Timeline May 1795

Events in May 1795 4

• 1740 – 1795 James Boswell (1740-1795) Died 19 May 1795, aged 54 The Scottish lawyer and writer was best known for his monumental biography "The Life of Samuel Johnson," regarded as one of the greatest biographies in the English language. He had accompanied Johnson on a tour of Scotland and kept extensive journals that later proved historically invaluable. He died in London after a long illness.
• 1795 Speenhamland system adopted Berkshire magistrates introduce wage subsidies tied to bread prices Magistrates meeting at Speenhamland in Berkshire introduced a system of poor relief that supplemented low wages according to the price of bread and family size. The scheme spread across much of rural England as a response to wartime food shortages and rural poverty. It remained influential, and controversial, until reform of the Poor Laws decades later.
• 1795 Prairial Uprising suppressed Final popular rising of the French Revolution crushed in Paris Parisian sans-culottes invaded the National Convention demanding bread and the restoration of the radical 1793 constitution, briefly overrunning the chamber and killing a deputy. The Convention called in military force to clear the hall and disarm the capital's working-class districts. The defeat marked the end of popular insurrection as a force in the Revolution.
• 1795 Mungo Park departs to explore the Niger River Scottish explorer sets out to trace the river's course Scottish explorer Mungo Park sailed from Portsmouth on an expedition commissioned by the African Association to find the course of the Niger River. He reached the Gambia River in June and pressed inland, eventually becoming the first European to confirm the Niger's eastward flow. His journey later made him one of the era's most celebrated explorers.