In 1796, during the French Revolution and three years after the declaration of war between France and Great Britain, Étienne-Gaspard Robert met with the French government and proposed the use of mirrors to burn the invading ships of the British Royal Navy.

Easton's firm, inherited by his son James ( 1796 – 1871 ), grew during the nineteenth century to become one of the more important engineering manufacturers in the United Kingdom, with a large works at Erith, Kent.

On June 4, 1796, during the Napoleonic Wars, Mantua was besieged by Napoleon as a move against Austria, who joined the First Coalition.

In 1796, the Great Hall was restored and in 1838, during the reign of Queen Victoria, the restoration was completed and the palace opened to the public.

It carried the following inscription ( translated from Russian ): " In the Year 1796, in the month of January, this bell was cast on the Island of Kodiak by the blessing of Archimandrite Joaseph, during the sojourn of Alexsandr Baranov.

Napoleon married Joséphine de Beauharnais in 1796, when he was 26 ; she was a 32-year-old widow whose first husband had been executed during the Revolution.

In The Orangerie ( 1796 ), James Gillray caricatured William's dalliances during his exile, depicting him as an indolent Cupid sleeping on bags of money, surrounded by pregnant amours.

Wayne died of complications from gout on December 15, 1796, during a return trip to Pennsylvania from a military post in Detroit, and was buried at Fort Presque Isle ( now Erie, Pennsylvania ) where the modern Wayne Blockhouse stands.

* Mary Ann Lamb, the mentally ill sister of essayist Charles Lamb, killed their invalid mother during an episode of mania in 1796.

In 1796, a house in West Square became the first station in the optical telegraph, or semaphore line, between the Admiralty in London, and Chatham and Deal in Kent, and during the Napoleonic Wars transmitted messages between Whitehall and the Royal Navy.

* Charles Lynch ( 1736 – 1796 ), a Virginia planter and American Revolutionary who headed a county court in Virginia which incarcerated Loyalist supporters of the British for up to one year during the war, although lacking proper jurisdiction, on the plea of wartime necessity.

Maj. Dudley Wheeler ( 1796 – 1888 ) was the most prominent member of the family at this time ; in addition to owning two stores in town, he also was extensively involved in the wool export business and during mid-century worked out of an import-export office in New York City.

Robert Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool, UK Prime Minister from 1812 to 1827, was quartered in Dumfries in 1796 during his military service.

The medieval hall stood south-west of the keep and was dismantled in 1796 during the remodelling of the castle.

The canal was cut during the years 1796 to 1810.

In 1796 St-Calais ' grave was supposedly found during the demolition of the chapter house at Durham Cathedral.

Martha Washington was upset when her lady's maid Oney Judge, a " dower " slave, escaped in 1796 from the Philadelphia household during Washington's second term.

Guillaume Thomas Raynal ( April 12, 1713 – March 6, 1796 ) was a French writer and man of letters during the Age of Enlightenment.

In 1796 peace with France was concluded, but in 1798, during Napoleon's absence in Egypt and after Nelson's victory at the Battle of the Nile, Maria Carolina induced Ferdinand to go to war with France once more.

On 24 August 1796, during the French Revolutionary Wars, the city and its environs were the locale of a major battle at which 35, 000 French, under the command of Jean Baptiste Jourdan fought with 40, 000 under the command of Archduke Charles ; the French suffered significantly more losses in this Austrian victory.

Effective British control began in 1796 during the French Revolutionary Wars, at which time the Netherlands were under French occupation and Great Britain and France were at war.

It was during this period that Dundas, without whose " skillful obstructions the slave trade would have been abolished in 1796, if not 1792 ", was influential in obstructing the abolition of the Slave Trade.

Granville Leveson-Gower, in Paris during the winter of 1796, noted " The word citoyen seemed but very little in use, and hair powder being very common, the appearance of the people was less democratic than in England.

Eventually Paoli and Pozzo accepted foreign help, and from 1794 to 1796, during the British protectorate of Corsica, Pozzo was president of the council of state under Sir Gilbert Eliott.

However, the French Navy was dominant in the Mediterranean Sea, following the withdrawal of the British fleet after the outbreak of war between Britain and Spain in 1796.

* 1860 – Alfred Bunn, British theatrical manager ( b. 1796 )

Fedon's forces were defeated by the British in late 1796, but Fedon himself was never caught and his fate is unknown.

John Graves Simcoe ( February 25, 1752 – October 26, 1806 ) was a British army officer and the first Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada from 1791 – 1796.

After the British surrendered Fort Niagara in November 1796, they confronted the United States from Canada over the Niagara River.

Category: British MPs 1790 – 1796

* 1733 – Philip Carteret, British Naval Officer ( d. 1796 )

However, the British expelled the Dutch from Ceylon in 1796 and included Maldives as a British protected area.

* Sir Richard Butler, 7th Baronet ( 1761 – 1817 ), Irish and British MP for Carlow County 1783 – 1790 and 1796 – 1802

Conflict between the British and the black Caribs continued until 1796, when General Abercrombie crushed a revolt fomented by the French radical Victor Hugues.

The smallpox vaccine was designed in 1796 by the British physician Edward Jenner, although at least six people had used the same principles several years earlier.

* 1796 " An arrangement of British plants ..." 3rd ed.

* 1796: British ejected Dutch from Ceylon.

* June 17 – George Howard, British field marshal ( d. 1796 )

During continuing struggles between the British and the French for control in the Caribbean, the French made further attempts to invade Anguilla in 1745 and 1796 but these failed.

Great Britain then ceded the area to the United States at the end of the American Revolutionary War, though the Northwest Territory remained under de facto British control until 1796.

Category: British MPs 1790 – 1796

Category: British MPs 1796 – 1800

In 1796, one of the Dutch colonies in Guyana, the Guyana Essequibo, was taken by the British, who had previously begun a massive introduction of slaves.

The British declared war on France and in 1796 launched an expeditionary force from Barbados to occupy the Dutch colonies.

Both Berbice and the United Colony of Demerara and Essequibo were under British control from 1796 to 1802.

The Battle of Cape St Vincent ( 14 February 1797 ) was one of the opening battles of The Anglo-Spanish War ( 1796 – 1808 ) where a British fleet under Admiral Sir John Jervis defeated a larger Spanish fleet under Admiral Don José de Córdoba near Cape St. Vincent, Portugal.

After the signing of the Treaty of San Ildefonso in 1796 allying Spanish and French forces against Great Britain, the British navy blockaded Spain in 1797, impairing communications with its American colonies.