1780

Events in 1780 6

• 1780 – 1844 Charles Nodier (1780-1844) Died 27 January 1844, aged 63 French writer and librarian at the Arsenal library, where he held a salon for young writers. He was an important early figure of French Romanticism and wrote fantastic tales.
• 1780 – 1845 Elizabeth Fry (1780-1845) Died 12 October 1845, aged 65 Elizabeth Fry was an English Quaker prison reformer who campaigned for humane treatment of women prisoners, beginning at Newgate. She also worked for the homeless and founded a training school for nurses. From 2001 to 2016 her portrait appeared on the Bank of England five-pound note.
• 1780 – 1800 Galvani and Volta — animal electricity and the battery Electricity in living things, and electricity from chemistry Luigi Galvani discovered in 1780 that electric current causes muscle contraction in frogs, suggesting electricity is fundamental to living things. Alessandro Volta's voltaic pile (1800) — the first battery — showed that electricity could be generated chemically without biological tissue. Volta's invention provided the first sustained source of electric current and launched all subsequent electrical and electrochemical science.
• 1780 – 1867 Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867) Died 14 January 1867, aged 86 Ingres was a leading French Neoclassical painter known for precise draftsmanship and portraits, including La Grande Odalisque and Napoleon on his Imperial Throne. He championed classical line and form against the emerging Romantic movement. His influence extended to later artists including Degas and Picasso.
• 1780 – 1857 Pierre-Jean de Beranger (1780-1857) Died 16 July 1857, aged 76 Beranger was a French poet and songwriter whose satirical and patriotic verses made him one of the most popular writers in France during the early nineteenth century. His songs circulated widely among ordinary French readers and were seen as an influence on republican sentiment. He was given a state funeral attended by large crowds in Paris.
• 1780 – 1842 William Ellery Channing (1780-1842) Died 2 October 1842, aged 62 American preacher William Ellery Channing was the leading voice of Unitarianism in the United States. His thought influenced the Transcendentalist movement, and he wrote against slavery.