Year 1795: Fun Facts, Trivia, and History

This quick read presents a mix of fun facts, trivia, and history events from the year 1795. Discover the year’s top news stories, most influential people, historic firsts, U.S. economic data, entertainment trivia, and much more.

Take a journey through history in just minutes.

1. President of the United States: George Washington (Independent-Virginia)
2. Vice President: John Adams (Federalist Party-Massachusetts)
3. Chief Justice of the Supreme Court: John Jay (New York)—Until June 29, when he became the governor of New York on July 1
4. Chief Justice of the Supreme Court: John Rutledge (South Carolina)—Beginning on August 12
5. Speaker of the House of Representatives: Frederick Muhlenberg (Anti-administration-Pennsylvania)—Until March 4
6. Speaker of the House of Representatives: Jonathan Dayton (Federalist-New Jersey)—Beginning on December 7
7. In 1795, the third U.S. Congress was in session until March 4, when the fourth U.S. Congress convened. It met at Congress Hall, located at 6th and Chestnut Streets in Center City Philadelphia. The Senate “had a Federalist majority, and the House had a Democratic-Republican majority.”
8. Inflation rate: 14.55%
9. Consumer price index (CPI): 12.600
10. $100.00 in 1795 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $2,643.02 today. The U.S. dollar had “an average inflation rate of 1.43% per year” between 1795 and 2026, “producing a cumulative price increase of 2,543.02%.” In other words, a U.S. dollar today buys about 3.784% of what it could purchase back in 1795.
11. It’s worth noting that the U.S. dollar has lost 96% of its value since 1795.
12. In 1795, there were 15 U.S. states. In order of admission to the Union, they were Delaware (1787), Pennsylvania (1787), New Jersey (1787), Georgia (1788), Connecticut (1788), Massachusetts (1788), Maryland (1788), South Carolina (1788), New Hampshire (1788), Virginia (1788), New York (1788), North Carolina (1789), Rhode Island (1790), and Kentucky (1792).
13. American companies established in 1795 included the Connecticut Land Company (a post-colonial land speculation company).
14. On February 8, Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge, a German chemist, was born. He developed a method for “extracting crystallizable sugar from beet juice.”
15. On January 15, the University of North Carolina—the first “public institution of higher education” in the United States—opened its doors to students. On February 12, the University of North Carolina’s first student, Hinton James, arrived on the Chapel Hill campus to begin classes. He was the only student for two weeks.
16. On July 1, John Rutledge became the second chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
17. On July 9, Scottish-born American patriot and financier James Swan paid off “the entire United States national debt owed to France, which totaled $2,024,899.” (It’s worth noting that $2,024,899 in 1795 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $53,517,800.20 today.)
18. On August 3, the United States and Northwest Indian Federation, a confederacy of tribal nations from the eastern Great Lakes region, signed the Treaty of Greenville, “pausing two decades of hostility over territory disputes.” The Northwest Indian Federation, composed of Delaware, Iroquois, Miami, Ojibwa, Ottawa, and Shawnee nations, had formed “to collectively defend its member nations’ ancestral lands from being overtaken—often violently—by European settlers moving westward since the American Revolutionary War.”
19. On August 14, President George Washington signed the Jay Treaty with Great Britain. The treaty “attempted to diffuse the tensions between England and the United States” that had manifested since the end of the Revolutionary War.
20. On August 24, the Reverend Samuel Henshall of England received a patent for a corkscrew.
21. On September 1, twenty-one Harvard students gathered in a dormitory room “to form the Hasty Pudding Club to cultivate friendship and patriotism. Members agreed to take turns providing a pot of hasty pudding for every meeting. This humble beginning evolved into the renowned Hasty Pudding Institute of 1770.”
22. On November 25, future U.S. President William Henry Harrison married Anna Symmes in North Bend, Ohio.
23. On December 14, John Bloomfield Jarvis was born in Huntington, New York. He was a civil engineer who designed the Boston Aqueduct and “the 41-mile-long Croton Aqueduct, which supplied New York City's water for over 50 years starting in 1842.”
24. On December 19, Kentucky became the first state to appropriate money for road building.
25. Key fiction books published in 1795 included Dorothy Kilner’s The Village School and Richard Cumberland’s Henry.
26. English poet William Blake published his prophetic books—The Book of Ahania and The Song of Los.
27. Famous people born in 1795 were James K. Polk (a U.S. president), John Keats (a poet), and Rowland Hill (an entrepreneur).
28. Famous people who died in 1795 included Jacob Philadelphia (a magician), James Boswell (a novelist), and Josiah Wedgwood (an entrepreneur and activist).
29. In 1795 as well, the words “centralize,” “depot,” “dry rot,” “exclamation point,” “exploitation,” “financially,” “fried rice,” “IOU,” “italicize,” “mantra,” “message board,” “morgue,” “placement,” “prime mover,” “soybean,” “spontaneous combustion,” “terrorism,” “three-decker,” and “Virginia ham” all appeared in print for the first time.
30. Beef: $2.00 to $3.00 per 100 pounds
31. Butter: 12 to 15 cents a pound
32. Chickens: 12 cents each
33. Coffee: 25 cents to 33 cents per pound
34. Corn: 50 cents per bushel
35. Flour: $5.00 per barrel
36. Milk: Eight cents a quart
37. Oats: 33 cents per bushel
38. Salt Pork: Eight cents per pound
39. Turkeys: 50 cents each
40. Wheat: $1.00 to $1.25 per bushel

References:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1795_in_the_United_States
2. https://www.officialdata.org/us/inflation/1795
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:American_companies_established_in_1795
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1795_in_literature
5. https://www.famousbirthdays.com/year/1795.html
6. https://www.famousbirthdays.com/deceased/1795.html
7. https://www.merriam-webster.com/time-traveler/1795
8. https://www.foodreference.com/html/html/food-timeline-1795-1799.html
9. https://www.history.com/a-year-in-history/1795
10. https://www.onthisday.com/events/date/1795

Disclaimer: In writing and editing this article, Gregory DeVictor has made every effort to ensure historical accuracy and not to mislead his audience. In addition, the contents of this article, including text, graphics, and captions, are for general informational purposes only.

© 2026 Gregory DeVictor