1797

Years: 1794 1795 1796 - 1797 - 1798 1799 1800
Decades: 1760s 1770s 1780s - 1790s - 1800s 1810s 1820s

Events of 1797

January 3 – The Treaty of Tripoli (a peace treaty between the United States and Tripoli) is signed at Algiers (see also 1796).
January 7 – The parliament of the Cisalpine Republic adopts the Italian green-white-red tricolour as the official flag (this is considered the birth of the flag of Italy).
January 15 – London haberdasher John Hetherington wears a silk top hat in public and attracts a large crowd of onlookers. He is later fined £500 for causing a public nuisance.
February 14 – The Battle of Cape St. Vincent (1797), part of the Wars of the French Revolution.
February 18 – Spanish Governor José Maria Chacón peacefully surrenders the colony of Trinidad to a British naval force commanded by Sir Ralph Abercromby.
February 22 – The Last invasion of Britain begins. French forces under the command of American Colonel William Tate land near Fishguard in Wales.
February 25 – William Tate surrenders to the British at Fishguard.
February 26 – The Bank of England (national bank of Britain) issues the first one-pound and two-pound notes (discontinued March 11, 1988).

March 4 – John Adams is sworn in as the 2nd President of the United States of America.
April 16 – Spithead and Nore mutinies.
April 17 – Sir Ralph Abercromby unsuccessfully invades San Juan, Puerto Rico in what will be one of the largest British attacks on Spanish territories in the western hemisphere, and one of the worst defeats of the English navy for years to come.
May 10 – The first ship of the United States Navy, the frigate USS UNITED STATES, is commissioned.
May 12 – First Coalition: Napoleon I of France conquers Venice, ending the city's 1,070 years of independence. The last doge of Venice, Ludovico Manin, steps down.
May 30 – William Wilberforce marries Barbara Ann Spooner.

July 24 – Horatio Nelson is wounded at the Battle of Santa Cruz, losing an arm.
October 17 – The Treaty of Campo Formio ends the War of the First Coalition.
October 21 – In Boston Harbor, the 44-gun United States Navy frigate USS Constitution is launched to fight Barbary pirates off the coast of Tripoli.
December 17 – Napoleon leads a successful French charge against Fort l'Aiguilette to secure Toulon.