Dashed left edge = started before this timeline ·
Dashed right edge = still ongoing
Events in 1798 6
1725 – 1798Giacomo CasanovaAdventurer and AuthorVenetian adventurer whose name became synonymous with the art of seduction.
1798 – 1855Adam Mickiewicz (1798-1855)Died 26 November 1855, aged 56Adam Mickiewicz, regarded as Poland's national poet, died of cholera in Constantinople while trying to organize Polish legions to fight Russia in the Crimean War. His epic poem Pan Tadeusz is considered a cornerstone of Polish literature. He spent much of his life in political exile.
1798 – 1857Auguste Comte (1798-1857)Died 5 September 1857, aged 59Comte was a French philosopher who founded positivism and coined the term sociology. He argued that societies progress through theological, metaphysical, and scientific stages of understanding. His ideas influenced the development of social science throughout the nineteenth century.
1798 – 1801First asteroids discoveredCeres, Pallas, Juno — a new class of solar system objectsOn 1 January 1801, Giuseppe Piazzi of Palermo discovered Ceres, the first asteroid, followed by Pallas (1802), Juno (1804), and Vesta (1807). The discoveries revealed an entirely new class of solar system bodies occupying the gap between Mars and Jupiter that Bode's Law had predicted should contain a planet. Ceres is now classified as a dwarf planet.
1798 – 1874Jean-Baptiste Elie de Beaumont (1798-1874)Died 21 September 1874, aged 75Elie de Beaumont was a French geologist known for his theories on mountain formation and his geological mapping of France. He served as a professor at the College de France and permanent secretary of the French Academy of Sciences. His mountain-building theories, though later superseded, were influential in nineteenth-century geology.
1798 – 1863Eugène DelacroixRomanticism · FranceEugène Delacroix (April 26, 1798 – August 13, 1863) was the leader of French Romanticism whose vibrant colour and dynamic compositions influenced the Impressionists. Liberty Leading the People is an enduring icon of revolution.