1792 was a leap year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar).

Events

• January 25 - The London Corresponding Society is founded.
• February 20 - The Postal Service Act , establishing the United States Post Office Department, is signed by President George Washington.
• March 16 - King of Sweden Gustav III Shot in the back by Jacob Johan Anckarström at a midnight masquerade at the Royal Opera in Stockholm, on March 16, he expired on March 29 succeeded by Gustav IV Adolf.
• April 2 - The Coinage Act is passed establishing the United States Mint.
• April 5 - United States President George Washington vetos a bill designed to apportion representatives among U.S. states. This is the first time the presidential veto has been used in the United States.
• April 20 - France declares war against the Habsburgs
• April 21 - Tiradentes, prime figure in the Inconfidência Mineira plot, is executed in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
• April 24 - First experimental use of the guillotine in France
• April 25 - Highwayman Nicolas J. Pelletier becomes the first person executed by guillotine.
• May 11 - Captain Robert Gray becomes the first white man to discover the Columbia River.
• May 17 - Buttonwood Agreement is signed, beginnings of New York Stock Exchange
• May 21 - Old lava dome collapses in Kyushu, Japan when Unzen volcano erupts - resulting avalanche and tsunami kills about 14300
• June 1 - Kentucky is admitted as the 15th U.S. state and as one of its first orders of business ratifies all twelve articles of the Bill of Rights, including one that is technically still pending for consideration.
• June 4 - Captain George Vancouver claims Puget Sound for Great Britain.
• August 10 - French Revolution: Storming of the Tuileries Palace. Louis XVI of France is arrested and taken into custody.
• September 11 - Six men steal some of the former French royal jewels from a warehouse the revolutionary government uses to store them.
• September 21-22 - French convention abolishes the monarchy and establishes the First Republic.
• September 21 - Battle of Valmy - French revolutionary army defeats Prussians under Duke of Brunswick after 7-hour artillery duel.
• October 12 - First celebration of Columbus Day in the USA held in New York.
• October 13 - In Washington, DC, the cornerstone of the United States Executive Mansion (known as the White House since 1818) is laid.
• October 29 - Mt. Hood (Oregon) is named after the British naval officer Alexander Arthur Hood by Lt. William E. Broughton who spotted the mountain near the mouth of the Willamette River.
• December 26 - Trial of Louis XVI of France begins.
• Dominique-Jean Larrey , chief surgeon of the Grand Armee of France, created the first ambulance wagons specifically designed as ambulances.
• French revolution comes to an end, monarchy is abolished and French Republic is declared on September 22; Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle composes La Marseillaise aka "Marche pour les armées du Rhin".
• Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor, last emperor, takes office.
• Treaty of Jassy ends Russian war with Ottoman Empire over Crimea.
• Russia invades Poland: War in defence of the constitution.
• King John VI takes over from his insane mother in Portugal.
• George Washington is re-elected as president of the United States.
• Tipu Sultan invades Kerala in India, but is repulsed.
• George Vancouver explores Puget Sound, becomes first European to see Mount Rainier.
• Franz Xaver, Baron Von Zach, an astronomer, publishes "The Tables of the Sun", an essential early work for navigation.
• Claude Chappe successfully demonstrates the first semaphore line, between Paris and Lille.
• William Murdoch invents gas lighting.
• George Anschutz constructs first blast furnace in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
• Thomas Holcroft produces the play Road to Ruin in London.
• Barthelemy Catherine Joubert, later general, becomes sub-lieutenant.
• Johann Georg Albrechtberger becomes Kapellmeister in Vienna.
• State Street Corporation is founded.

Ongoing events

• French Revolution (1789-1799)
• French Revolutionary Wars (1792-1802)

Births

• January 12 - Johann Arfvedson, Swedish chemist (d. 1841)
• February 10 - Captain Frederick Marryat, British author (d. 1848)
• February 17 - Karl Ernst von Baer, naturalist
• February 29 - Gioacchino Rossini, Italian composer
• March 3 - Johann Karl Ludwig Gieseler, German church historian (d. 1854)
• March 3 - Jean-Jacques Willmar , luxembourgish politician (d. 1866)
• March 7 - John Herschel, mathematician, astronomer (d. 1871)
• April 1 - Karl Gottlob Zumpt, scholar.
• April 23 - John Thomas Romney Robinson, Irish astronomer, physicist (d. 1882)
• April 25 - John Keble, British poet, professor (d. 1866).
• May 13 - Pope Pius IX (d. 1878)
• May 15 - James Mayer Rothschild, banker (d. 1868)
• May 17 - Anne Isabella Milbanke, wife to George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron.
• May 21 - Gaspard-Gustave Coriolis, French engineer, scientist.
• June 16 - John Linnell, British painter (d. 1882)
• July 10 - George M. Dallas, American senator, vice-president
• June 21 - Ferdinand Christian Baur, theologian (d. 1860)
• August 4 - Percy Bysshe Shelley, British poet
• August 13 - Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, Queen-Consort of King William IV of the United Kingdom
• August 18 - Lord John Russell, British prime minister
• September 19 - William Backhouse Astor, Sr., American business tycoon
• September 26 - William Hobson, first governor of New Zealand (d. 1842)
• September 28 - Johann Georg Hiedler, step-father of Alois Hitler
• November 11 - Mary Anne Evans, wife of Benjamin Disraeli
• November 28 - Victor Cousin, French philosopher (d. 1867)
• December 1 - Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky, Russian mathematician
• December 6 - William II of the Netherlands (d. 1849)
• Matteo Carcassi, Italian musician, composer
• William Henry Smith, British businessman

Deaths

• February 23 - Sir Joshua Reynolds, British painter
• March 1 - Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1747)
• March 3 - Robert Adam, British architect * 1728
• March 29 - King Gustav III of Sweden dies after having been shot by an assassin on March 16
• April 23 - Karl Friedrich Bahrdt, German theologian, adventurer
• June 4 - John Burgoyne, British general
• July 3 - Ferdinand, Duke of Brunswick
• July 18 - John Paul Jones, American naval captain
• September 8 - Charles d'Abancourt, French statesman, killed
• October 7 - George Mason, U.S. Patriot, "Father of the Bill of Rights"
• December 15 - Joseph Martin Kraus, composer
• Muhammad ibn Abd al Wahhab, Wahhabi preacher