1792 in France

Events from the year 1792 in France.

Incumbents

• Monarch: Louis XVI (until 21 September; monarchy abolished)
• The Legislative Assembly (until 21 September)
• The National Convention (from 21 September)

Events

March

• 25 March – The Legislative Assembly agrees that the guillotine should be used for judicial executions.

April

• 20 April – The Legislative Assembly declares war against Austria, starting the French Revolutionary Wars and War of the First Coalition.
• 25 April
• Highwayman Nicolas Pelletier becomes the first person executed by guillotine in France, in what becomes the Place de l'Hôtel de Ville in Paris.
• La Marseillaise, the French national anthem, is composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in Strasbourg.

June

• 13 June – Prussia declares war against France.
• 20 June – Demonstration of 20 June 1792.

August

• 10 August – French Revolution: Insurrection of 10 August 1792 – The Tuileries Palace is stormed and Louis XVI is arrested and taken into custody.
• 20 August – War of the First Coalition: Battle of Verdun – Prussia defeats France, opening a route to Paris.
• 21 August – Royalist Louis Collenot d'Angremont becomes the first person executed by guillotine for political reasons, in the Place du Carrousel in Paris.

September

• 2–19 September – 1792 French National Convention election.
• 2–7 September – French Revolution: September Massacres – Rampaging mobs in Paris slaughter three Roman Catholic bishops and more than 200 priests, together with at least 1,000 criminals.
• 9 September – 9 September massacres at Versailles.
• 11 September – Six men steal some of the former French Crown Jewels from a warehouse, where the revolutionary government has stored them.
• 14 September – Radical antimonarchist Thomas Paine flees from England to France, after being indicted for treason. He is tried in absentia during December and outlawed.
• 20 September – French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Valmy – The French revolutionary army defeats the Prussians under the Duke of Brunswick after a 7-hour artillery duel.

• 21 September – 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.
• 22 September – French Revolution: The Era of the historical French Republican Calendar begins.

November

• 6 November – 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.
• 19 November – The National Convention passes a resolution pledging French support for the overthrow of the governments of other nations.

December

• 26 December – The trial of Louis XVI begins.

Ongoing

• French Revolution
• French Revolutionary Wars
• War of the First Coalition

Full date unknown

• Claude Chappe successfully demonstrates the first semaphore line, between Paris and Lille.
• Barthélemy Catherine Joubert, future general, becomes sub-lieutenant.

Births

• 21 May – Gaspard-Gustave Coriolis, engineer, scientist
• 1 August – Pierre Solomon Ségalas d'Etchépare, physician
• 9 August – Charles-François Lebœuf, sculptor
• 25 August – Jean-Baptiste Duvergier, lawyer
• 28 November – Victor Cousin, philosopher

Deaths

• 1 March – Jean Godin des Odonais, cartographer and naturalist
• 12 May – Charles Simon Favart, dramatist
• 29 July – René Nicolas Charles Augustin de Maupeou, Chancellor of France
• 21 August – Louis Collenot d'Angremont, counter-revolutionary (guillotined)
• 23 August – Arnaud II de La Porte, statesman (executed)
• 25 August – Jacques Cazotte, writer (executed)
• 3 September
• Karl Josef von Bachmann, Swiss Guards commander (guillotined)
• Marie Thérèse Louise of Savoy, Princesse de Lamballe, princess, courtier to Marie Antoinette (killed in September Massacres)
• 9 September
• Louis Hercule Timoléon de Cossé, 8th Duke of Brissac, military commander (killed in September Massacres)
• Claude Antoine de Valdec de Lessart, politician
• Charles d'Abancourt, minister (killed in September Massacres)
• 22 October – Guillaume Le Gentil, astronomer
• 7 December – Marie Jeanne Riccoboni, novelist
• Full date unknown – Nicholas Adam, grammarian

See also

References