The 26-year-old Napoleon Bonaparte comes to public attention for his part in saving the Convention in Paris from an assault by rebels

Napoleon marries Josephine de Beauharnais, widow of Alexandre de Beauharnais, guillotined in 1794

In the armistice of Cherasco the king of Sardinia cedes to France his territories of Savoy and Nice

French astronomer Pierre-Simon Laplace publishes his nebular hypothesis, arguing that the planets formed from a mass of incandescent gas

US author Joel Barlow publishes his mock-heroic poem The Hasty Pudding, inspired by a dish eaten in 1793 in France

Irish nationalist Wolfe Tone sails from France to invade Ireland with a force of 14,000 French soldiers

On 18 Fructidor (September 4) Napoleon organizes, from a distance, a coup d'étât in Paris on behalf of three of the Directors

Pope Pius VI is seized by a French army in Rome and is taken off to captivity in France

Napoleon achieves the peace of Campo Formio, by which Austria cedes the Austrian Netherlands and northern Italy to France

The US public is outraged by news of the XYZ Affair, in which the French ask for bribes before being willing to negotiate a treaty

Controversial Alien and Sedition Acts are passed by the US Congress as emergency measures in response to the perceived threat of war with France

British prime minister William Pitt introduces income tax at 10% to pay for the war against France

Napoleon abandons his army in Egypt and returns hastily to Paris at a time of great political opportunity

Napoleon contrives a military coup that ends the Directory and gives him sweeping powers as First Consul

Napoleon appoints a commission to prepare a code of civil law, which becomes known as the Code Napoléon

Napoleon takes a French army through the Alps before the snows have cleared, and defeats the Austrians at Marengo

Napoleon mends France's fences with Roman Catholicism by agreeing a Concordat with Pope Pius VII

Both France and Britain, engaged against each other in the Napoleonic Wars, take the first census of their populations

A powerful French force arrives in Saint-Domingue and recovers control of the colony, offering generous terms to the native leaders

Bonaparte Crossing the Alps (in 1800) is the first of several paintings by Jacques-Louis David celebrating the future emperor

Toussaint L'Ouverture is treacherously arrested and sent to France, where he dies in prison

The treaty agreed at Amiens between France and Britain brings a welcome lull after ten years of warfare in Europe

Josephine's daughter, Hortense de Beauharnais, marries Napoleon's brother Louis Bonaparte

The Constitution of the Year XII (the twelfth year of the French Revolutionary Calendar) makes Napoleon First Consul for life

The peace of Amiens comes to an abrupt end when Britain declares war again on France