The 1790s

1791 235 years ago

Slaves from plantations in Saint-Domingue hold a Vodou ceremony led by houngan Dutty Boukman at Bois Caïman, marking…

Saint-Domingue was a French colony in the western portion of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, in the area of modern-day Haiti, from 1659 to 1803. The name derives from the Spani…

Slaves from plantations in Saint-Domingue hold a Vodou ceremony led by houngan Dutty Boukman at Bois Caïman, marking…

1791 235 years ago

James Buchanan, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 15th President of the United States (died 1868)

James Buchanan Jr. was the 15th president of the United States, serving from 1857 to 1861. He also served as the 17th United States secretary of state from 1845 to 1849 and represe…

James Buchanan, American soldier, lawyer, and politician, 15th President of the United States (died 1868)

1791 235 years ago

Samuel Morse, American painter and inventor, co-invented the Morse code (died 1872)

Samuel Finley Breese Morse was an American inventor and painter. After establishing his reputation as a portrait painter, Morse, in his middle age, contributed to the invention of …

Samuel Morse, American painter and inventor, co-invented the Morse code (died 1872)

1791 235 years ago

Minh Mạng, Vietnamese emperor (died 1841)

Minh Mạng, also known as Minh Mệnh, was the second emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty of Vietnam, reigning from 14 February 1820 until his death, on 20 January 1841. He was the fourth s…

Minh Mạng, Vietnamese emperor (died 1841)

1791 235 years ago

Félix Savart, French physicist and psychologist (died 1841)

Félix Savart was a French physicist and mathematician who is primarily known for the Biot–Savart law of electromagnetism, which he discovered together with his colleague Jean-Bapti…

Félix Savart, French physicist and psychologist (died 1841)

1791 235 years ago

Enslaved Africans in Saint-Domingue, led by Dutty Boukman, held a Vodou ceremony that became a pivotal act of…

Saint-Domingue was a French colony in the western portion of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, in the area of modern-day Haiti, from 1659 to 1803. The name derives from the Spani…

Enslaved Africans in Saint-Domingue, led by Dutty Boukman, held a Vodou ceremony that became a pivotal act of…

1791 235 years ago

The Haitian slave revolution begins in Saint-Domingue, Haiti.

Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country in the Caribbean on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica and south of The Bahamas. It occup…

The Haitian slave revolution begins in Saint-Domingue, Haiti.

1791 235 years ago

French Revolution: Frederick William II of Prussia and Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor, issue the Declaration of…

The French Revolution was a period of political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the Coup of 18 Brumaire on 9 November 1799.…

French Revolution: Frederick William II of Prussia and Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor, issue the Declaration of…

1791 235 years ago

HMS Pandora sinks after having run aground on the outer Great Barrier Reef the previous day.

HMS Pandora was a 24-gun Porcupine-class sixth-rate post ship of the Royal Navy launched in May 1779. The vessel is best known for its role in hunting down the Bounty mutineers in …

HMS Pandora sinks after having run aground on the outer Great Barrier Reef the previous day.

1791 235 years ago

King Louis XVI accepts the new French constitution.

Louis XVI was the last king of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. The son of Louis, Dauphin of France, and Maria Josepha of Saxony, Louis became t…

King Louis XVI accepts the new French constitution.

1791 235 years ago

Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, Austrian pianist, composer, and conductor (died 1844)

Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, also known as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Jr., was the youngest child of six born to composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his wife Constanze and the younge…

Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, Austrian pianist, composer, and conductor (died 1844)

1791 235 years ago

Giuseppe Gioachino Belli, Italian poet and author (died 1863)

Giuseppe Francesco Antonio Maria Gioachino Raimondo Belli was an Italian poet, famous for his sonnets in Romanesco, the dialect of Rome.

Giuseppe Gioachino Belli, Italian poet and author (died 1863)

1791 235 years ago

Franz Bopp, German linguist and academic (died 1867)

Franz Bopp was a German linguist known for extensive and pioneering comparative work on Indo-European languages.

Franz Bopp, German linguist and academic (died 1867)

1791 235 years ago

Johann Franz Encke, German astronomer and academic (died 1865)

Johann Franz Encke was a German astronomer. Among his activities, he worked on the calculation of the periods of comets and asteroids, measured the distance from the Earth to the S…

Johann Franz Encke, German astronomer and academic (died 1865)

1791 235 years ago

Théodore Géricault, French painter and lithographer (died 1824)

Jean-Louis André Théodore Géricault was a French painter and lithographer. His best-known painting is The Raft of the Medusa. Despite his short life, he was one of the pioneers of …

Théodore Géricault, French painter and lithographer (died 1824)

1791 235 years ago

The first performance of Mozart's opera The Magic Flute takes place two months before his death.

The Magic Flute, K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. It is a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singin…

The first performance of Mozart's opera The Magic Flute takes place two months before his death.

1791 235 years ago

First session of the French Legislative Assembly.

The Legislative Assembly was the legislature of the Kingdom of France from 1 October 1791 to 20 September 1792 during the years of the French Revolution. It provided the focus of p…

First session of the French Legislative Assembly.

1791 235 years ago

The revolutionary group the United Irishmen is formed in Belfast, Ireland leading to the Irish Rebellion of 1798.

The Society of United Irishmen was a sworn association, formed in the wake of the French Revolution, to secure representative government in Ireland. Despairing of constitutional re…

The revolutionary group the United Irishmen is formed in Belfast, Ireland leading to the Irish Rebellion of 1798.

1791 235 years ago

Giacomo Meyerbeer, German pianist and composer (died 1864)

Giacomo Meyerbeer was a German opera composer, linking Mozart and Wagner. With his 1831 opera Robert le diable and its successors, he gave the genre of grand opera "decisive charac…

Giacomo Meyerbeer, German pianist and composer (died 1864)

1791 235 years ago

Michael Faraday, English physicist and chemist (died 1867)

Michael Faraday was an English chemist and physicist who contributed vastly to the study of electrochemistry and electromagnetism. His main discoveries include the principles under…

Michael Faraday, English physicist and chemist (died 1867)

1791 235 years ago

Sergey Aksakov, Russian soldier and author (died 1859)

Sergey Timofeyevich Aksakov was a 19th-century Russian literary figure remembered for his semi-autobiographical tales of family life, as well as his books on hunting and fishing.

Sergey Aksakov, Russian soldier and author (died 1859)

1791 235 years ago

Friedrich Parrot, Baltic German naturalist (died 1841)

Johann Jacob Friedrich Wilhelm Parrot was a Baltic German naturalist, explorer, and mountaineer, who lived and worked in Tartu, Estonia in what was then the Governorate of Livonia …

Friedrich Parrot, Baltic German naturalist (died 1841)

1791 235 years ago

Richard Price, Welsh-English preacher and philosopher (born 1723)

Richard Price was a Welsh moral philosopher, Nonconformist minister and mathematician. He was also a political reformer and pamphleteer, active in radical, republican, and liberal …

Richard Price, Welsh-English preacher and philosopher (born 1723)

1791 235 years ago

Francis Hopkinson, American judge and politician (born 1737)

Francis Hopkinson was an American Founding Father, lawyer, jurist, author, and composer. He designed Continental paper money and two early versions of flags, one for the United Sta…

Francis Hopkinson, American judge and politician (born 1737)