1796

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January: British forces under the command of Lieutenant-General Sir Ralph Abercromby arrive at Jamaica and take the Caribbean islands of St. Lucia, Demerara, St. Vincent, and Grenada.
February 16: England is granted control of Ceylon by the Dutch.
April 12: Napoleon leads the French victory over Austria at the Battle of Montenotte.
May 15: Napoleon enters Milan and establishes the Lombard Republic.
September 8: French forces defeat Austrian troops at the Battle of Bassano
October: Spain, now aligned with France, declares war on Britain.
November 6: Catherine the Great of Russia dies. She is succeeded by her son, Paul I.
November 17: French forces defeat the Austrians in Italy at the Battle of Arcole.

January 7: Princess Charlotte is born to the Prince and Princess of Wales.
February 1: Protests over the price of bread culminate in Queen Charlotte being hit by a stone as she and King George return from a trip to the theatre.
March 9: Napoleon marries Joséphine de Beauharnais.

Fanny Burney by Edward Francisco Burney. (Click on image to see a larger version.)

Fanny Burney publishes Camilla.
Jane Austen writes her first draft of Pride and Prejudice, under the title First Impressions. The book will not be published until 1813.
July 21: Scottish poet Robert Burns dies at age 37.

J. M. W. Turner exhibits at the Royal Academy for the first time with the oil painting Fisherman at Sea. He is only 21.

Ludwig van Beethoven completes Three Piano Sonatas, Op. 2 in F minor, A and C.
Joseph Haydn completes Missa in tempore belli (“Mass in Time of War”).

Printing by lithography is invented by Alois Senefelder in Bohemia.
May 14: Vaccination against small pox is introduced by Edward Jenner.
August 9: Opening to traffic of the Wearmouth Bridge in England, designed by Thomas Paine in cast iron. Its span of 72 m (237 feet) makes it the world’s longest single-span vehicular bridge extant at this date.

July 21: Scottish physician-explorer Mungo Park reaches the Niger, becoming the first European to reach the West African interior.