1794 Archives | HISTORY

On March 14, 1794, inventor Eli Whitney is granted U.S. Patent no. 72X for his machine that mechanically removes seeds from cotton fibers. Whitney’s cotton gin (“gin” derives from the word “engine”) spurs a boom in cotton production—and a corresponding growth in slavery—during the first half of the 1800s.

Maximilien Robespierre, the architect of the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror, is overthrown and arrested by the National Convention. As the leading member of the Committee of Public Safety from 1793, Robespierre encouraged the execution, mostly by guillotine, of more than 17,000 enemies of the Revolution. The day after his arrest, Robespierre and 21 of his followers were guillotined before a cheering mob in the Place de la Revolution in Paris.

On August 20, 1794, General “Mad Anthony” Wayne proves that the fragile young republic can counter a military threat when he puts down Shawnee Chief Blue Jacket’s confederacy near present-day Toledo, Ohio, with the newly created 3,000-man strong Legion of the United States at the Battle of Fallen Timbers.

On August 26, 1794, President George Washington writes to Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee, Virginia’s governor and a former general, regarding the Whiskey Rebellion, an insurrection that was the first great test of Washington’s authority as president of the United States. In the letter, Washington declared that he had no choice but to act to subdue the “insurgents,” fearing they would otherwise “shake the government to its foundation.”

On December 8, 1794, a group of boys playing in a New Orleans courtyard lose control of a fire to gusty winds. The ensuing blaze engulfs more than 200 buildings in what is now known as the city’s French Quarter.