This Year in History:
1797
Discover what happened in this year with HISTORY’s summaries of major events, anniversaries, famous births and notable deaths.
Social critic Mary Wollstonecraft, one of the earliest and most eloquent proponents of women’s rights, marries William Godwin, the most famous radical reformer of his time. Wollstonecraft, who had been…
On May 24, 1797, future President Thomas Jefferson writes to his friend Angelica Church, inquiring casually about their mutual friend, Maria Cosway, a woman who had once captured his heart…
On July 26, 1797, future President John Quincy Adams, the son of second President John Adams, marries Louisa Johnson in London, England. Louisa was—and remains—the only foreign‑born first lady of…
On this day in 1797, Jeffrey Amherst, who twice refused the position of commander of British forces against the rebelling American patriots, dies at his estate, called Montreal, in England.…
The first parachute jump of note is made by André‑Jacques Garnerin from a hydrogen balloon 3,200 feet above Paris. Leonardo da Vinci conceived the idea of the parachute in his…
