Famous People Who Died In 1793

Merchant and statesman, John Hancock, served as the president of the Second Continental Congress and was the first to sign the Declaration of Independence in 1776, owing to this position. A rich man, he used his wealth to support the colonial cause during the American Revolution. He also used his influence to ratify the United States Constitution in 1788.

Charlotte Corday was an important figure of the French Revolution. She is remembered for murdering Jacobin leader Jean-Paul Marat, for which she was executed by guillotine. Her action changed the political position and role of women at the time. She was also considered a hero by those who opposed the teachings of Jean-Paul Marat.

French political theorist, scientist, and physician Jean-Paul Marat was a key figure of the French Revolution. He published his radical views in pamphlets and newspapers, such as L'Ami du people. He was held responsible for the September massacres. His assassination by a Girondin supporter made him a Jacobin martyr.

Olympe de Gouges was an 18th-century French playwright and political activist. Her writings on women's rights and abolitionism were popular in various countries. She was an outspoken advocate against the slave trade in the French colonies. She demanded that French women be given the same rights as French men. She was executed during the Reign of Terror.

Carlo Goldoni was an Italian librettist and playwright from the Republic of Venice. He is credited with producing some of Italy's best-loved and most famous plays. His plays are often admired for their ingenious mix of honesty and wit. One of his most famous works, Servant of Two Masters, has been translated into many languages.

John Hunter was a Scottish surgeon remembered for his efforts to study the human anatomy through investigation and experimentation. An early advocate of scientific method in medicine, Hunter was considered one of the most prominent surgeons of his generation. He is also remembered for paying for the body of Charles Byrne and displaying the skeletal remains in his Hunterian Museum.

Eliza Lucas was an agronomist who redefined agriculture in colonial South Carolina by developing indigo as one of the region's most prominent cash crops. The processing of indigo as dye influenced the colony's economy greatly before the Revolutionary War. She was the first woman to be be inducted into the South Carolina's Business Hall of Fame in the 20th century.

Louis XVI of France reigned as the last king of France from 1774 to 1792 before the French Revolution, which ended the monarchy in France. During his reign, Louis made attempts to remove land and labor tax, abolish serfdom, and improve tolerance toward non-Catholics. However, the proposed reforms were opposed by the French nobility.

Swedish painter Alexander Roslin is best remembered for his detailed depiction of jewelry and clothes in his portraits of the elite. While his paintings are mostly of the Rococo style, they also showcase Classicist features. The Lady with the Veil remains one of his best-known works.

Giuseppe Sanmartino is best remembered for his stunning marble work Veiled Christ, a depiction of a deceased Christ under a shroud, that was left incomplete by Antonio Corradini. The statue earned him further commissions from Bourbons and various Neapolitan churches. He also worked on silver sculptures in his final days.

The wife of Jean-Marie Roland, Madame Roland was a leading French revolutionary and often hosted significant political meets at her salon. She often directed her husband’s political actions and was responsible for creating a rift between the Jacobin and Girondin factions. She was later arrested and guillotined.

Jacques Pierre Brissot was a French journalist and publisher. He was one of the most important members of the Girondins, who played a prominent role during the French Revolution. Brissot is also credited with founding the Society of the Friends of the Blacks, an abolitionist society, which aimed at abolishing the institution of slavery.

British jurist William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield is remembered for his significant contribution to the English commercial law. He had been the chief justice of the King’s Bench. Though he brough in new reforms in areas of finance, he mostly avoided dealing with issues such as slavery.

A major figure of the French Revolution, Jean Sylvain Bailly is remembered for leading the Tennis Court Oath. He also made a name for himself as an astronomer and studied the Halley’s Comet and the satellites of Jupiter extensively. As a mayor of Paris, he later defended Marie-Antoinette and was guillotined.

Colin Macfarquhar was a Scottish printer and bookseller best remembered for co-founding Encyclopædia Britannica, which was first published in 1768. After acquiring the status of a master printer, Macfarquhar went on to open a printing shop in Edinburgh and the first edition of Encyclopædia Britannica was sold at his shop. Colin Macfarquhar also contributed to Britannica's second and third editions.

Best known for his seven-part magnum opus Erdbeschreibung, German geographer Anton Friedrich Büsching stressed on the statistical study of geography, as opposed to the traditional descriptive study. Ill-treated by his father in childhood, he was taught for free by a clergyman, and grew up to devote himself to geographical science.

Yechezkel Landau was a Polish religious leader and an influential authority in halakha. He is best remembered for his work Noda Biyhudah, which serves as a major source of halakha or Jewish law from his time. A highly respected figure, Yechezkel Landau also had a say in political affairs, particularly when the government introduced anti-Semitic measures.