1793
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2 January 1793 The committee from the Catholic Convention in Dublin presents its petition to King George III in London.
A benefit concert for Constanze Mozart takes place in Vienna, organized by Baron Gottfried van Swieten. The performance includes the premiere of Mozart’s (†1) completed Requiem.
9 January 1793 Forces of the French Republic attack the rebel camp near Les Cayes. The rebels initially beat them off.
10 January 1793 Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud replaces Jean-Baptiste Treilhard as President of the National Convention of France.
11 January 1793 The Dublin Society of United Irishmen creates a 21-man committee to devise a plan for reform of Parliament.
12 January 1793 Ercole al Termedante, an opera seria by Niccolò Piccinni (64) is performed for the first time, in Teatro San Carlo, Naples.
Haitian rebels near Les Cayes are driven out of their camp by Republican forces.
13 January 1793 Fench Republican troops massacre the rebel noncombatants left behind near Les Cayes.
15 January 1793 The French National Convention votes 693-0 to find former King Louis XVI guilty of treason, 56 not voting. They also vote 424-283 against a public appeal for the ex-monarch.
17 January 1793 From 20:00 last night until 09:00 this morning voting takes place in the National Convention on the sentence for former King Louis XVI. The votes are
361 unconditional death
319 imprisonment and banishment after the war
23 death, but with a debate on reprieve
8 death with banishment of all Bourbons
2 life imprisonment in irons
2 death after the war
19 January 1793 An elected National Convention headed by Joseph Barriera meets in Monaco and declares Prince Honoré III and his family deposed.
20 January 1793 Attempts at a reprieve for former King Louis are voted down 380-310 in the National Convention.
20:30 Former King Louis XVI is allowed to see his family for the first time since 11 December. He informs them of his fate.
21 January 1793 10:00 After a two-hour ride through Paris, citizen Louis Bourbon is publicly executed in the Place de la Revolution (Place de la Concorde). The body is interred in the cemetery of the Madeleine, in a wooden coffin.
23 January 1793 Russia and Prussia agree on the second partition of Poland. Most of White Russia is annexed by Russia. Prussia receives South Prussia and Gdansk, renamed Danzig.
24 January 1793 Muzio Clementi’s (41) three piano trios op.29 are entered at Stationers’ Hall, London.
Jean-Paul Rabaut, dit Rabaut Saint-Étienne replaces Pierre Victurnien Vergniaud as President of the National Convention of France.
25 January 1793 The French ambassador to Great Britain receives his passports.
27 January 1793 Le triomphe de la République, ou le camp de Grandpré, a divertissement-lyrique by François-Joseph Gossec (59) to words of Chénier, is performed for the first time, at the Paris Opéra. It glorifies the French victory at the Battle of Valmy, 20 September.
31 January 1793 The French National Convention annexes Nice to France. It also places the age of majority at 21.
1 February 1793 France declares war on Great Britain and the Netherlands. François-André Danican-Philidor (66) suddenly finds himself in enemy territory, unable to return home.
7 February 1793 Jean-Jacques Bréard, dit Bréard-Duplessis replaces Jean-Paul Rabaut, dit Rabaut Saint-Étienne as President of the National Convention of France.
12 February 1793 Empress Yekaterina II of Russia proclaims six weeks of mourning for former King Louis XVI.
The United States Congress passes the Fugitive Slave Act, making it a crime to harbor an escaped slave or to interfere with the capture of an escaped slave.
13 February 1793 The First Coalition is formed against France between Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, the Netherlands, Spain and Sardinia.
14 February 1793 France annexes Monaco.
An Enquiry concerning Political Justice by William Godwin is published in Britain.
16 February 1793 French forces invade the Netherlands from Antwerp. The Dutch fall back and call for English assistance.
19 February 1793 Russia announces a formal break in relations with France.
21 February 1793 Jean Antoine Joseph Debry replaces Jean-Jacques Bréard, dit Bréard-Duplessis as President of the National Convention of France.
The French National Convention decrees the raising of an army of 300,000. This causes widespread opposition and acts of civil disobedience.
26 February 1793 Dutch and Prussian forces attack the French at Maastricht, 25 km north of Liège.
Indtoget, a singspiel by Johann Peter Schulz (45) to words of Heiberg, is performed for the first time, in Copenhagen.
27 February 1793 Six Sonatinas for piano or harpsichord with flute by Jan Ladislav Dussek (33) are entered at Stationers’ Hall, London.
2 March 1793 Austrian troops do murderous damage to French retreating at Maastricht. The French lose over 3,000, the Austrians 40.
3 March 1793 Prince Friedrich August of Anhalt-Zerbst dies in Luxembourg. His principality of Anhalt-Zerbst is broken up between Anhalt-Bernburg, Anhalt-Dessau and Anhalt-Köthen. Jever, on the North Sea, is given to his sole surviving sibling, Empress Yekaterina II of Russia.
4 March 1793 Publication of three piano sonatas by William Crotch (17) is entered at Stationers’ Hall, London.
5 March 1793 Le jugement de Paris, a ballet with music by Christoph Willibald Gluck (†5), Joseph Haydn (60), Ignaz Pleyel (35), Etienne-Nicolas Méhul (29), and Rodolphe Kreutzer (26) to a scenario by Gardel, is performed for the first time, at the Paris Opéra.
7 March 1793 In defense of the house of Bourbon, Spain declares war on France. France returns the honor.
Armand Gensonné replaces Jean Antoine Joseph Debry as President of the National Convention of France.
9 March 1793 Three Piano Sonatas by Leopold Kozeluch (45) are entered at Stationers’ Hall, London.
Today begins two days of attacks in Paris by mobs on printing operations responsible for publishing Girondin newspapers.
10 March 1793 The French National Convention creates a Revolutionary Tribunal to judge crimes against the revolution.
11 March 1793 Risings of peasants in the Vendée begin as a protest against a levy for volunteers. 40 local military, administrative and church leaders are killed by an angry mob in Machecoul while 400 are taken prisoner. The citizens march the prisoners outside of town, force them to dig holes, and then shoot the victims into their own graves. Other riots occur in Vendée towns. A special tribunal is established in Paris specifically to try suspects accused of counterrevolutionary activities.
13 March 1793 Talleyrand, now in England, is proscribed by the National Convention. His and his family’s property is now at the disposal of the Republic.
14 March 1793 A combined Vendée citizen-army overwhelms Republican troops, killing their commander.
15 March 1793 Parliament passes the Traitorous Correspondence Act and suspends Habeas Corpus in an attempt to thwart the entry of revolutionary ideas into Britain.
17 March 1793 The name of the Comédie-Italienne, Paris is legally changed to Théâtre de l’Opéra-Comique.
18 March 1793 French forces attack the Austrians at Neerwinden but are driven back by a counterattack.
A National Convention made up of elected representatives from French-occupied Germany west of the Rhine meets in Mainz and declares the Republic of Mainz. It is the first democratic republic in Germany.
20 March 1793 After a six-hour battle beginning last night north of Chantonnay, Vendée irregulars rout Republican troops, opening up the southern plain.
The National Convention gives military courts jurisdiction over anyone who is employed in public service and found encouraging counterrevolution. If found guilty, the sentence will be death by firing squad within 24 hours.
21 March 1793 France annexes the Rhineland.
Jean Antoine Joseph Debry replaces Armand Gensonné as President of the National Convention of France.
22 March 1793 300 Republican troops flee in the face of 20,000 Vendéean citizens at Chalonnes. They are accompanied by their officers, but not their weapons, including 18 cannon.
23 March 1793 The French open negotiations with the Austrians in an effort to save their army.
France annexes Basel.
24 March 1793 The French begin an unmolested withdrawal from the Austrian Netherlands.
25 March 1793 In London, ministers of Great Britain and Russia sign a trade agreement and a Convention for Concerted Action Against France. They agree to bar French ships from their ports and not allow trade between France and neutral countries.
26 March 1793 The Holy Roman Empire declares war on France.
28 March 1793 François-André Danican-Philidor (66) is placed by the National Convention on a list of emigrés who will be killed upon their return to France. He will not discover this until the war between France and Great Britain ends in 1795.
Le jeune sage et le vieux fou, a comédie mêlée de musique by Etienne-Nicolas Méhul (29) to words of Hoffman, is performed for the first time, at the Théâtre Favart, Paris. It is not an immediate success but it will remain in the repertoire.
31 March 1793 French troops complete their evacuation of the Austrian Netherlands.
1 April 1793 The Unsen volcano in Japan blows up, destroying Unsen Island and killing over 50,000 people who live there.
Amor rende sagace, a dramma giocosa by Domenico Cimarosa (43) to words of Bertati, is performed for the first time, in the Burgtheater, Vienna.
4 April 1793 Jean François Bertrand Delmas replaces Jean Antoine Joseph Debry as President of the National Convention of France.
5 April 1793 Samuel Wesley (27) marries Charlotte Louisa Martin in St. Paul’s, Hammersmith. She is the daughter of a surgeon (now deceased), and an assistant teacher at a private school in Marylebone where Samuel gives piano lessons. The two object to marriage, having lived out of wedlock since October, but are driven to it by Charlotte’s unexpected pregnancy. The wedding is in Hammersmith presumably because neither are known there. None of the Wesley family are present.
6 April 1793 The National Convention votes to replace the 25-member Committee of General Defense with a nine-member Committee of Public Safety.
9 April 1793 The Irish Parliament passes a Catholic Relief Act. Henceforth, landowning Catholics may vote (but not be represented in Parliament), sit on juries, be appointed as magistrates, hold military commissions, earn degrees at Dublin University and carry arms. It was not as much as Catholics have been hoping for. It receives royal assent.
13 April 1793 Ludwig Friedrich II replaces Friedrich Karl as Prince of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt.
The Dublin Society of United Irishmen comes to agreement on reform proposals. They include universal suffrage, annual parliaments and payment of members.
14 April 1793 Prussian forces lay siege to Mainz.
15 April 1793 British forces occupy the French island of Tobago.
17 April 1793 Johann Peter Salomon presents a performance in London featuring Jan Ladislav Dussek (33), his wife, and Muzio Clementi (41).
18 April 1793 Marc David Alba, dit Alba-Lasource replaces Jean François Bertrand Delmas as President of the National Convention of France.
22 April 1793 President George Washington declares the neutrality of the United States in the current war between Britain and France.
24 April 1793 Jean-Paul Marat, leader of the Jacobins, is brought to court charged with a 19-page indictment. After a stirring personal defense, he is acquitted. This is an important victory for the Jacobins over the Girondins.
2 May 1793 Jean-Baptiste Boyer-Fonfrède replaces Marc David Alba, dit Alba-Lasource as President of the National Convention of France.
3 May 1793 The Cologne Privy Council agrees to continue to subsidize Ludwig van Beethoven (22) as they had during the life of his father.
4 May 1793 The French National Convention passes the First Maximum, taking control of grain prices.
Cantata per la transalazione del sangue del glorioso martire S Gennaro by Giovanni Paisiello (52) to words of Pagliuca is performed for the first time, in Naples.
Lasset uns lobsingen for chorus and strings by Johannes Herbst (57) is performed for the first time.
5 May 1793 Vendée rebels seize Thouars.
7 May 1793 The second partition of Poland goes into effect. Russia receives everything east of the Duna and Dnieper. Danzig (Gdansk), Thorn, Posen (Poznan), Griesen and Kalisz go to Prussia.
9 May 1793 Alexander Mackenzie and his party depart their winter quarters at Fort Fork (Peace River Landing, Alberta) and head generally west along the Peace River.
11 May 1793 Joseph Boulogne de Saint Georges (47) is brought, under arrest, before the Revolutionary Tribunal in Paris. He is charged with embezzling public funds.
14 May 1793 British forces occupy St. Pierre and Miquelon.
16 May 1793 Honoré Maximin Isnard replaces Jean-Baptiste Boyer-Fonfrède as President of the National Convention of France.
18 May 1793 King Timur Shah of Afghanistan dies and is succeeded by Zaman Shah.
26 May 1793 Maximilien de Robespierre calls for “the people to place themselves in insurrection against the corrupt deputies.”
27 May 1793 Three Grand Sonatas for piano with violin and cello accompaniment B.443-445 by Ignaz Pleyel (35) are entered at Stationers’ Hall, London.
Radical John Frost is tried and convicted of sedition in a London court for publicly uttering the phrase “Equality, and no king.”
29 May 1793 Citizens of Lyon rebel against their Jacobin city government.
Johann Nepomuk Hummel (14) gives a performance at the summer home of Elector Maximilian Franz in Münster.
30 May 1793 François René Auguste Mallarmé replaces Honoré Maximin Isnard as President of the National Convention of France.
31 May 1793 A Sans-coulotte insurrection committee organized by Jean Varlet takes over the Paris Commune.
Alexander Mackenzie reaches the point where the Parsnip and Finlay Rivers join to make the Peace River (British Columbia). He chooses the Parsnip to the south.
2 June 1793 80,000 armed citizens surround the National Convention demanding a tax on the rich, arrest of the Girondin leaders and creation of a sans-culotte army. The members accede to these demands, including the expulsion of 29 Girondin deputies who are placed under house arrest. Many other Girondins escape.
5 June 1793 Muzio Clementi’s (41) three piano trios op.32 are entered at Stationers’ Hall, London.
8 June 1793 A British order-in-council calls for seizure of all neutral cargoes bound for French ports.
9 June 1793 Vendée rebels capture Samur.
10 June 1793 The National Convention decrees the equitable distribution of common lands to peasants.
12 June 1793 Alexander Mackenzie and his party reach as far as they can up the Parsnip River and begin to trek overland to a larger river the Indians have told them about.
13 June 1793 Jean-Marie Collot, dit Collot d’Herbois replaces François René Auguste Mallarmé as President of the National Convention of France.
A Select Collection of Original Scottish Airs for the Voice B.707-738 by Ignaz Pleyel (35) is entered at Stationers’ Hall, London.
15 June 1793 Girondins recently escaped from Paris and local leaders issue a manifesto in Caen denouncing the Jacobin government in Paris.
18 June 1793 Alexander Mackenzie and his party finally reach navigable water and travel the MacGregor River to the Fraser.
19 June 1793 Domenico Cimarosa’s (43) commedia per musica I traci amanti to words of Palomba is performed for the first time, in Teatro Nuovo, Naples. It is his first opera produced in his home town since 1786.
20 June 1793 Political prisoners on ships off Le Cap (Cap-Haïtien) join sailors in a revolt against the French Republican authorities. They take over the town.
21 June 1793 Rebels in Le Cap (Cap-Haïtien) free thousands of slaves adding to the killing and confusion in the town.
22 June 1793 Governor John Hancock of Massachusetts signs incorporation papers for a group intending to create the Middlesex Canal to connect the Medford River with the Merrimack.
After traveling four days on the Fraser River, Alexander Mackenzie reaches the site of present Alexandria, British Columbia (named after him). The natives there advise him not to travel on his present course, but rather to go return north and follow the valley of a tributary to the west (West Road River). He heeds their advice.
A maroon army retakes Le Cap (Cap-Haïtien) and restores some order. They will soon be joined by the French Republican government.
27 June 1793 Jacques-Alexis Thuriot de la Rosière replaces Jean-Marie Collot, dit Collot d’Herbois as President of the National Convention of France.
1 July 1793 The French National Convention issues a decree for the prosecution of theatre managers who put on “pieces tending to revive the superstition of royalty.”
Joseph Boulogne de Saint Georges (47) is acquitted of embezzlement by the Revolutionary Tribunal and restored to the rank of colonel.
Les trois Gascons, an opéra by Giuseppe Cambini (47) to his own words, is performed for the first time, in Théâtre Louvois, Paris.
4 July 1793 Alexander Mackenzie and his party store their canoes and excess supplies at the confluence of the Fraser and West Road Rivers (British Columbia) and proceed overland to the west.
6 July 1793 Counterrevolutionaries from Marseille occupy Avignon.
9 July 1793 Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe of Upper Canada enacts the Act Against Slavery. It orders that all slaves in the province remain enslaved, but that no new slaves may be brought into Upper Canada, and that all children born to female slaves would be freed at age 25.
10 July 1793 Allied forces take Condé after a long siege.
11 July 1793 André Jeanbon, dit Jeanbon Saint-André replaces Jacques-Alexis Thuriot de la Rosière as President of the National Convention of France.
13 July 1793 19:00 A daughter of minor Norman nobility, Charlotte Corday d’Armont, visits Jean-Paul Marat at his house in the rue des Cordeliers for the second time today. She tells him of the plotters against him in Caen as he soaks in a tub. After he sends his fiancée away for more kaolin solution for the water, Corday takes a five-inch knife and plunges it into Marat under his right collarbone through the carotid artery. As Marat lay dying, his employee, Laurent Blas, manages to subdue the assassin. After news of the deed spreads throughout the neighborhood, an angry mob forms outside the Marat residence, threatening to tear Corday to pieces.
An irregular army of Norman Girondists is defeated by republican forces at Pacy-sur-Eure, 70 km west of Paris. Having failed to rally the countryside, their threat is ended.
Portugal pledges to aid Spain against a French invasion.
15 July 1793 The body of Jean-Paul Marat is displayed in the church of the Cordeliers.
16 July 1793 The mortal remains of Jean-Paul Marat are laid to rest in a rocky grotto in the garden of the Cordelier Club, to the music of Christoph Willibald Gluck (†5). His heart is embalmed and placed in an agate urn suspended above the Cordelier Club meeting hall.
17 July 1793 Charlotte Corday is executed by guillotine in Paris for the murder of Jean-Paul Marat.
The National Convention decides to eliminate all feudal dues without compensation.
On his second attempt to find a water route to the Pacific, Alexander Mackenzie reaches the Bella Coola River at Friendly Village (British Columbia).
19 July 1793 British soldiers begin constructing a settlement at Toronto.
After traveling for two days on the Bella Coola River (British Columbia), Alexander Mackenzie comes upon native houses. “From these houses I could perceive the termination of the river, and its discharge into a narrow arm of the sea.” He is the first human in recorded history to traverse North America from sea to sea north of Mexico.
22 July 1793 Muzio Clementi’s (41) piano piece Mr. Collick’s Minuet with Five Variations WoO 5 is entered at Stationers’ Hall, London.
Alexander Mackenzie inscribes his name and the date upon a rock near the Dean Channel (British Columbia). Tomorrow, he and his party begin the trip home.
23 July 1793 Allied forces capture Mainz and drive the French out of Germany. Archbishop Friedrich Karl Joseph, Baron von Erthal is returned to power, thus ending the Republic of Mainz.
25 July 1793 Georges-Jacques Danton replaces André Jeanbon, dit Jeanbon Saint-André as President of the National Convention of France.
27 July 1793 Republican forces retake Avignon from federalist insurgents.
28 July 1793 Allied forces take Valenciennes after a long siege.
1 August 1793 The French National Convention authorizes the sacking of St. Denis, including its royal tombs. They also decree that commanders in the Vendée may create free-fire zones.
Fryderyk Józef Moszynski replaces Michal Jerzy Mniszech as Grand Marshal of Poland.
2 August 1793 In the middle of the night, former Queen Marie Antoinette is removed from her family in the Temple and taken to the Conciergerie.
The French government issue a decree calling for the closing of any theatre showing royalist works. Theatres are required to show works “by and for the people.”
8 August 1793 Marie-Jean Hérault de Séchelles replaces Georges-Jacques Danton as President of the National Convention of France.
10 August 1793 An ostentatious Festival of Unity and Indivisibility takes place in Paris to celebrate the first anniversary of the overthrow of the monarchy. François-Joseph Gossec (59) has composed five cantatas for the event.
La révolution du 10 août 1792, ou Le tocsin allégorique, a patriotic hymn by Ignace Pleyel (36) is performed for the first time, in Strasbourg Cathedral. According to an undocumented story, Pleyel composed the hymn under armed guard in order to prove his loyalty to the revolution.
12 August 1793 The name of the Académie de Musique is changed to the Opéra.
13 August 1793 Gehe hin mit Frieden for chorus and strings by Johannes Herbst (58) is performed for the first time.
16 August 1793 Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson writes to Gouveneur Morris, the US Minister to France, telling him to request the recall of French Minister to the US Edmund Genet. Genet has been raising volunteers for the revolution.
22 August 1793 Maximilien Robespierre replaces Marie-Jean Hérault de Séchelles as President of the National Convention of France.
23 August 1793 British forces take Pondicherry and other French outposts in India.
The National Convention decrees a levée-en-masse. All bachelors and childless widowers 18-25 are immediately conscripted.
The Board of Agriculture is established by a royal charter from King George III. It is the predecessor of the Ministry of Agriculture.
24 August 1793 Alexander Mackenzie and his party return to their starting point, Fort Chipewyan (Alberta) after making the first recorded journey across North America north of Mexico. The total distance he covered is over 3,700 km. “Here my voyages of discovery terminate.”
25 August 1793 Republican troops defeat the Marseille federalists and enter the city.
Philippe Pinel is appointed chief physician of Bicétre, an insane asylum in Paris. Among his first acts is to unchain the inmates. His reforms will change mental health care.
27 August 1793 Andrew Law (44) receives a US copyright for his Musical Primer.
Over the night of 27-28 August, Toulon revolts against the central government and admits British and Spanish ships into the harbor.
John Graves Simcoe, Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, renames the settlement at Toronto as York, to honor the Duke of York.
29 August 1793 In order to regain some control, and black support, French Republican commissioners declare the abolition of slavery in northern Saint Domingue (Haiti).
2 September 1793 John Graves Simcoe, Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, holds the first meeting of his executive council in York (Toronto).
5 September 1793 At the insistence of unruly crowds disturbed by the loss of Toulon, the French National Convention authorizes the establishment of a revolutionary army of 7,200 men. They declare that “terror shall be the order of the day.” Jacques Nicolas Billaud, dit Billaud-Varenne replaces Maximilien Robespierre as President of the National Convention of France.
8 September 1793 French troops halt the British advance at Hondschoote, 50 km northwest of Lille.
9 September 1793 British forces from Jamaica land at Jérémie, Sainte Domingue (Hait) and take control of the town in the name of white French royalists.
11 September 1793 The National Convention issues a General Maximum (price controls) on all food.
12 September 1793 Philadelphia becomes the first American city to be quarantined, in this case against yellow fever.
14 September 1793 Lord Macartney, an emissary from King George III, is granted an audience with the Chinese Emperor Ch’ien Lung at the summer palace in Jehol (Chengde). The audience takes place in a yurt, a large tent customarily used for the Emperor to receive emissaries from barbarians. Lord Macartney brings many expensive gifts hoping for relations with China. The Emperor is not interested.
16 September 1793 Portuguese troops board ship for Catalonia to support Spain against France.
17 September 1793 The Law of Suspects is enacted by the National Convention. The Committee of Public Safety is granted broad powers to arrest and punish anyone suspected of counterrevolutionary thought. This is generally viewed as the beginning of the Terror.
18 September 1793 President George Washington lays the cornerstone to the Capitol Building in the District of Columbia.
19 September 1793 Pierre Joseph Cambon replaces Jacques Nicolas Billaud, dit Billaud-Varenne as President of the National Convention of France.
22 September 1793 British forces land peacefully at Cap du Môle, Sainte Domingue (Haiti).
25 September 1793 Joseph Boulogne de Saint Georges (47) is relieved of his command by the French Minister for War. Eight other officers of his regiment are dismissed.
26 September 1793 Great Britain and Portugal conclude an alliance against France.
30 September 1793 Giuseppe Maria Doria, Duke of Massanova replaces Michelangelo Agostino Cambiaso as Doge of Genoa.
Under the watchful eye of police, the courts and the Committee of Surveillance, important leaders of the Paris Opéra create a large bonfire outside the building and destroy anything the institution possesses which is in any way connected with monarchy.
3 October 1793 Charles Louis Joseph Charlier replaces Pierre Joseph Cambon as President of the National Convention of France.
8 October 1793 The French government agrees to recall Edmund Genet from the United States but also request the recall of US minister Gouveneur Morris.
Niccolò Piccinni’s (65) opera eroicomico La Griselda is performed for the first time, in Teatro San Samuele, Venice.
9 October 1793 After a siege of two months, Lyon falls to republican troops.
10 October 1793 William Blake’s Prospectus: To the Public is published advertising two engravings, six books of etchings and two books of engravings for sale.
12 October 1793 A newly reconstituted Republican authority in Lyon decrees that henceforth the city’s name is Ville-Affranchie (Liberated Town). Homes of rich people are to be demolished.
Former Queen Marie Antoinette is interrogated before a revolutionary tribunal.
15 October 1793 Jacques-Louis David presents his painting The Death of Marat to the French National Assembly.
16 October 1793 Citizen Marie Antoinette Habsburg Bourbon (former Queen of the French) is executed in the Place de la Revolution (Place de la Concorde), Paris.
Publication of two works by Jan Ladislav Dussek (33) is announced in The Times of London. They are the Sonata for piano, flute and cello C.94 and the Rondo for piano C.95.
French troops halt the Austrian advance at Wattignies, seven kilometers south of Lille.
Publication of Universal Praise, an anthem by William Billings (47), is advertised in the Columbian Centinel, Boston.
17 October 1793 Republican troops defeat the Vendée counterrevolutionaries at Cholet.
18 October 1793 The name of the Paris Opéra is changed to the Opéra National.
22 October 1793 Moïse Antoine Pierre Jean Bayle replaces Charles Louis Joseph Charlier as President of the National Convention of France.
24 October 1793 Karl Eugen, Duke of Württemberg dies and is succeeded by his brother Ludwig Eugen.
The French National Convention prohibits the destruction of works of art.
26 October 1793 15,000 people begin the demolition of 1,600 houses belonging to the wealthy of Lyon. They are paid by a tax on the rich. Soon, a reign of terror will cause hundreds of deaths.
27 October 1793 Empress Yekaterina II of Russia proclaims six weeks of mourning for former Queen Marie Antoinette.
31 October 1793 22 Girondins are executed in Paris today within a span of 36 minutes. They enter their cart singing La Marseillaise.
1 November 1793 The French government requires the use of the pronoun “tu” in all official correspondence.
2 November 1793 La fille coupable, an opéra-comique by Adrien Boieldieu (17) to his father’s words, is performed for the first time, in the Théâtre des Arts, Rouen. The music, but not the libretto, is well received. The composer will make improvements in the text tomorrow and ensure a greatly successful second night.
6 November 1793 Pierre Antoine Laloy replaces Moïse Antoine Pierre Jean Bayle as President of the National Convention of France.
Louis-Philippe-Joseph, Duc d’Orleans, revolutionary cousin of King Louis and better known as Philippe-Egalité, is executed in Paris accompanied by a man found guilty of insulting the tricolor.
7 November 1793 As part of a general movement of dechristianization, the Bishop of Paris is forced to abdicate.
8 November 1793 The French National Convention decrees the formation of an Institut National de Musique, directed by François-Joseph Gossec (59).
The Louvre Museum opens to the public.
10 November 1793 A Festival to Reason is held in Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris.
11 November 1793 France formally annexes Montbéliard.
12 November 1793 Jean Sylvain Bailly, former Mayor of Paris, is executed by guillotine on the Champ de Mars.
17 November 1793 French commander General Jean Nicolas Houchard is put to death by guillotine in Paris for his losses in the Low Countries last Summer.
19 November 1793 Jan Ladislav Dussek’s (33) Sonata for piano C.96 is entered at Stationers’ Hall, London.
21 November 1793 Etienne-Nicolas Méhul (30) joins the staff of the Institut National de Musique.
Charles Gilbert Romme replaces Pierre Antoine Laloy as President of the National Convention of France.
23 November 1793 Joseph Haydn (61) writes to Maximilian Franz, Elector-Archbishop of Cologne, sending him some of Ludwig van Beethoven’s (22) compositions and saying that “Beethoven will in time attain the rank of the great musical artists of Europe, and I shall be proud to call myself his teacher.” (Heartz, 707) He also asks the Elector to increase Beethoven’s stipend.
24 November 1793 A new Revolutionary calendar is adopted by the French government. It is placed in force retroactively to 21 September 1792, the date of the founding of the republic.
28 November 1793 Antoine Lavoisier comes out of hiding and gives himself up to authorities. He is suspected of defrauding the government.
30 November 1793 Étienne-Nicolas Méhul’s (30) first republican work, Hymne à la raison for solo voices and orchestra, is performed for the first time, in Paris as the Church of St. Quentin is transformed into the Temple of Reason.
2 December 1793 The Third Congress of the United States convenes in Philadelphia. Voting for the House of Representatives took place between August 1792 and September 1793. Supporters of President Washington hold a slim majority in the Senate. His opponents hold a similarly small majority in the House of Representatives.
4 December 1793 At the height of the terror in Lyon, 113 people are executed today. By its end, 1,905 people will be executed in Lyon.
The National Convention decrees that all revolutionary committees are subject to the Committee of Public Safety.
6 December 1793 Jean-Henri Voulland replaces Charles Gilbert Romme as President of the National Convention of France.
7 December 1793 Daniel Francis Eaton, publisher of Politics for the People, is acquitted in a London court of sedition. He published an article by Radical John Thelwall.
12 December 1793 The National Convention decrees free and compulsory primary education for children aged 6-13.
John Field (11) makes his London piano debut, performing at the Tavern.
Johann Peter Schulz’s (46) singspiel Peters bryllup to words of Thaarup is performed for the first time, in Copenhagen.
13 December 1793 Publication of three piano works by Jan Ladislav Dussek (33) is announced in The Times of London. They are the Piano Concerto C.97, Variations on Within a Mile of Edinburgh C.101 and The Sufferings of the Queen of France. A Musical Composition, Expressing the Feelings of the Unfortunate Marie Antoinette, During her Imprisonment, Trial, &c. C.98.
17 December 1793 French batteries begin to bombard British and Spanish forces in and around Toulon.
19 December 1793 After a siege of four months, British and Spanish forces quit Toulon and Republican troops take control of the town. Among the victorious troops is a commander of artillery from Corsica, Major Napoleone Buonaparte, who rounds up hundreds of royalists in the town square and mows them down with his cannon. The important buildings of Toulon are destroyed.
21 December 1793 Georges Auguste Couthon replaces Jean-Henri Voulland as President of the National Convention of France.
Publication of a Symphony in E flat B.148 by Ignaz Pleyel (36) is announced in the Frankfurter Ristretto.
22 December 1793 The hero of Toulon, Napoleone Buonaparte, is promoted from major to brigadier general. In September he was a captain in charge of a wagon train.
23 December 1793 Maximilian Franz, Elector-Archbishop of Cologne writes to Joseph Haydn (61) claiming that all Beethoven’s (23) music he sent on 23 November, save one, was written before the young man left Bonn and could not be considered progress. He refuses to increase Beethoven’s allowance. His Eminence strongly suggests that Beethoven has wasted his time and His Eminence’s money and should return to Bonn. This is seen as an important impetus for Beethoven to seek his fortune in Vienna.
The Vendée counterrevolutionary army is finally defeated by republican troops at Savenay.
24 December 1793 Singt ihr Erlösten for chorus and strings by Johannes Herbst (58) is performed for the first time.
26 December 1793 French forces defeat the allied army of Austria, Prussia, and other German states at Wissembourg, 30 km west of Karlsruhe.
31 December 1793 Thomas Jefferson resigns his post as Secretary of State over differences with Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton.
©2004-2012 Paul Scharfenberger
5 June 2012
Last Updated (Tuesday, 05 June 2012 04:43)