•
January 1 • The
Daily Universal Register (later
The Times) is first published, in London. • The Paris theatre company
Théâtre des Variétés-Amusantes moves to a temporary new building in the gardens of the Palais-Royal. •
February 2 –
Sarah Siddons makes her London debut in her most famous rôle,
Lady Macbeth, at the
Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. • February – The English heiress
Mary Bowes escapes from her husband,
Andrew Robinson Stoney, and begins divorce proceedings. •
April 14 – After today's death of the English poet
William Whitehead in London,
Thomas Warton succeeds him as
Poet Laureate of Great Britain,
William Mason having refused the post. •
May 22 –
Robert Burns' first child, Elizabeth ("
Dear-bought Bess"), is born to his mother's servant,
Elizabeth Paton. •
June 23 – The
Litvak rabbi and writer
Aryeh Leib ben Asher Gunzberg dies at
Metz in France after a book-case topples on him, according to tradition. •
November 28 – The
Marquis de Sade finishes writing
The 120 Days of Sodom (Les 120 Journées de Sodome) while imprisoned in the
Bastille; it will not be published until
1904. •
unknown date •
Giacomo Casanova is appointed librarian to Count Joseph Karl
von Waldstein at the
Duchcov Château in
Bohemia. • A new building for the Prussian
Royal Library is completed in
Berlin. ==New books==