Show my head to the people, it is worth seeing. -Georges Danton
Born in 1794:
Died in 1794:
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English historian Edward Gibbon.
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Virginia Revolutionary War figure Richard Henry Lee.
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English artist and engraver William Hogarth.
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Mahadji Shinde, last of the Maratha emperors.
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The Reign of Terror rises to a fever pitch:
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(March) French mathematician, social reformer, and moderate revolutionary
leader Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas Caritat, Marquis de Condorcet,
during his first night of imprisonment (poison?)
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(March 24) French journalist and revolutionary leader Jacques Hebert,
on the guillotine, along with his entire faction.
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(April 5) French journalist and revolutionary leader Camille Desmoulins,
on the guillotine, along with
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French revolutionary leader Georges Danton and sixteen others.
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(May 8) French chemist Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, on the guillotine.
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(July 23) Alexandre de Beauharnais, on the guillotine, leaving
his wife Josephine a widow; she would later
remarry.
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(July 27) (aka 9 Thermidor) Maxamillien Robespierre, on the guillotine, with 105
of his supporters. Imagine that. 15,000 had proceded him to
La Mademoiselle officially, with estimates ranging as high as 40,000.
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(September) French poet Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian, after
surviving The Terror.
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(December 16) Jean Baptiste Carrier, author and perpetrator of
the extermination policy in the Vendee region, on the guillotine.
Events of 1794:
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In the United States:
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(March 27) Congress authorizes the construction of six frigates, one
of which will be the USS Constitution.
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(April 22) Pittsburgh, PA, Pennsylvania founded around Fort
Pitt.
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Western Pennsylvania farmers, angered by the Federal excise tax on
Whiskey, attack federal agents around [Pittsbirgh. On (August 7), President
George Washington and General William Henry Lee lead 13,000 troops
to put down this "Whiskey Rebellion".
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(August 17) Claude Chappe's optical telegraph opens between Paris
and Lille.
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(August 20) General "Mad" Anthony Wayne crushes the Miami under Little
Turtle and the Shawnee under Blue Jacket at the Battle of Fallen
Timbers after the British garrison at Fort Miami refuses to open
the gates for them. Fort Miami and the portage near it (and the revenues
from the portage) are taken from the Miami; A new fort, named Fort Wayne is built at the portage point. There is no stopping American
settlement of the Northwest Territory now.
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(November) The United States signs the Jay Treaty with Great
Britain, to avoid getting into another war with them. The United States' official neutrality dashes French hopes of American assistance in their own struggle for freedom, and relations between the two countries will degenerate into a state of quasi-war.
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In Europe:
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France officially abolishes slavery in all of its colonies. Toussaint
L'Ouverture changes sides back to France; he hands over to France the
Hispaniola territory he has conquered for Spain.
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(January 19) The British land in Corsica.
- (June 1), "The Glorious First of June" Off Ushant in Brittany, Admiral Howe spots French warships leading a convoy of American merchantmen loaded with grain bound for France. Howe gives battle, but the French fight even when things seem hopeless (Robespierre has guillotined manycommanders who failed in battle). Many French ships are captured, sink, or dismasted, but the grain ships make it into port successfully. Nevertheless, both sides claim victory. This British strategic failure will lead to the Jay Treaty.
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Royalist rebels continue to fight on in the Vendee region.
- (July) With the execution of Robespierre, the Jacobin political machine is dismantled and the Terror ends. Power passes into the hands of the bourgeoisie.
Jacques-Louis David is thrown into prison; the Marquis de Sade is
released from prison again.
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(October) France conquers the Austrian Netherlands and all of Holland and
Germany west of the Rhine, including Koblenz and Cologne. Prince
Klemenz Metternich flees to Vienna.
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Poles, Lithuanians, and Belarussian serfs rise up against Russian imperialism.
Tadeusz Kosciuszko's forces are defeated at the Battle of Maciejowice.
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The entire family of playwright Pierre de Beaumarchais goes to
the guillotine; exiled in Holland, Beaumarchais has the consolation of
getting to see Mozart's adaptation of his play
Le Nozze di Figaro for the first time.
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In Great Britain, reformers continue to be persecuted; people like
Thomas Hardy and Thomas Holcroft are charged, then acquitted, of treason.
Talleyrand is expelled from Britain; he flees to America.
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Erasmus Darwin publishes his treatise Zoonomia.
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Qajar leader Agha Muhammed Khan defeats his Zand rivals for
control of Iran.
1793 - 1794 - 1795
How they Were Made - 18th Century