Jacob Schweppe begins the first carbonated beverages company in Geneva.

Virginia ratifies the Bill of Rights, making the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution law on December 15, 1791.

Donatien Alphonse François de Sade, the Marquis de Sade, writes Justine, a novel that explores sadism, the obtaining of sexual gratification by inflicting pain on another.

Prussian architect Carl Gotthard Langhaus completes Berlin's Brandenburg Gate.

In 1792, Denmark becomes the first country to abandon the practice of trading slaves.

Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin, a machine that will revolutionize the economies of Great Britain and the United States.

On January 21, 1793, Louis XVI of France is beheaded by guillotine in the Place de la Revolution, today known as the Place de la Concorde.

The Louvre Palace is opened to the public as an art museum.

During the Thermidorian Reaction, Maximilien Robespierre and many of his sympathizers are sent to the guillotine.

In 1794, the French Legislative Assembly liberates all slaves in French colonies, making France the first country to free her slaves.

After James Lind proves that citrus juice can be used to combat scurvy, Britain's Royal Navy orders a lime-juice ration aboard all its vessels in 1795.

In 1796, Robert Burns writes My Love Is Like a Red Rose and Auld Lang Syne (Should auld acquaintance be forgot/And never brought to mind?/ Should auld acquaintance be forgot /And auld lang syne?).

Cuban cigar makers make little cigars, or cigarettes, using wrappers derived from cotton in 1797.

At Dundee in Scotland, James Keller creates the first commercial orange marmalade.

Right, Left, and Center enter the political lexicon as France's Council of 500 seat themselves according to political alignment-the most radical sitting to the left of the semi-circular assembly hall.

Eli Whitney creates the American system of mass-producing parts by means of jigs-metal patterns that will guide machine tools to make exact replicas of any part.

Bavarian printer Aloys Senefelder develops lithography. Based on the incompatibility of grease and water, grease-treated printing areas permit ink from a grease base to be deposited on a page, while damp areas reject the ink.

In 1798, a French army captain discovers the Rosetta Stone. The stone is a block of polished basalt with an inscription in Greek characters, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and demotic script.

The English chemist Humphry Davy creates nitrous oxide, or laughing gas.

Edward Jenner creates a vaccine for smallpox, based on the lymph from cowpox.