1794 (MDCCXCIV) was a common year starting on Wednesday (dominical letter E) of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Sunday (dominical letter A) of the Julian calendar, the 1794th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 794th year of the 2nd millennium, the 94th year of the 18th century, and the 5th year of the 1790s decade. As of the start of 1794, the Gregorian calendar was 11 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.
February 4 – The French First Republic abolishes slavery.
February 11 – The first session of the United States Senate is open to the public.
March 11 – Canonsburg Academy (now Washington & Jefferson College) is chartered by the General Assembly.
March 12 – General Antoni Madaliński, a commander of the National Cavalry in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, disobeys an order from the ruling Russian Empire and Kingdom of Prussia imposing demobilization, advancing his troops from Ostrołęka to Kraków.
March 14 – Eli Whitney is granted a patent for the cotton gin.
March 24 – Tadeusz Kościuszko makes his proclamation starting the Kościuszko Uprising against the Russian Empire and Kingdom of Prussia in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Prussian Partition.
March 27 – The United States Government authorizes the building of the first six United States Navy vessels (in 1797 the first three frigates, United States, Constellation (1797) and Constitution go into service), not to be confused with October 13, 1775, which is observed as the Navy's Birthday.
April 4 – Battle of Racławice: Polish supporters of the Kościuszko Uprising defeat forces of the Russian Empire.
April 5 – French Revolution: Georges Danton is executed.
April 17–19 – Kościuszko Uprising – Warsaw Uprising: The Polish people overthrow the Russian garrison in Warsaw.
April 29–May 1 – Battle of Boulou: The French defeat the Spanish and Portuguese forces.
May 7 – French Revolution: Robespierre establishes the Cult of the Supreme Being as the new state religion of the French First Republic.
May 8 – French Revolution: Chemist Antoine Lavoisier is executed by guillotine.
May 18 – Battle of Tourcoing: French troops defeat British forces.
May 28–June 1 – The Glorious First of June (Battle of Ushant): British and French ships battle to a draw.
June 4 – British troops capture Port-au-Prince in Haiti.
June 17
The Anglo-Corsican Kingdom is established.
Battle of Mykonos: The British Royal Navy captures French frigate Sibylle.
June 26 – Battle of Fleurus: French forces defeat the Austrians and their allies, leading to permanent loss of the Austrian Netherlands and destruction of the Dutch Republic. French use of an observation balloon marks the first participation of an aircraft in battle.
July 12 – Horatio Nelson loses the sight in his right eye in a British military operation at Calvi in Corsica.
July 13–September 6 – Kościuszko Uprising – Siege of Warsaw: The Polish people resist a siege by armies of the Russian Empire and Kingdom of Prussia.
July 27 (9 Thermidor) – Thermidorian Reaction: Robespierre is arrested on the orders of the French National Convention; he is executed the next day, ending the French Revolution's Reign of Terror.
August 20 – Battle of Fallen Timbers in Northwestern Ohio.
August 29 – Stonyhurst College is finally established as a Roman Catholic school in Lancashire, England, having had several European locations.
September 10 – The University of Tennessee is established at Knoxville.
October – A Federal army quells the Whiskey Rebellion in the United States.
October 10 – Battle of Maciejowice: Forces of the Russian Empire defeat Polish supporters of the Kościuszko Uprising; Tadeusz Kościuszko is wounded and captured.
November 4 – Battle of Praga: Russian General Alexander Suvorov storms Warsaw in the war against the Polish Kościuszko Uprising and captures Praga, one of its suburbs, killing many civilians.
November 14 – The first recorded meeting of the Franklin Literary Society is held at Canonsburg Academy (modern-day Washington & Jefferson College).
November 19 – The United States and Great Britain conclude the Jay Treaty, the basis for ten years of peaceful trade between the two nations.
Coffee is forbidden by royal decree in Sweden.
France occupies Aachen.
The Ayrshire (Earl of Carrick's Own) Yeomanry, a British Yeomanry Cavalry Regiment, is formed by the Earl of Cassillis at Culzean Castle, Ayrshire.
Colombian Antonio Nariño translates and publishes the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
Britain agrees to evacuate border forts in the Northwest Territory (roughly the area north of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi) and thereby end British support for the Indians.
Bowdoin College is founded.
The Oban distillery is built.
January 7 – Eilhard Mitscherlich, German chemist (d. 1863)
February 11 – Charlotta Eriksson, Swedish actor (d. 1862)
February 20 – William Carleton, Irish novelist (d. 1869)
February 21 – Antonio López de Santa Anna, Mexican general and President of Mexico (d. 1876)
March 5 – Robert Cooper Grier, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1870)
April 10 – Matthew Calbraith Perry, American commodore (d. 1858)
April 11 – Edward Everett, American politician (d. 1865)
May 17 – Anna Brownell Jameson, British writer (d. 1860)
May 24 – William Whewell, English scientist, philosopher, and historian of science (d. 1866)
May 27 – Cornelius Vanderbilt, American entrepreneur (d. 1877)
June 16 – María Trinidad Sánchez, heroine of the Dominican War of Independence (d. 1846)
July 5 – Sylvester Graham, American nutritionist and inventor (d. 1851)
July 7 – Frances Stackhouse Acton, British botanist, archaeologist, writer and artist (d. 1881)
July 18 – Feargus O'Connor, Irish political radical and Chartist leader (d. 1855)
July 28 – Charles Longley, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1868)
September 24 – Jeanne Villepreux-Power, French marine biologist, (d. 1871)
November 3 – William Cullen Bryant, American poet (d. 1878)
November 10 – Robert Towns, merchant and founder of Townsville, Queensland, Australia (d. 1873)
Gustafva Lindskog, Swedish athlete (d. 1851)
Francesco Puccinotti, Italian pathologist (d. 1872)
Mirza Shafi Vazeh, Azeri poet (d. 1852)
January 4 – Nicolas Luckner, Marshal of France (executed) (b. 1722)
January 6 – Louis d'Elbée, French Revolutionary leader (executed) (b. 1752)
January 8 – Justus Möser, German statesman (b. 1720)
January 16 – Edward Gibbon, English historian (b. 1737)
January 28 – Henri de la Rochejaquelein, French Revolutionary leader (b. 1772)
January 31 – Mariot Arbuthnot, British admiral (b. 1711)
February 12 – Mahadaji Shinde, Maratha emperor of India (1764–1794)
March 24 – Jacques Hébert, French Revolutionary leader (executed) (b. 1757)
March 28 – Marquis de Condorcet, French mathematician, philosopher, and political scientist (died in prison) (b. 1743)
April 5
Georges Danton, French Revolutionary leader (executed) (b. 1759)
Camille Desmoulins, French Revolutionary leader (executed) (b. 1760)
Marie-Jean Hérault de Séchelles, French Revolutionary leader (executed) (b. 1759)
Fabre d'Églantine, French dramatist and revolutionary (executed) (b. 1750)
François Joseph Westermann, French Revolutionary leader and general (executed) (b. 1751)
April 13
Pierre Gaspard Chaumette, French Revolutionary leader (executed) (b. 1763)
Lucile Duplessis, wife of Camille Desmoulins (executed) (b. 1770)
April 18 – Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (b. 1714)
April 23 – Guillaume-Chrétien de Lamoignon de Malesherbes, French statesman (executed) (b. 1721)
April 27
James Bruce, Scottish explorer (b. 1730)
Sir William Jones, British philologist (b. 1746)
May 8 – Antoine Lavoisier, French chemist (executed) (b. 1743)
June 14 – Francis Seymour-Conway, 1st Marquess of Hertford, Viceroy of Ireland (b. 1718)
June 17 – Marguerite-Élie Guadet, French Revolutionary leader (executed) (b. 1753)
June 18
François Buzot, French Revolutionary leader (suicide) (b. 1760)
James Murray, British military officer and administrator
June 19 – Richard Henry Lee, 12th President of the Continental Congress (b. 1732)
June 27
Wenzel Anton, Prince of Kaunitz-Rietberg, Austrian statesman (b. 1711)
Philippe de Noailles, French soldier (executed) (b. 1715)
Victor de Broglie, French soldier (executed) (b. 1756)
July 13 – James Lind, pioneer of naval hygiene in the Royal Navy (b. 1716)
July 17 – John Roebuck, English inventor (b. 1718)
July 23 – Alexandre de Beauharnais, French politician and general (executed) (b. 1760)
July 25 – André Chénier, French writer (executed) (b. 1762)
July 28
Maximilien Robespierre, French Revolutionary leader (executed) (b. 1758)
Augustin Robespierre, French Revolutionary leader (executed) (b. 1763)
Louis Antoine de Saint-Just, French Revolutionary leader (executed) (b. 1767)
Jean-Baptiste de Lavalette, French general (executed) (b. 1753)
François Hanriot, French Revolutionary leader (executed) (b. 1761)
August 6 – Henry Bathurst, 2nd Earl Bathurst, British politician (b. 1714)
August 17 – Countess Palatine Elisabeth Auguste of Sulzbach, politically active Electress of Bavaria (b. 1721)
September 4 – John Hely-Hutchinson, Irish statesman (b. 1724)
September 15 – Abraham Clark, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1725)
September 16 – Hester Bateman, English silversmith (bap. 1708)
September 25 – Paul Rabaut, French Huguenot pastor (b. 1718)
October 21 – Francis Light, founder of the British colony of Penang (b. 1740)
November 3 – François-Joachim de Pierre de Bernis, French cardinal and statesman (b. 1715)
November 15 – John Witherspoon, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1723)
November 16 – Jean-Baptiste Carrier, French Revolutionary leader (executed) (b. 1756)
November 22 – John Alsop, American Continental Congressman (b. 1724)
November 28
Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, Prussian army officer (b. 1730)
Sir James Tylney-Long, 7th Baronet, English politician (b. 1736)
December 12 – Meshullam Feivush Heller, Hasidic author (b. c.1742)
In the graphic adventure game Day of the Tentacle, the character Hoagie is sent "200 years in the past" from 1994. He arrives in Revolutionary America during the writing of the Constitution of the United States.
