Mar 02 Congress standardizes US weights &measures

Mar 12 Austria declares war on France

Mar 28 New York State abolished slavery

Mar 26 Napolean captures Jaffa Palestine

Mar 06 Napoleon captures Jaffa Palestine

Sep 01 Bank of Manhattan Company opens in NYC (forerunner to Chase Manhattan)

Feb 13 The first US law regulating insurance passed, by Massachusetts

Feb 15 First US printed ballots authorized, Pennsylvania

Feb 01 Royal Assent given to change the name of Ile St. Jean (St. John's Island) to Prince Edward Island.

Feb 09 USS Constellation captures French frigate Insurgente off Nevis, West Indies

Feb 25 Congress passes first federal quarantine legislation

Dec 14 George Washington, the American revolutionary leader and first president of the United States, dies of acute laryngitis at his estate in Mount Vernon, Virginia

Dec 18 George Washington's body interred at Mount Vernon

Dec 26 George Washington is eulogized by Colonel Henry Lee as "1st in war, first in peace & first in the hearts of his countrymen"

Jul 25 French-Egyptian forces under Napolean I beat Turks at Battle of Abukir

Jul 15 Discovery of the Rosetta Stone, which will yield better understanding of the ancient egyptian language.

Jul 24 William Clark (of Lewis & Clark) is willed the slave York

Jun 06 American orator Patrick Henry ("Give me liberty or give me death!") dies in Charlotte County, Virginia.

Jun 07 The birth of Alexander Pushkin, Russian playwright and poet

Jan 09 Income Tax introduced in UK

Jan 13 President George Washington adds two stars and two stripes to the U.S. flag, honoring the admission of Vermont and Kentucky to the union. The new stripes were later removed, restoring the total to 13.

Jan 14 King of Naples flees before the advancing French armies

Jan 14 Eli Whitney receives government contract for 10,000 muskets

Jan 21 Edward Jenner's smallpox vaccination is introduced

Jan 25 The first US patent for a seeding machine, Eliakim Spooner, Vermont

Oct 30 William Balch becomes Navy's first commissioned Chaplain.