1792 in France

Events from the year 1792 in France.

Incumbents

 * Monarch: Louis XVI (until 21 September; monarchy abolished)
 * The Legislative Assembly (until 21 September)
 * The National Convention (from 21 September)

March

 * 25 March – The Legislative Assembly agrees that the guillotine should be used for judicial executions.

April

 * 20 April – The Legislative Assembly declares war against Austria, starting the French Revolutionary Wars and War of the First Coalition.
 * 25 April
 * Highwayman Nicolas Pelletier becomes the first person executed by guillotine in France, in what becomes the Place de l'Hôtel de Ville in Paris.
 * La Marseillaise, the French national anthem, is composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in Strasbourg.

June

 * 13 June – Prussia declares war against France.
 * 20 June – Demonstration of 20 June 1792.

August

 * 10 August – French Revolution: Insurrection of 10 August 1792 – The Tuileries Palace is stormed and Louis XVI of France is arrested and taken into custody.
 * 20 August – War of the First Coalition: Battle of Verdun – Prussia defeats France, opening a route to Paris.
 * 21 August – Royalist Louis Collenot d'Angremont becomes the first person executed by guillotine for political reasons, in the Place du Carrousel in Paris.

September

 * 2–19 September – 1792 French National Convention election.
 * 2–7 September – French Revolution: September Massacres – Rampaging mobs in Paris slaughter three Roman Catholic bishops and more than 200 priests, together with at least 1,000 criminals.
 * 9 September – 9 September massacres at Versailles.
 * 11 September – Six men steal some of the former French Crown Jewels from a warehouse, where the revolutionary government has stored them.
 * 14 September – Radical antimonarchist Thomas Paine flees from England to France, after being indicted for treason. He is tried in absentia during December and outlawed.
 * 20 September – French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Valmy – The French revolutionary army defeats the Prussians under the Duke of Brunswick after a 7-hour artillery duel.
 * 21 September – French Revolution: A Proclamation of the abolition of the monarchy by the French Convention goes into effect, and the French First Republic is established, effective the following day.
 * 22 September – French Revolution: The Era of the historical French Republican Calendar begins.

November

 * 6 November – War of the First Coalition: Battle of Jemappes – Austrian armies under the command of Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen are defeated in Belgium (at this time part of the Austrian Netherlands) by the French Army led by General Charles François Dumouriez.
 * 19 November – The National Convention passes a resolution pledging French support for the overthrow of the governments of other nations.

December

 * 26 December – The trial of Louis XVI of France begins.

Ongoing

 * French Revolution
 * French Revolutionary Wars
 * War of the First Coalition

Full date unknown

 * Claude Chappe successfully demonstrates the first semaphore line, between Paris and Lille.
 * Barthélemy Catherine Joubert, future general, becomes sub-lieutenant.

Births

 * 21 May – Gaspard-Gustave Coriolis, engineer, scientist
 * 1 August – Pierre Solomon Ségalas d'Etchépare, physician
 * 9 August – Charles-François Lebœuf, sculptor
 * 25 August – Jean-Baptiste Duvergier, lawyer
 * 28 November – Victor Cousin, philosopher

Deaths

 * 1 March – Jean Godin des Odonais, cartographer and naturalist
 * 12 May – Charles Simon Favart, dramatist
 * 29 July – René Nicolas Charles Augustin de Maupeou, Chancellor of France
 * 23 August – Arnaud II de La Porte, statesman (executed)
 * 25 August – Jacques Cazotte, writer (executed)
 * 3 September – Marie Thérèse Louise of Savoy, Princesse de Lamballe, princess, courtier to Marie Antoinette (killed in September Massacres)
 * 8 September – Charles d'Abancour, statesman (killed in September Massacres)
 * 22 October – Guillaume Le Gentil, astronomer
 * 7 December – Marie Jeanne Riccoboni, novelist
 * Full date unknown – Nicholas Adam, grammarian