1789

2008/9 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Years

Year 1789 (MDCCLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 11-day slower Julian calendar).

1789 was the year of the first French Revolution, which ultimately overthrew the French monarchy and triggered a series of European wars that lasted until the final defeat of Napoleon in 1815. The French Revolution was a watershed historical event that drew the age of unlimited monarchies to a close and ushered in the tumultuous 19th century.

Events of 1789

January - June

• January 7 - First nationwide United States election is held.
• January 21 - The first American novel, The Power of Sympathy or the Triumph of Nature Founded in Truth, is printed in Boston, Massachusetts.
• January 23 - Georgetown University becomes the first Catholic college in the United States (Washington, DC).

February 4: 1st U.S. President, George Washington, elected.

• February 4 - George Washington is unanimously elected the first President of the United States by the U.S. Electoral College.
• March 4 - At Federal Hall in New York City, the first U.S. Congress meets and declares the new Constitution of the United States to be in effect.
• March 18 - The last burning at the stake took place at Newgate when Catherine (or Christian) Murphy was executed for High Treason coining.
• April 1 - At Federal Hall in New York City, the United States House of Representatives attains its first quorum and elects Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania as its first House Speaker.
• April 7 - Change of Ottoman sultan of the Ottoman Empire from Abd-ul-Hamid I (1773-1789) to Selim III (1789-1807).
• April 28 - Fletcher Christian leads a mutiny on HMS Bounty against Captain William Bligh.
• April 30 - George Washington is inaugurated at Federal Hall in New York City, beginning his term as the 1st President of the United States.
• May 5 - In France, the Estates-General convenes for the first time in 175 years.
• June 14 - Bounty mutiny survivors including Captain William Bligh and 18 others reach Timor after a nearly 4,000 mile journey in an open boat.

April 28: Mutiny on the Bounty.

• June 17 - In France, representatives of the Third Estate at the Estates-General declare themselves the National Assembly.
• June 20 - Tennis Court Oath made in Versailles.

July - December

• July 9
  • In Versailles, the National Assembly reconstitutes itself as the National Constituent Assembly and begins preparations for a French constitution.
  • Official end of the Theatre War.
• July 10 - Alexander Mackenzie reaches Mackenzie River Delta.
• July 11 - King of France fires popular chief minister Necker.
• July 12 - Angry Parisian crowd demonstrates against King’s decision to dismiss minister Necker.
• July 14 - French Revolution (1789-1799) begins: Citizens of Paris storm the Bastille and free seven prisoners. In rural areas, peasants attack noble manors.

July 14: Storming of the Bastille.

• July 27 - The first U.S. federal government agency under the new Constitution, the Department of Foreign Affairs (later renamed the Department of State), is established.
• August 4 - In France, members of the Constituent Assembly take an oath to end feudalism and abandon their privileges.
• August 7 - The United States War Department is established.
• August 26 - Declaration of the Rights of Man in France.
• August 28 - William Herschel discovers Enceladus, one of Saturn's moons.
• September 2 - United States Department of the Treasury is founded.
• September 22 - Russo-Turkish War, 1787-1792: Alexander Suvorov roundly defeats the 100,000 Turks in the Battle of Rymnik.
• September 24 - The Judiciary Act of 1789 establishes the federal judiciary and the United States Marshals Service.
• September 25 - The United States Congress proposes a set of twelve amendments for ratification by the states. Ratification for ten of these proposals is completed on December 5, 1791, creating the United States Bill of Rights.
• September 29 - The United States War Department first establishes the nation's first regular army, with a strength of several hundred men.
• November 6 - Pope Pius VI appoints Father John Carroll (priest) the first Roman Catholic bishop in the United States.
• November 20 - New Jersey ratifies the United States Bill of Rights, the first state to do so.
• November 21 - North Carolina ratifies the United States Constitution and becomes the 12th U.S. state.
• November 26 - A national Thanksgiving Day is observed in the United States as recommended by President George Washington and approved by Congress.
• December 11 - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is founded, it stands as the oldest public university in the United States.

Undated

• Thomas Jefferson returns from Europe, bringing the first macaroni machine to the United States.
• Influenced by Dr. Benjamin Rush's argument against excessive use of alcohol, about 200 farmers in a Connecticut community formed a temperance association.
• Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor decrees that all peasant labor obligations be converted into cash payments.
• Fort Washington is built in Cincinnati, Ohio, to protect early US settlements in the Northwest Territory.

Ongoing

• Russo-Swedish War (1788–1790)
• Russo-Turkish War (1787–1792)

Births

• January 4 - Benjamin Lundy, American abolitionist (died 1839)
• January 12 - Ettore Perrone di San Martino, prime minister of Sardinia (died 1849)
• January 21 - William Machin Stairs, Canadian businessman and statesman (died 1865)
• March 16 - Georg Ohm, German physicist (died 1854)
• July 19 - John Martin, English painter (died 1854)
• August 21 - Augustin Louis Cauchy, French mathematician (died 1857)
• August 28 - Stephanie de Beauharnais, Grand Duchess of Baden (died 1860)
• September 15 - James Fenimore Cooper, American writer (died 1851)
• October 8 - William John Swainson an English naturalist and artist (died 1855).
• December 28 - Catharine Sedgwick, American writer (died 1867)
• date unknown - Mohammad Ibrahim Zauq, Urdu poet (died 1854)

Deaths

• January 1 - Fletcher Norton, 1st Baron Grantley, English politician (born 1716)
• January 8 - Jack Broughton, English boxer (born 1703)
• January 23 - Frances Brooke, English writer (born 1724)
• February 19 - Nicholas Van Dyke, American lawyer and President of Delaware (born 1738)
• April 7 - Abd-ul-Hamid I, Ottoman Sultan (born 1725)
• April 7 - Petrus Camper, Dutch anatomist (born 1722)
• April 26 - Count Petr Ivanovich Panin, Russian soldier (born 1721)
• May 1 - George Fife Angas, Founder of South Australia (died 1879)
• May 9 - Jean Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval, French artillery specialist (born 1715)
• May 25 - Anders Dahl, Swedish botanist (born 1751)
• June 4 - Prince Louis-Joseph of France, son of Louis XVI of France (tuberculosis) (born 1781)
• July 13 - Victor de Riqueti, marquis de Mirabeau, French economist (born 1715)
• July 14 - Jacques de Flesselles, French provost (assassinated) (born 1721)
• July 15 - Jacques Duphly, French composer (born 1715)
• July 22 - Joseph-François Foulon, French politician (executed) (born 1715)
• October 27 - John Cook, American farmer and President of Delaware (born 1730)
• December 3 - Claude Joseph Vernet, French painter (born 1714)
• December 12 - John Ponsonby, Irish politician (born 1713)
• December 23 - Charles-Michel de l'Épée, French philanthropist and developer of signed French (born 1712)