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Year '1796' ('
MDCCXCVI') was a
leap year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the
Gregorian calendar (or a
leap year starting on Tuesday of the 11-day slower
Julian calendar).
Events of 1796
January - June
★
January 16 - First
Dutch (and general) elections for the
National Assembly of the Batavian Republic. The next
Dutch general elections were in
1917.
★
February 1 - The capital of
Upper Canada is moved from
Newark to
York.
★
February 9 - The
Qianlong Emperor abdicates at age 84 to make way for his son, the
Jiaqing Emperor.
★
March 9 -
Widow Joséphine de Beauharnais marries
General Napoléon Bonaparte.
★
March 30 -
Carl Gauss obtained conditions for the constructibility by ruler and compass of regular polygons and was able to announce that the regular 17-gon was constructible by ruler and compasses.
★
April 2 - The only night of would-be
Shakespearean play of ''
Vortigern and Rowena'' (actually written by
William Henry Ireland) ends in audience's laughter.
★
April 12 -
Battle of Montenotte. Engagement in the War of the
First Coalition.
Napoleon Bonaparte's first victory as an army commander.
★
April 27 - The
Case of the Lyons Mail: during the night of
April 27, five highwaymen attack the mail between
Paris and
Lyon, kill the postmen, and steal the funds sent to the armies in
Italy.
★
May 10
★
★
Persian Expedition of 1796:
Russian troops storm
Derbent.
★
★
Battle of Lodi. Engagement in the War of the
First Coalition. Gen.
Napoleon Bonaparte defeats
Austrian rearguard in forcing a crossing of the bridge over the
River Adda in
Italy. The
Austrians lose some 2,000 men, 14 guns, and 30 ammunition wagons.
★
May 14 -
Edward Jenner administers the first
smallpox vaccination.
★
May 15 -
Napoleon's troops take
Milan.
★
May 20 - Last mock
Garrat Elections in
Surrey,
England.
★
June 1 -
Tennessee is admitted as the 16th
U.S. state.
July - December
★
July 10 -
Carl Friedrich Gauss discovered that every positive integer is representable as a sum of at most three
triangular numbers.
★
July 11 - The
United States takes possession of
Detroit from
Great Britain under the terms of the
Jay Treaty.
★
July 22 - Surveyors of the
Connecticut Land Company name an area in
Ohio "
Cleveland" after
Gen. Moses Cleaveland, the
superintendent of the surveying party.
★
September 8 -
French Revolutionary Wars:
Battle of Bassano -
French forces defeat
Austrian troops at
Bassano.
★
September 17 -
U.S. President George Washington issues his
Farewell Address, which warns against partisan politics and foreign entanglements.
★ November:
John Adams defeats
Thomas Jefferson in the
U.S. presidential election
★
November 4 - The
Treaty of Tripoli (between the
United States and
Tripoli) is signed at
Tripoli (see also
1797).
★
November 6 Old Style -
Catherine II of Russia called Catherine "The Great" dies and is succeeded by her son
Paul I of Russia. His wife
Sophie Marie Dorothea of Württemberg becomes
Empress consort.
★
November 17 -
French Revolutionary Wars:
Battle of Arcole -
French forces defeat the
Austrians in
Italy.
★
December 7 -
U.S. Electoral College meets to elect
John Adams president.
Undated
★ The
Ron Santa Teresa distillery is established in
Venezuela.
★
British government purchase a 40 acre (162,000 m²) site at
Norman Cross the first purposely built
prisoner of war camp in
England at that time.
★
Mungo Park visits
Segu kingdom.
★ The
British seize
Ceylon from the
Dutch.
Ongoing events
★
French Revolution (
1789-
1799).
★
French Revolutionary Wars (
1792-
1802)-
First Coalition.
Births
★
January 25 -
William MacGillivray, Scottish naturalist and ornithologist (d.
1852)
★
February 22 -
Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet, Belgian mathematician (d.
1874)
★
March 18 -
Jakob Steiner, Swiss mathematician (d.
1863)
★
May 1 -
Junius Brutus Booth, English actor (d.
1852)
★
May 4 -
Horace Mann, American educator and abolitionist (d.
1859)
★
June 14 -
Nikolai Brashman, Russian mathematician of Czech origin (d.
1866)
★
July 6 - Emperor
Nicholas I of Russia (d.
1855)
★
July 16 -
Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, French painter (d.
1875)
★
July 23 -
Franz Berwald, Swedish composer (d.
1868)
★
August 15 -
John Torrey, American botanist (d.
1873)
★
August 25 -
James Lick, American land speculator (d.
1876)
★
September 19 -
Hartley Coleridge, British poet (d.
1849)
★
September 22 -
Davi Canabarro,
Gaúcho rebel revolucionary (d.
1867)
★
September 25 -
Antoine-Louis Barye, French sculptor (d.
1875)
★
October 23 -
Stefano Franscini,
member of the Swiss Federal Council (d.
1857)
★
November 30 -
Carl Loewe, German composer (d.
1869)
: ''See also .''
Deaths
★
January 13 -
John H. D. Anderson, Scottish scientist and inventor (b.
1726)
★
February 23 -
Jean-Nicolas Stofflet, French royalist general (executed) (b.
1751)
★
March 6 -
Guillaume Thomas François Raynal, French writer (b.
1713)
★
March 19 -
Hugh Palliser, British naval officer and administrator (b.
1722)
★
May 12 -
Johann Peter Uz, German poet (b.
1720)
★
May 29 -
Carl Fredrik Pechlin, Swedish politician (b.
1720)
★
June 11 -
Samuel Whitbread, English brewer and politician (b.
1720)
★
June 21 -
Richard Gridley, American Revolutionary soldier (b.
1710)
★
June 30 -
Abraham Yates, American Continental Congressman (b.
1724)
★
July 16 -
George Howard, British field marshal (b.
1718)
★
July 21 -
Robert Burns, Scottish poet (b.
1759)
★
August 1 -
Robert Pigot, British army officer (b.
1720)
★
August 21 -
John McKinly, American physician and President of Delaware (b.
1721)
★
September 21 -
François Séverin Marceau-Desgraviers, French royalist general (killed in battle) (b.
1769)
★
October 7 -
Thomas Reid, Scottish philosopher (b.
1710)
★
November 6 -
Catherine the Great of Russia (b,
1729)
: ''See also .''
External links
★
Chronology of 1796, mainly relating to Napoleon's campaign in Italy