces of the Russian Empire defeat Polish supporters of the Kościuszko Uprising; Tadeusz Kościuszko is wounded and captured.
• November 4 – Battle of Praga: Russian General Alexander Suvorov storms Warsaw in the war against the Polish Kościuszko Uprising and captures Praga, one of its suburbs, killing many civilians.
• November 14 – The first recorded meeting of the Franklin Literary Society is held at Canonsburg Academy (now Washington & Jefferson College).^[2]
• November 19 – The United States and Great Britain conclude the Jay Treaty, the basis for ten years of peaceful trade between the two nations.

Date unknown

• Coffee is forbidden by royal decree in Sweden.
• France occupies Aachen.
• The Ayrshire (Earl of Carrick's Own) Yeomanry, a British Yeomanry Cavalry Regiment, is formed by the Earl of Cassillis at Culzean Castle, Ayrshire.
• Colombian Antonio Nariño translates and publishes the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen.
• Britain agrees to evacuate border forts in the Northwest Territory (roughly the area north of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi) and thereby end British support for the Indians.
• Bowdoin College is founded.
• The Oban Distillery is built.

Births

• February 20 – William Carleton, Irish novelist (d. 1869)
• February 21 – Antonio López de Santa Anna, Mexican general and President of Mexico (d. 1876)
• April 10 – Matthew Calbraith Perry, American commodore (d. 1858)
• May 17 – Anna Brownell Jameson, British writer (d. 1860)
• May 24 – William Whewell, English scientist, philosopher, and historian of science (d. 1866)
• May 27 – Cornelius Vanderbilt, American entrepreneur (d. 1877)
• July 5 – Sylvester Graham, American nutritionist and inventor (d. 1851)
• November 3 – William Cullen Bryant, American poet (d. 1878)
• November 10 – Robert Towns, merchant and founder of Townsville, Queensland, Australia (d. 1873)
• Date unknown
  • Francesco Puccinotti, Italian pathologist (d. 1872)
  • Charles Thomas Longley, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1868)
  • Mirza Shafi Vazeh, Azeri poet (d. 1852)

Deaths

• January 4 – Nicolas Luckner, Marshal of France (executed) (b. 1722)
• January 6 – Louis d'Elbée, French Revolutionary leader (executed) (b. 1752)
• January 8 – Justus Möser, German statesman (b. 1720)
• January 16 – Edward Gibbon, English historian (b. 1737)
• January 28 – Henri de la Rochejaquelein, French Revolutionary leader (b. 1772)
• January 31 – Mariot Arbuthnot, British admiral (b. 1711)
• February 12 – Srinath Madhavji Shinde alias Srinath Mahadji Shinde, The Great Maratha Emperor of India (1764–1794)
• March 24 – Jacques Hébert, French Revolutionary leader (executed) (b. 1757)
• March 28 – Marquis de Condorcet, French mathematician, philosopher, and political scientist (died in prison) (b. 1743)
• April 5
  • Georges Danton, French Revolutionary leader (executed) (b. 1759)
  • Camille Desmoulins, French Revolutionary leader (executed) (b. 1760)
  • Marie Jean Hérault de Séchelles, French Revolutionary leader (executed) (b. 1759)
  • Fabre d'Églantine, French dramatist and revolutionary (executed) (b. 1750)
  • François Joseph Westermann, French Revolutionary leader and general (executed)
• April 13
  • Pierre Gaspard Chaumette, French Revolutionary leader (executed) (b. 1763)
  • Lucile Duplessis, wife of Camille Desmoulins (executed) (b. 1770)
• April 18 – Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (b. 1714)
• April 23 – Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes, French statesman (executed) (b. 1721)
• April 27
  • James Bruce, Scottish explorer (b. 1730)
  • Sir William Jones, British philologist (b. 1746)
• May 8 – Antoine Lavoisier, French chemist (executed) (b. 1743)
• June 14 – Francis Seymour-Conway, 1st Marquess of Hertford, Viceroy of Ireland (b. 1718)
• June 17 – Marguerite-Élie Guadet, French Revolutionary leader (executed) (b. 1753)
• June 18
  • François Nicolas Leonard Buzot, French Revolutionary leader (suicide) (b. 1760)
  • James Murray, British military officer and administrator
• June 27
  • Wenzel Anton Graf Kaunitz, Austrian statesman (b. 1711)
  • Philippe de Noailles, duc de Mouchy, French soldier (executed) (b. 1715)
  • Charles-Louis-Victor, prince de Broglie, French soldier (executed) (b. 1756)
• July 13 – James Lind, pioneer of naval hygiene in the Royal Navy (b. 1716)
• July 17 – John Roebuck, English inventor (b. 1718)
• July 23 – Alexandre, Vicomte de Beauharnais, French politician and general (executed) (b. 1760)
• July 25 – André Chénier, French writer (executed) (b. 1762)
• July 28
  • Maximilien Robespierre, French Revolutionary leader (executed) (b. 1758)
  • Augustin Robespierre, French Revolutionary leader (executed) (b. 1763)
  • Louis de Saint-Just, French Revolutionary leader (executed) (b. 1767)
  • François Hanriot, French Revolutionary leader (executed) (b. 1761)
• August 6 – Henry Bathurst, 2nd Earl Bathurst, British politician (b. 1714)
• September 4 – John Hely-Hutchinson, Irish statesman (b. 1724)
• September 15 – Abraham Clark, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1725)
• September 16 – Hester Bateman, English silversmith (bap. 1708)
• September 25 – Paul Rabaut, French Huguenot pastor (b. 1718)
• October 21 – Francis Light, founder of the British colony of Penang (b. 1740)
• November 3 – François-Joachim de Pierre de Bernis, French cardinal and statesman (b. 1715)
• November 15 – John Witherspoon, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1723)
• November 16 – Jean-Baptiste Carrier, French Revolutionary leader (executed) (b. 1756)
• November 22 – John Alsop, American Continental Congressman (b. 1724)
• November 28 – Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, Prussian army officer (b. 1730)

In Fiction

In the graphic adventure game Day of the Tentacle, the character Hoagie is sent "200 years in the past" from 1994. He arrives in Revolutionary America during the writing of the Constitution of the United States.

References