1791

1791 (MDCCXCI) was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 11-day-slower Julian calendar).

Events

January 25 - The British Parliament passes the Constitutional Act of 1791, splitting the old province of Quebec into Upper and Lower Canada.
March 2 - Long-distance communication speeds up with the unveiling of a semaphore machine in Paris.
March 4 - Vermont is admitted as the 14th U.S. state.
May 3 - The Polish Sejm (Parliament) proclaims the Constitution of third May, the first modern codified constitution in Europe.
July 14 - The Priestley Riots in Birmingham, England.
June 20 - The French Royal Family is captured when they try to flee in disguise.
August 6 - Brandenburg Gate in Berlin finished.
August 26 - John Fitch is granted a patent for the steamboat in the United States.
September 25 - The Mission Santa Cruz, is founded by Father Fermín Francisco de Lasuén, becoming the twelfth mission in the California mission chain.
October 9 - The Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad, was founded by Father Fermín Francisco de Lasuén, becoming the thirteenth mission in the California mission chain.
December 4 - The first issue of The Observer, the world's first Sunday newspaper, is published.
December 15 - Ratification by the states of the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution is completed, creating the United States Bill of Rights. Two additional amendments remain pending, and one of these is finally ratified in 1992, becoming the Twenty-seventh Amendment.

January 11 - William Williams Pantycelyn, Welsh hymnist (b. 1717)
March 2 - John Wesley, English founder of Methodism (b. 1703)
March 14 - Johann Salomo Semler, German historian and Bible commentator (b. 1725)
April 19 - Richard Price, Welsh philosopher (b. 1723)
May 9 - Francis Hopkinson, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1737)
June 5 - Frederick Haldimand, Swiss-born British colonial governor (b. 1718)
June 10 - Toussaint-Guillaume Picquet de la Motte, French admiral (b. 1720)
July 17 - Martin Dobrizhoffer, Austrian Jesuit missionary (b. 1717)
July 25 - Isaac Low, American delegate to the Continental Congress (b. 1735)
August 16 - Charles-François de Broglie, marquis de Ruffec, French soldier and diplomat (b. 1719)
September 25 - William Bradford, American printer (b. 1719)
December 5 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austrian composer (b. 1756)af:1791