“From the Archives” World Events in 1795
225 YEARS AGO – WORLD EVENTS IN 1795
When our Saint Mary parish was founded in 1795, Pope Pius VI was head of the Roman Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States. George Washington was President of the United States and John Adams was Vice President. What else happened that year?
January 14 – Students arrived at the University of North Carolina (renamed The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1963) and UNC became the only public university to award degrees in the 18th century.
January 26 – Composer Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach (born in 1732) died.
February 2 – Joseph Haydn’s (1732-1809) 102nd Symphony in B premiered.
February 7 – The 11th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified by the states after being approved by Congress on March 4, 1794. It restricts the ability of individuals to bring suit against states in federal court.
February 21 – Freedom of worship was established in France under its constitution.
March 29 – Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) debuted as a pianist in Vienna.
April 7 – France adopted the meter as the basic measure of length.
May 1 – (Approximate date) Kamehameha the Great of the Island of Hawaii defeated the Oahuans, solidifying his control of the major islands of the Hawaiian archipelago and officially founding the Kingdom of Hawaii.
May 19 – Businessman and philanthropist Johns Hopkins was born in Anne Arundel County, MD, to a Quaker family. He founded The Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. He died in Baltimore in 1873.
June 6 – Fire destroyed one-third of Copenhagen, Denmark. It injured 18,000 people, destroyed or damaged nearly 1,000 homes, and left 6,000 of the city’s 100,000 inhabitants homeless.
June 24 – The U.S. Senate ratified the Jay Treaty, an agreement between the United States and Great Britain resolving disputes between the two nations that remained after the end of the American Revolutionary War. The treaty draws its name from its chief U.S. negotiator, John Jay (1745-1829), first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
July 9 – The $2,024,899 U.S. national debt was paid off by James Swan (1754-1830), a financier who had been a member of the Sons of Liberty, participated in the Boston Tea Party and was twice wounded in the Battle of Bunker Hill.
July 14 – The French National Convention decreed “La Marseillaise” by Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle as the national anthem of France.
August 3 – General Anthony Wayne (1745-1796), nicknamed “Mad Anthony” for his fiery personality, signed a peace treaty with Native Americans at Fort Greenville, OH, ending hostilities in what was then known as the Northwest Territories.
October 27 – Pinckney’s Treaty, also called the Treaty of San Lorenzo, was signed by the United States and Spain. It established the southern boundary of the United States and gave Americans the right to navigate the Mississippi River.
December 19 – Kentucky became the first state to appropriate money for road building.
– Diane Maple, Bulletin Editor
Throughout 2020, the Basilica of Saint Mary will present “From the Archives.” It is a weekly feature online and in our bulletin spotlighting the history of the parish. All of our “From the Archives” features are located here.