Dashed left edge = started before May 1799 ·
Dashed right edge = ongoing beyond May 1799
Events in May 1799 11
1732 – 1799Pierre Beaumarchais (1732-1799)Died 18 May 1799, aged 67French playwright, watchmaker, and secret agent, author of The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro. His comedies mocked aristocratic privilege and inspired operas by Rossini and Mozart. He also organised covert French arms supplies to the American revolutionaries.
1732 – 1799Pierre Beaumarchais (1732-1799)Died 18 May 1799, aged 67French playwright, watchmaker, and secret agent, author of The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro. His comedies mocked aristocratic privilege and inspired operas by Rossini and Mozart. He also organised covert French arms supplies to the American revolutionaries.
1750 – 1799Tipu Sultan (1750-1799)Died 4 May 1799, aged 48Ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore, known as the Tiger of Mysore, who fought the British East India Company in a series of wars. He modernised his administration and army and made early use of iron-cased rockets. He was killed defending Seringapatam.
1750 – 1799Tipu Sultan (1750-1799)Died 4 May 1799, aged 48Ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore, known as the Tiger of Mysore, who fought the British East India Company in a series of wars. He modernised his administration and army and made early use of iron-cased rockets. He was killed defending Seringapatam.
1799Siege of AcreNapoleon's advance into Syria is haltedBonaparte besieged the Ottoman fortress of Acre, held by Jazzar Pasha with British naval support under Sir Sidney Smith. After two months of failed assaults and losses to plague, the French lifted the siege and retreated to Egypt. The defeat ended Napoleon's ambitions in the Levant.
1799Siege of AcreNapoleon's advance into Syria is haltedBonaparte besieged the Ottoman fortress of Acre, held by Jazzar Pasha with British naval support under Sir Sidney Smith. After two months of failed assaults and losses to plague, the French lifted the siege and retreated to Egypt. The defeat ended Napoleon's ambitions in the Levant.
1799Siege of SeringapatamBritish storm the capital of MysoreBritish East India Company forces and their Hyderabad allies besieged Seringapatam, the capital of the Kingdom of Mysore. The city was stormed on 4 May and Tipu Sultan was killed defending it. The victory ended the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War and removed the strongest obstacle to British power in southern India.
1799Siege of SeringapatamBritish storm the capital of MysoreBritish East India Company forces and their Hyderabad allies besieged Seringapatam, the capital of the Kingdom of Mysore. The city was stormed on 4 May and Tipu Sultan was killed defending it. The victory ended the Fourth Anglo-Mysore War and removed the strongest obstacle to British power in southern India.
1799 – 1850Honore de Balzac (1799-1850)Died 18 August 1850, aged 51Balzac was a French novelist whose vast cycle of interlinked novels and stories, La Comedie Humaine, chronicled French society after the fall of Napoleon. He is regarded as one of the founders of literary realism. Exhausted by decades of prolific writing, he died just months after marrying Ewelina Hanska.
1799 – 1845Thomas Hood (1799-1845)Died 3 May 1845, aged 45Thomas Hood was an English poet and humorist known for his puns and comic verse. His late poem The Song of the Shirt, about a poor seamstress, made a great impression in Victorian Britain. He also edited several literary magazines.
1799 – 1837Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837)Died 29 January 1837, aged 37Alexander Pushkin was a Russian poet and novelist widely regarded as the founder of modern Russian literature. He died of wounds sustained in a duel defending his wife's honor against rumors of an affair.