1797 (place)

• Austrian composer Franz Schubert.
• Scottish geologist Sir Charles Lyell.
• American abolitionist Sojourner Truth, into slavery.
• Scottish poet William Motherwell.
• Italian philosopher Fr. Antonio Rosmini.
• (August 30) English writer Mary Wollstonecraft (Shelley), daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin.
• Irish novelist and painter Samuel Lover.
• Japanese artist Utagawa Hiroshige.
• German author and poet Heinrich Heine.
• Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti.
• Future Kaiser Wilhelm I of Prussia and later all Germany.
• french physician Jean Poiseuille.
• Eastern Orthodox evangelist John Popov, now St. Innocent Veniaminov, in Siberia.
• Australian politician Sir James Darling.
• Indian Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib.
• German author Annette von Droste-Hülshoff

• Irish-born British statesman and philosopher Edmund Burke.
• (September 10) English feminist and writer Mary Wollstonecraft.
• American author and former slave Olaudah Equiano.
• Scottish philosopher and geologist James Hutton.
• British general Jeffrey Amherst.
• English artist John Hall.

• (January 14) Napoleon Bonaparte and Marshal Massena inflict a decisive defeat on the Austrians at the Battle of Rivoli.  Two of the Austrian generals surrender; the third retreats back to Austria.
• (February 14) The British fleet under Admiral Sir John Jervis defeats the Spanish fleet off Cape St. Vincent.  Commodore Horatio Nelson orders one of his ships to leave the battle and capture the fleeing Spanish flagship.  It did, so Nelson was a hero.
• (February 19) Pope Pius VI cedes most of the Papal States to France with the Treaty of Tolentino.
• (February 21) The French attempt an invasion of Wales (at Fishguard) but are repulsed.
• (March 4) John Adams is inaugurated as President of the United States.
• (April 16) The British Channel Fleet mutinies at Spithead near Portsmouth.
• (April 17) The Treaty of Leoben ends hostilities in Northern Italy with France in control.
• (May 12) Napoleon's army is in the Veneto.  The Great Council of Venice votes to dissolve the 1070-year-old Venetian Republic and surrender the city.
• (May 16) Adams reports to Congress about French intransigence the previous year. He refers to the three men who had demanded a bribe from the American diplomatic mission as "Messrs. X, Y, and Z".  The resulting public outcry puts the United States and France on the brink of war.
• (Mid-May) The Admiralty grants the Spithead mutineers' demands.
• (May) The fleet in the Thames mutinies at Nore, presenting similar demands as the Spithead mutineers.  This time the Admiralty crushes the mutiny, hanging 19 men.  A Parlimentary reform bill is defeated as a consequence of this mutiny.
• (June) Bonaparte sets up a Cisalpine Republic out of the conquered territories in Northern Italy.
• (June 10) the United States Senate ratifies a "Treaty of Peace and Friendship with the Bey of Tripoli".
• (July 21-24) Nelson's attack on Santa Cruz de Teneriffe goes badly awry. Nelson loses an arm and is captured . The Spanish terms are exceedingly generous, as they allow the British to go back to their ships.
• (October 11-13)  The British fleet under Admiral Adam Duncan defeats the Dutch fleet (under de Winter) at the Battle of Camperdown but is badly mauled in the process.
• (October 17) The Treaty of Campo-Formio ends hostilities between France and Austria.  Everything west of the Rhine is ceded to France.
• Toussaint L'Ouverture is named commander of the forces defending Saint-Domingue (Haiti) from occupying British forces.  As he slowly pushes the British out, he seizes plantations and does a bit of land redistribution.
• Presdient Adams decrees that foreign coins will no longer be legal tender in the United States.
• Andre-Jacques Garnerin jumps out of a balloon and becomes the first person to use a parachute to break his fall.

1796 - 1797 - 1798