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Year '1797' ('
MDCCXCVII') was a
common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the
Gregorian calendar (or a
common year starting on Thursday of the 11-day slower
Julian calendar).
Events of 1797
January - February
★
January 1 - New Year Eve Party with the invention of
confetti and party hats.
★
January 3 - The
Treaty of Tripoli (a peace treaty between the
United States and
Tripoli) is signed at
Algiers. see also
1796.
★
January 7 - The parliament of the
Cisalpine Republic adopts the Italian green-white-red tricolour as official flag. It is the birthday of the
flag of Italy.
★
January 15 - London
haberdasher John Hetherington wears silk
top hat in public and attracts a large crowd of onlookers. He is later fined £500 for causing
public nuisance.
★
February 14 - The
Battle of Cape St. Vincent (1797), part of the
Wars of the French Revolution.
★
February 18 - Spanish Governor
Chacón peacefully surrenders the colony of
Trinidad to a British naval force commanded by Sir
Ralph Abercromby.
★
February 22 - The
Last invasion of Britain begins. French forces under the command of American
Colonel William Tate land near
Fishguard in
Wales.
★
February 25 -
Tate surrenders to the British at Fishguard.
★
February 26 - The
Bank of England (national bank of
Britain) issues the first one-pound and two-pound notes (discontinued
March 11 1988).
March - June
★
March 4 -
John Adams succeeds
George Washington as the
President of the United States of America.
★
April 16 -
Spithead and Nore mutinies.
★
April 17 - 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 English navy for years to come.
★
May 12 -
First Coalition:
Napoleon I of France conquers
Venice, ending the 1070 years of independence of the city. The last
doge of Venice,
Ludovico Manin, steps down.
July - December
★
July 24 -
Horatio Nelson is wounded at the
Battle of Santa Cruz, losing an arm.
★
October 17 -
Treaty of Campo Formio ends the
War of the First Coalition.
★
October 21 - In
Boston Harbor, the 44-gun
United States Navy frigate
USS Constitution is launched to fight
Barbary pirates off the coast of
Tripoli.
★
December 17 -
Napoleon leads a successful French charge against
Fort l'Aiguilette to secure
Toulon.
Undated
★
Joseph Haydn composes the music to "
Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser," the tune of which also became the music to the German national anthem, "
Deutschland, Deutschland über alles."
★
XYZ Affair between France and the United States
Ongoing events
★
French Revolution (
1789-
1799).
★
French Revolutionary Wars (
1792-
1802)-
First Coalition.
Births
★
January 10 -
Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, German writer (died
1848)
★
January 31 -
Franz Schubert, Austrian pianist and composer (died
1828)
★
February 15 -
Henry Engelhard Steinway, German-American piano manufacturer (died
1871)
★
March 22 - Emperor
Wilhelm I of Germany (died
1888)
★
March 27 -
Alfred de Vigny, French author (died
1863)
★
May 6 -
Joseph Brackett, American religious leader and composer (died
1882)
★
May 18 -
Frederick Augustus II of Saxony, (died
1854)
★
July 20 -
Sir Paweł Edmund Strzelecki, Polish explorer and geologist (died
1873)
★
August 30 -
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, English writer (died
1851)
★
October 3 -
Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany (died
1870)
★
November 14 -
Sir Charles Lyell, British geologist (died
1875)
★
November 29 -
Gaetano Donizetti, Italian composer (died
1848)
★
December 13 -
Heinrich Heine, German poet (died
1856)
★
December 17 -
Joseph Henry, American scientist (died
1878)
★ ''date unknown'' -
Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Japanese woodblock print or ukiyo-e (died
1861)
: ''See also .''
Deaths
★
January 13 -
Elisabeth Christine von Braunschweig-Bevern, wife of
Frederick II of Prussia (born
1715)
★
February 11 -
Antoine Dauvergne, French composer (born
1713)
★
February 22 -
Karl Friedrich Hieronymus Freiherr von Münchhausen, German officer and adventurer (born
1720)
★
March 2 -
Horace Walpole, English politician and writer (born
1717)
★
March 26 -
James Hutton, Scottish geologist (born
1726)
★
March 31 -
Olaudah Equiano Nigerian ex-slave and slavery abolitionist (born
1745)
★
May 17 -
Michel-Jean Sedaine, French dramatist (born
1719)
★
May 25 -
John Griffin Whitwell, 4th Baron Howard de Walden, British field marshal (born
1719)
★
May 27 -
François-Noël Babeuf, French revolutionary leader (executed) (born
1760)
★
May 27 -
Augustin Alexandre Darthé, French revolutionary leader (executed) (born
1769)
★
July 9 -
Edmund Burke, Irish philosopher (born
1723)
★
July 11 -
Ienăchiţă Văcărescu, Wallachian writer (born
1740)
★
August 3 -
Jeffrey Amherst, British military commander (born
1717)
★
August 22 -
Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser, Alsatian-born Austrian general (born
1724)
★
October 9 -
Vilna Gaon, Lithuanian rabbi (born
1720)
★
November 14 -
Ivan Shuvalov, founder of the
Moscow University (born
1727)
★
November 16 - King
Frederick William II of Prussia (born
1744)
★
November 18 -
Jacques-Alexandre Laffon de Ladebat, French shipbuilder and merchant (born
1719)
★
November 29 -
Samuel Langdon, American President of Harvard University (born
1723)
★
December 11 -
Richard Brocklesby, English physician (born
1722)
: ''See also .''
Fiction
The events of happen in this year.