| 1730–1807 | UK [newspapers] | The Daily Advertiser is launched in London, England. With its dependence on advertisements, this may be regarded as the first modern newspaper. |
| 1795–1796 | Germany [fiction] | The German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe publishes Wilhelm Meister's Lehrjahre/Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, a novel charting a young man's journey to emotional and intellectual maturity. |
| 1796 | England [fiction] | The English writer Matthew ‘Monk’ Lewis publishes his Gothic horror novel, The Monk. |
| 1796 | France [astronomy] | French mathematician and physicist Pierre-Simon Laplace publishes Exposition du système du monde/Account of the System of the World, in which he enunciates the ‘nebular hypothesis’ which forms the basis of modern theory, proposing that the Solar System formed from a cloud of gas. |
| 1796 | France [political theory] | The French royalist diplomat Joseph de Maistre publishes Considérations sur la France/Thoughts on France. A fervent opponent of the French Revolution, de Maistre is the most eloquent critic of 18th-century rationalism. |
| 1796 | England [medicine] | English physician Edward Jenner performs the first vaccination against smallpox. |
| 15 May 1796 | France, Sardinia, Savoy [French Revolutionary Wars (1792–1801)] | The Italian kingdom of Sardinia signs the Peace of Cherasco with France, ceding Savoy and Nice to France. |
| 16 May 1796 | France, Italy [administration] | The northern Italian region of Lombardy is declared a republic, under French rule. |
| 31 July 1796 | Scotland [births and deaths] | Robert Burns, national poet of Scotland, dies in Dumfries, Scotland (37). |
| 19 August 1796 | France, Spain, UK [French Revolutionary Wars (1792–1801)] | An alliance is signed at San Ildefonso, Spain, between France and Spain against Britain. It is virtually a renewal of the 1761 Family Compact between the Bourbon rulers of the two countries. |
| 5 October 1796 | Spain, UK [French Revolutionary Wars (1792–1801)] | Spain declares war on Britain. |
| 17 November 1796 | Russia [births and deaths] | Catherine the Great, German-born empress of Russia 1762–96 who brings Russia into the political and cultural life of Europe, dies in Tsarskoye Selo, near St Petersburg, Russia (67). |
| 17 November 1796 | Russia [political events] | Paul I becomes emperor of Russia on the death of his mother, Catherine II the Great. |
| 7 December 1796 | USA [elections] | John Adams defeats Thomas Jefferson in the US presidential election by three electoral votes to become the second president of the USA. Jefferson is elected vice-president. |
