1797

1797 (MDCCXCVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar, the 1797th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 797th year of the 2nd millennium, the 97th year of the 18th century, and the 8th year of the 1790s decade. As of the start of 1797, the Gregorian calendar was 11 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.

Events

January–March

January 3 – The Treaty of Tripoli, a peace treaty between the United States and Ottoman Tripolitania, is signed at Algiers (see also 1796).

January 7 – The parliament of the Cisalpine Republic adopts the Italian green-white-red tricolour as their official flag (this is considered the birth of the flag of Italy).

January 13 – Action of 13 January 1797, part of the War of the First Coalition: Two British Royal Navy frigates, HMS Indefatigable and HMS Amazon, drive the French 74-gun ship of the line Droits de l'Homme aground on the coast of Brittany, resulting in over 900 deaths.

January 14 – War of the First Coalition – Battle of Rivoli: French forces under General Napoleon Bonaparte defeat an Austrian army of 28,000 men, under Feldzeugmeister József Alvinczi, near Rivoli (modern-day Italy), ending Austria's fourth and final attempt to relieve the fortress city of Mantua.

January 15–16 – War of the First Coalition – Battle of La Favorita: French forces (28,000 men) under Napoleon Bonaparte stop the Austrian push to relieve Mantua. The garrison under Field Marshal Dagobert von Wurmser is deprived of food and reinforcements. The next day, Napoleon orders the city to be surrounded and sends French troops under General Pierre Augereau to blockade the approaches from Legnago.

January 26 – The Treaty of the Third Partition of Poland is signed in St.