1792

January–March

• January 9 – The Treaty of Jassy ends the Russian Empire's war with the Ottoman Empire over Crimea.^[1]
• February 20 – The Postal Service Act, establishing the United States Post Office Department, is signed by President George Washington. ^[2]
• March 1 – Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor, the last emperor, takes office.
• March 16 – 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.

April–June

• April 2 – The Coinage Act is passed, establishing the United States Mint. ^[2]
• 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.
• April 21 – Tiradentes, prime figure in the Inconfidência Mineira plot, 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. ^[2]
• 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 – An old lava dome collapses in Kyūshū, Japan, due to activity of Mount Unzen volcano; the resulting avalanche and tsunami kills about 14,300 people.
• June 1 – Kentucky becomes the 15th state of the United States of America. ^[2]
• 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.
• August 10 – French Revolution: The Tuileries Palace is stormed, and Louis XVI of France is arrested and taken into custody.
• 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 criminals.
• September 11 – Six men steal some of the former French Crown Jewels from a warehouse, where the revolutionary government had stored them.
• September 14 – Thomas Paine flees from England to France, after being indicted for treason. He is tried in absentia during December and outlawed.^[3]

September 20: Battle of Valmy.

• September 20 – French Revolution – 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.

October–December

• 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 is named.

• 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 –
  • At the Battle of Jemappes, Austrian armies under the command of Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen, are defeated in Belgium (at the time, part of the Austrian Netherlands) by the French Army, led by General Charles François Dumouriez. ^[4]
  • 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. ^[2]
• November 19 – France's National Convention passes a resolution pledging French support for the overthrow of the governments of other nations. ^[5]
• December 3 – George Washington is re-elected President of the United States.
• December 26 – The trial of Louis XVI of France begins.

Date unknown

• The Baptist Missionary Society is founded in Kettering, England.
• 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.
• Thomas Holcroft produces the play Road to Ruin 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.
• Shiloh Meeting House, predecessor of Shiloh United Methodist Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, is founded.
• Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is published.
• The Insurance Company of North America (later Chubb) is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
• The first written examinations in Europe are held at Cambridge University, England.
• Denmark-Norway is the first country in the world to outlaw slavery.

January–June

Gioachino Rossini

Thaddeus Stevens

Pope Pius IX

• January 12 – Johann Arfvedson, Swedish chemist (d. 1841)
• February 15 – Floride Calhoun, Second Lady of the United States (d. 1866)
• February 17 – Karl Ernst von Baer, German naturalist (d. 1876)
• February 29 – Gioachino Rossini, Italian composer (d. 1868)
• March 3 – Johann Karl Ludwig Gieseler, German church historian (d. 1854)
• March 4
  • Isaac Lea, American conchologist, geologist, and publisher (d. 1886)
  • Samuel Slocum, American inventor (d. 1861)
• March 7 – John Herschel, English mathematician, astronomer (d. 1871)
• April 1 – Karl Gottlob Zumpt, German scholar (d. 1849)
• April 2 – Francisco de Paula Santander, President of Colombia (d. 1840)
• April 4 – Thaddeus Stevens, American politician (d. 1868)
• April 23 – Thomas Romney Robinson, Irish astronomer, physicist (d. 1882)
• April 25 – John Keble, English churchman, poet (d. 1866)
• May 10 – Willie Person Mangum, American politician (d. 1861)
• May 13 – Pope Pius IX (b. Giovanni Mastai-Ferretti), Italian churchman (d. 1878)
• May 15 – James Mayer de Rothschild, German-born banker (d. 1868)
• May 17 – Anne Isabella Milbanke, English wife of Lord Byron (d. 1860)
• May 18 – Margaret Ann Neve, Guernesiaise supercentenarian (d. 1903)
• May 21 – Gaspard-Gustave Coriolis, French engineer, scientist (d. 1843)
• June 13 – William Austin Burt, American inventor (Father of the typewriter), (d. 1858)
• June 15 – John Pascoe Fawkner, pioneer, newspaper publisher in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia (d. 1869)
• June 16 – John Linnell, English painter (d. 1882)
• June 21 – Ferdinand Christian Baur, German theologian (d. 1860)

July–December

Percy Bysshe Shelley

John Russell, 1st Earl Russell

• July 7 – William Henry Smith, British businessman (d. 1865)
• July 10
  • George M. Dallas, American Senator, 11th Vice President of the United States (d. 1864)
  • Captain Frederick Marryat, British author (d. 1848)
• August 4 – Percy Bysshe Shelley, English 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)
• August 26 – Manuel Oribe, 2nd President of Uruguay (d. 1857)
• September 2 – Vicente Ramón Roca, 3rd President of Ecuador (d. 1858)
• 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, Surveyor-General of New South Wales, Australia (d. 1855)
• November 4 – Carlos Antonio López, president of Paraguay (d. 1862)
• November 10 – Samuel Nelson, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1873)
• November 11 – Mary Anne Evans, wife of Benjamin Disraeli (d. 1872)
• November 28 – Victor Cousin, French philosopher (d. 1867)
• December 1 – Nikolai Lobachevsky, Russian mathematician (d. 1856)
• December 6 – William II of the Netherlands (d. 1849)

Date Unknown

• Matteo Carcassi, Italian musician, composer (d. 1853)
• Maria Quitéria, Brazilian national heroine (d. 1853)
• Nodira, Uzbek poet, stateswoman (d. 1842)
• Erike Kirstine Kolstad, Norwegian actress (d.1830)

January–June

George Brydges Rodney, 1st Baron Rodney

• January 17 – George Horne, British academic and Bishop of Norwich (b.1730)
• February 15 – John Witherspoon, signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1723)
• February 23 – Sir Joshua Reynolds, British painter (b. 1723)
• March 1
  • Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1747)
  • Jean Godin des Odonais, French cartographer and naturalist (b. 1713)
• 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 – Sir George Pocock, British admiral (b. 1706)
• April 4 – James Sykes, American politician (b. 1725)
• April 14 – Maximilian Hell, Slovakian astronomer (b. 1720)
• April 23 – Karl Friedrich Bahrdt, German theologian, 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)
• June 22 – Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, Arabian Wahhabi preacher (b. 1703)

July–December

Marie Thérèse Louise of Savoy, Princesse de Lamballe

• July 3 – Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (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 – Marie-Louise, princesse de Lamballe, French princess, friend of Marie Antoinette (murdered during the French Revolution) (b. 1749)
• September 8 – Charles d'Abancour, French statesman (b. 1758)
• September 18 – August Gottlieb Spangenberg, German religious leader (b. 1704)
• September 25 – Adam Gottlob Moltke, Danish statesman (b. 1710)
• September 29 – George Browne, Russian-Irish field-marshal (b. 1698)
• October 7 – George Mason, American patriot (b. 1725)
• October 14 – Sophie Charlotte Ackermann, German actress (b. 1714)
• October 22 – Guillaume Le Gentil, French astronomer (b. 1725)
• October 28
  • Paul Möhring, German physician and scientist (b. 1710)
  • John Smeaton, English civil engineer (b. 1724)
• December 8 – Henry Laurens, political leader during the American Revolutionary War, father of John Laurens (b. 1724)
• December 15 – Joseph Martin Kraus, Swedish composer (b. 1756)

Date unknown

• • Nguyễn Văn Huệ, Vietnamese emperor (b. 1753)