1792

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Events

January–March

January 9 – The Treaty of Jassy ends the Russian Empire's war with the Ottoman Empire over Crimea.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
January 25 – The London Corresponding Society is founded.
February 18 – Thomas Holcroft produces the comedy The Road to Ruin in London.
February 20
- The Postal Service Act, establishing the United States Post Office Department, is signed by President George Washington.<ref name="Harper1792">Harper's Encyclopaedia of United States History from 458 A. D. to 1909, ed. by Benson John Lossing and, Woodrow Wilson (Harper & Brothers, 1910) p169</ref>
- Parliament House, Dublin catches fire during a legislative session. "Although in imminent danger of the roof falling in," it is noted later, "the House did not adjourn until a proper motion had been put and carried in the affirmative."<ref name=Fires>"Fires, Great", in The Insurance Cyclopeadia: Being an Historical Treasury of Events and Circumstances Connected with the Origin and Progress of Insurance, Cornelius Walford, ed. (C. and E. Layton, 1876) pp62.</ref>
March 1 – Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor, the last emperor, takes office.
March 7 – A settlement is formed in Sierra Leone in West Africa as a home for freed slaves.<ref name="BBC History timeline">Template:Cite web</ref>
March 16 – Assassination of Gustav III: King Gustav III of Sweden is shot in the back by Jacob Johan Anckarström, at a midnight masquerade at the Royal Opera in Stockholm; he lives until March 29, and is then succeeded by his 14-year-old son, Gustav IV Adolf.
March 20 – A new capital of North Carolina, and 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.
March 22 – Haitian Revolution: Battle of Croix-des-Bouquets – Black slave insurgents gain a victory in the first major battle of the revolution.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
March 25 – The National Legislative Assembly (France) agrees that the guillotine should be used for judicial executions.

April–June

April 2 – The Coinage Act is passed, establishing the United States Mint.<ref name="Harper1792"/>
April 5 – United States President George Washington vetoes a bill designed to apportion representatives among U.S. states. This is the first time the presidential veto is used in the United States.
April 20 – France declares war against Austria, beginning the French Revolutionary Wars and the War of the First Coalition.
April 21 – Tiradentes, a leading figure in the Inconfidência Mineira conspiracy, is executed in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
April 25
- Highwayman Nicolas Pelletier becomes the first person executed by guillotine in France.
- La Marseillaise, the French national anthem, is composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle.
May 11 – Robert Gray's Columbia River expedition: Captain Robert Gray, on the Columbia Rediviva, becomes the first white man to discover the mouth of the Columbia River.<ref name="Harper1792"/>
May 17 – The Buttonwood Agreement is signed, beginning the New York Stock Exchange.
May 18 – War in Defence of the Constitution: Russia invades Poland.
May 21 – 1792 Unzen earthquake and tsunami: An old lava dome collapses in Kyūshū, Japan, due to activity of Mount Unzen volcano; the resulting avalanche and tsunami kill about 14,300 people.
May 29 – The Great Sejm of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth is disbanded following the Russian invasion of Poland.
June 1 – Kentucky becomes the 15th state of the United States of America.<ref name="Harper1792"/>
June 4 – Captain George Vancouver claims Puget Sound for Great Britain.
June 13
- Vancouver becomes the first European to enter Burrard Inlet.
- Prussia declares war against France.

July–September

July 18 – Polish–Russian War: Battle of Dubienka – Soldiers of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, led by Tadeusz Kościuszko, resist an attack from Imperial Russian Army forces five times their size.
July 25 – Charles William Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick, commander of the Allied army issues the Brunswick Manifesto threatening the Parisians with military execution and complete destruction should the French royal family be harmed in any way.
August 10 – French Revolution: Insurrection of 10 August 1792 – The Tuileries Palace is stormed and Louis XVI is arrested and taken into custody.
August 29–September 2 – War of the First Coalition: Battle of Verdun – Prussian forces defeat French troops led by Nicolas-Joseph Beaurepaire.<ref>Template:Cite book.</ref>
August 21 – Royalist Louis Collenot d'Angremont becomes the first person executed by guillotine for political reasons, in Paris.
September – Macartney Embassy: George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney, sails from Portsmouth in HMS Lion as the first official envoy from Great Britain to China.
September 2–7 – French Revolution: September Massacres – Rampaging mobs slaughter three Roman Catholic bishops and more than 200 priests, together with at least 1,000 other criminals.
September 11 – Six men steal some of the former French Crown Jewels from a warehouse where the revolutionary government has stored them.
September 12 – The town of Fort Borbon is founded by Governor Joaquín Alós y Bru. Nowadays it is called Fuerte Olimpo.
September 14 – Radical antimonarchist Thomas Paine flees from England to France after being indicted for treason. He is tried in absentia during December and outlawed.<ref name=CBH232233>Template:Cite book</ref>

September 20 – French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Valmy – The French revolutionary army defeats the Prussians under the Duke of Brunswick after a 7-hour artillery duel.
September 21 – French Revolution: A Proclamation of the abolition of the monarchy by the French Convention goes into effect, and the French First Republic is established, effective the following day.
September 22 – French Revolution: The Era of the historical French Republican Calendar begins.
September 30 – Chickamauga Cherokee launch an attack on Middle Tennessee to exterminate the White settlers; they are stopped at the opening battle at Buchanan's Station outside Nashboro.

October–December

October 2 – The Baptist Missionary Society is founded in Kettering, England.
October 3 – A militia departs from the Spanish stronghold of Valdivia to quell a Huilliche uprising in southern Chile.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
October 12 – The first Columbus Day celebration in the United States is held in New York City, 300 years after his arrival in the New World.
October 13 – Foundation of Washington, D.C.: The cornerstone of the United States Executive Mansion (known as the White House after 1818) is laid.

October 29 – Mount Hood (Oregon) is named after British Admiral Lord Hood by Lt. William Broughton of the Vancouver Expedition, who spots the mountain near the mouth of the Willamette River.
November 6
- War of the First Coalition: Battle of Jemappes – Austrian armies under the command of Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen are defeated in Belgium (at this time part of the Austrian Netherlands) by the French Army led by General Charles François Dumouriez.<ref>Eric J. Evans, The Forging of the Modern State: Early Industrial Britain, 1783-1870 (Routledge, 2014)</ref>
- The second United States presidential election is held. Incumbent President George Washington receives all 132 electoral votes for president, and incumbent Vice President John Adams is re-elected with 77 of 132 votes, with George Clinton receiving 50.<ref name="Harper1792"/>
November 19 – France's National Convention passes a resolution pledging French support for the overthrow of the governments of other nations.<ref>Robert Bisset, The Reign of George III: To which is Prefixed a View of the Progressive Improvements of England in Property and Strength to the Accession of His Majesty, Volume 2 (Edward Parker, 1822) p855</ref>
December 3 – George Washington is re-elected president of the United States.
December 26 – The trial of Louis XVI of France begins.

Date unknown

Tipu Sultan invades Kerala, India, but is repulsed.
Hungarian astronomer Franz Xaver von Zach publishes The Tables of the Sun, an essential early work for navigation.
Claude Chappe successfully demonstrates the first semaphore line, between Paris and Lille.
Scottish engineer William Murdoch begins experimenting with gas lighting.
George Anschutz constructs the first blast furnace in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, one of the earliest works of feminist literature, is published in London.
Barthélemy Catherine Joubert, future French general, becomes sub-lieutenant.
Johann Georg Albrechtsberger becomes Kapellmeister in Vienna.
The State Street Corporation is founded, in Boston, Massachusetts.
The Insurance Company of North America (later Chubb) is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Shiloh Meeting House, predecessor of Shiloh United Methodist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, is founded.
The first written examinations in Europe are held at the University of Cambridge in England.
The composer Ludwig van Beethoven moves to Vienna from Bonn to study with Haydn. He would live in Vienna for the rest of his life.
James Johnstone establishes that Vancouver Island is an island.