Famous People Who Died In 1799

America’s first president, George Washington led the country with integrity, firmness and prudence that made him one of the greatest presidents in American history. He became a national hero before assuming presidency, when he led the Continental Army to victory against the British during the American Revolution.

A significant figure of the American Revolution, Patrick Henry was the first governor of post-colonial Virginia. A skilled orator, he is remembered for his iconic words “Give me liberty or give me death!” He excelled as a lawyer and gained fame with his win in the Parson's Cause.

Italian mathematician Maria Gaetana Agnesi, daughter of an affluent silk trader, was well-versed in a number of languages as a child. Most of her work was regarding algebra, calculus, and the Witch of Agnesi. She was also the first female academic to write a math book and to teach math.

Joseph Black was an 18th-century Scottish physicist and chemist. He is remembered for his discoveries of magnesium, specific heat, latent heat, and carbon dioxide. He spent several years of his career as a professor of medicine and chemistry at the University of Edinburgh. In 1783, he became one of the founders of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 

The man who discovered photosynthesis, Jan Ingenhousz was born in the Netherlands but later settled in England. He is also remembered for his pioneering research on thermal conduction and the prevention of smallpox and even successfully inoculated the Habsburg family against smallpox. He was also Maria Theresa’s personal doctor.

Lazzaro Spallanzani was an Italian physiologist, biologist, and Catholic priest. He is best remembered for making significant contributions to the study of animal reproduction, bodily functions, and animal echolocation. Lazzaro Spallanzani's research on biogenesis was the first step towards debunking the theory of spontaneous generation.

Étienne-Louis Boullée was a French architect and visionary whose work continues to have a massive impact on the works of contemporary architects. A highly respected architect during his time, Boullée served as the chief architect under Frederick II of Prussia. Étienne-Louis Boullée is widely regarded as one of the most influential and prominent personalities of French neoclassical architecture. 

Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais was a French polymath who had worked as a watchmaker, playwright, musician, financier, and diplomat. He was also an inventor and revolutionary. He was much respected in French society and held influence in the court of King Louis XV. He supported American independence and actively participated in the early stages of the 1789 French Revolution. 

Born to a surgeon, William Withering followed in his father’s footsteps to become a physician, though he also had immense knowledge of botany, geology, and chemistry. He not only treated edema, or dropsy, with the help of the foxglove plant but also studied scarlet fever and suggested rum as a medical substitute.

Apart from being a geologist and physicist, Horace Bénédict de Saussure was also a skilled mountaineer and Alpine explorer. Initially a professor of philosophy and physics, he later became one of the earliest user of the word geology. Of his many inventions, the most prominent was his version of the hygrometer.

Johann Hedwig was a German botanist best remembered for his studies of mosses. Referred to as the father of bryology, Hedwig is known in particular for his study of sexual reproduction in the cryptogams. Johann Hedwig is also known as the father of another famous botanist Romanus Adolf Hedwig.

Born in Eisenstadt, Kingdom of Hungary, Isaiah Berlin grew up to become a businessman-turned-rabbi. The German Talmudist was hugely popular, even among people who didn’t subscribe to his religious beliefs, such as members of the Jewish Enlightenment movement. He also had a peculiar habit of annotating every book he read.

James Burnett, Lord Monboddo was a Scottish philosopher, judge, deist, and scholar of linguistic evolution. Best remembered for contributing to the development of the concepts of biological evolution, James Burnett is often credited with theorizing the idea of natural selection. His theories were read and acknowledged by Erasmus Darwin, whose works were in turn read by his grandson Charles Darwin.

Jean-François Marmontel was a French historian and writer. He was a prominent member of the Encyclopédistes movement. He studied with the Jesuits at Mauriac and taught in their colleges. He began a literary career at the advice of Voltaire and wrote a series of tragedies, including Cleopâtre and Heraclides. He was a member of Les Neuf Sœurs, a masonic lodge.