This article is about the year 1792. For the 1792 bourbon whiskey, see 1792 (bourbon).
Year 1792 (MDCCXCII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Thursday of the 11-day slower Julian calendar).
Events of 1792
April 24: Guillotine (1792 model, left).
May 21: Mount Unzen (Japan) erupts.
June 1: Kentucky statehood.
January - June
- January 9 - Treaty of Jassy ends Russian war with Ottoman Empire over Crimea.
- February 20 - The Postal Service Act, establishing the United States Post Office Department, is signed by President George Washington.
- March 16 - King Gustav III of Sweden shot in the back by Jacob Johan Anckarström at a midnight masquerade at the Royal Opera in Stockholm; he lives until March 29, to be succeeded by Gustav IV Adolf.
- March 20 - A new capital of North Carolina and county seat of the newly formed Wake County is established after North Carolina State Senator and surveyor William Christmas submits his design for the city. A few months later the capital is officially named Raleigh in honor of Sir Walter Raleigh.
- April - France goes to war against Austria and Prussia.
- April 2 - The Coinage Act is passed establishing the United States Mint.
- April 5 - United States President George Washington vetos a bill designed to apportion representatives among U.S. states. This is the first time the presidential veto has been used in the United States.
- April 20 - France declares war against Austria.
- April 21 - Tiradentes, prime figure in the Inconfidência Mineira plot, is executed in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
- April 24 - First experimental use of the guillotine in France.
- April 25
- May 11 - Captain Robert Gray becomes the first white man to enter the Columbia River.
- May 17 - Buttonwood Agreement is signed, beginnings of New York Stock Exchange
- May 21 - Old lava dome collapses in Kyūshū, Japan when Mount Unzen volcano erupts: resulting avalanche and tsunami kills about 14,300 people.
- June 1 - Kentucky is admitted as the 15th U.S. state and as one of its first orders of business ratifies all twelve articles of the Bill of Rights, including one that is technically still pending for consideration.
- June 4 - Captain George Vancouver claims Puget Sound for Great Britain.
September 20: Battle of Valmy.
July - December
October 13: Washington, DC founded.
Undated
- Baptist Missionary Society is founded in Kettering, England.
- Dominique-Jean Larrey, chief surgeon of the Grand Armee of France, created the first ambulance wagons specifically designed as ambulances.
- Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor, last emperor, takes office.
- Russia invades Poland: War in defence of the constitution.
- King John VI takes over from his insane mother in Portugal.
- Tipu Sultan invades Kerala in India, but is repulsed.
- George Vancouver explores Puget Sound, becomes first European to see Mount Rainier.
- Franz Xaver, Baron Von Zach, an astronomer, publishes "The Tables of the Sun", an essential early work for navigation.
- Claude Chappe successfully demonstrates the first semaphore line, between Paris and Lille.
- William Murdoch begins experimenting with gas lighting.
- George Anschutz constructs first blast furnace in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
- Thomas Holcroft produces the play Road to Ruin in London.
- Barthelemy Catherine Joubert, later general, becomes sub-lieutenant.
- Johann Georg Albrechtberger becomes Kapellmeister in Vienna.
- State Street Corporation is founded.
- Shiloh Meeting House, predecessor of Shiloh United Methodist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia is founded.
- Publication of Mary Wollstonecraft\'s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
October 29: Mount Hood is named.
Ongoing events
Births
- January 12 - Johann Arfvedson, Swedish chemist (d. 1841)
- February 10 - Captain Frederick Marryat, British author (d. 1848)
- February 17 - Karl Ernst von Baer, German naturalist (d. 1876)
- February 29 - Gioacchino Rossini, Italian composer (d. 1868)
- March 3 - Johann Karl Ludwig Gieseler, German church historian (d. 1854)
- March 4 - Samuel Slocum, American inventor (d. 1861)
- March 7 - John Herschel, English mathematician and astronomer (d. 1871)
- April 1 - Karl Gottlob Zumpt, German scholar (d. 1894)
- April 23 - John Thomas Romney Robinson, Irish astronomer and physicist (d. 1882)
- April 25 - John Keble, British poet (d. 1866)
- May 13 - Pope Pius IX (d. 1878)
- May 15 - James Mayer Rothschild, German-born banker (d. 1868)
- May 17 - Anne Isabella Milbanke, English wife of George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron
- May 18 - Margaret Ann Neve, supercentenarian (d. 1903)
- May 21 - Gaspard-Gustave Coriolis, French engineer and scientist (d. 1843)
- June 15 - John Pascoe Fawkner, Pioneer and newspaper publisher in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia (d. 1869)
- June 16 - John Linnell, British painter (d. 1882)
- July 7 - William Henry Smith, British businessman (d. 1865)
- July 10 - George M. Dallas, U.S. Senator and Vice President of the United States (d. 1864)
- June 21 - Ferdinand Christian Baur, German theologian (d. 1860)
- August 4 - Percy Bysshe Shelley, British poet (d. 1822)
- August 13 - Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, queen of William IV of the United Kingdom (d. 1849)
- August 18 - John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1878)
- September 19 - William Backhouse Astor, Sr., American business tycoon (d. 1875)
- September 26 - William Hobson, first Governor of New Zealand (d. 1842)
- October 29 - Thomas Livingstone Mitchell, Explorer and Surveyor-General of New South Wales, Australia (d. 1855)
- November 11 - Mary Anne Evans, wife of Benjamin Disraeli (d. 1872)
- November 28 - Victor Cousin, French philosopher (d. 1867)
- December 1 - Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky, Russian mathematician (d. 1856)
- December 6 - William II of the Netherlands (d. 1849)
- date unknown - Matteo Carcassi, Italian musician and composer (d. 1853)
- See also Category: 1792 births.
Deaths
- February 23 - Sir Joshua Reynolds, British painter (b. 1723)
- March 1 - Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1747)
- March 3 - Robert Adam, British architect (b. 1728)
- March 10 - John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1713)
- March 29 - King Gustav III of Sweden (assassinated) (b. 1746)
- April 3
- April 4 - James Sykes, American politician (b. 1725)
- April 14 - Maximilian Hell, Slovakian astronomer (b. 1720)
- April 23 - Karl Friedrich Bahrdt, German theologian and adventurer (b. 1741)
- April 30 - John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, English statesman (b. 1718)
- May 10 - John Stevens, American delegate to the Continental Congress
- May 12 - Charles Simon Favart, French dramatist (b. 1710)
- May 24 - George Brydges Rodney, 1st Baron Rodney, British naval officer (b. 1718)
- June 4 - John Burgoyne, British general (b. 1723)
- July 3 - Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick (b. 1721)
- July 18 - John Paul Jones, American naval captain (b. 1747)
- July 29 - René Nicolas Charles Augustin de Maupeou, Chancellor of France (b. 1714)
- August 5 - Frederick North, Lord North, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (b. 1732)
- August 25 - Jacques Cazotte, French writer (b. 1719)
- September 3 - Princesse de Lamballe, French friend of Marie Antoinette (murdered)
- September 8 - Charles d\'Abancourt, French statesman (b. 1758)
- September 18 - August Gottlieb Spangenberg, German religious leader (b. 1704)
- September 25 - Adam Gottlob Moltke, Danish statesman (b. 1710)
- October 7 - George Mason, American patriot (b. 1725)
- October 22 - Guillaume Le Gentil, French astronomer (b. 1725)
- October 28
- December 15 - Joseph Martin Kraus, Swedish composer (b. 1756)
- date unknown - Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab, Arabic preacher (b. 1703)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
1792
- See also Category: 1792 deaths.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia