1792 in France

March

• 25 March – The Legislative Assembly agrees that the guillotine should be used for judicial executions.

April

• 20 April – The Legislative Assembly declares war against Austria, starting the French Revolutionary Wars and War of the First Coalition.
• 25 April
  • Highwayman Nicolas Pelletier becomes the first person executed by guillotine in France, in what becomes the Place de l'Hôtel de Ville in Paris.
  • La Marseillaise, the French national anthem, is composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in Strasbourg.

June

• 13 June – Prussia declares war against France.
• 20 June – Demonstration of 20 June 1792.

August

• 10 August – French Revolution: Insurrection of 10 August 1792 – The Tuileries Palace is stormed and Louis XVI is arrested and taken into custody.
• 20 August – War of the First Coalition: Battle of Verdun – Prussia defeats France, opening a route to Paris.^[3]
• 21 August – Royalist Louis Collenot d'Angremont becomes the first person executed by guillotine for political reasons, in the Place du Carrousel in Paris.

September

• 2–19 September – 1792 French National Convention election.
• 2–7 September – French Revolution: September Massacres – Rampaging mobs in Paris slaughter three Roman Catholic bishops and more than 200 priests, together with at least 1,000 criminals.
• 9 September – 9 September massacres at Versailles.
• 11 September – Six men steal some of the former French Crown Jewels from a warehouse, where the revolutionary government has stored them.
• 14 September – Radical antimonarchist Thomas Paine flees from England to France, after being indicted for treason. He is tried in absentia during December and outlawed.^[4]
• 20 September – French Revolutionary Wars: Battle of Valmy – The French revolutionary army defeats the Prussians under the Duke of Brunswick after a 7-hour artillery duel.

• 21 September – French Revolution: A Proclamation of the abolition of the monarchy by the French Convention goes into effect, and the French First Republic is established, effective the following day.
• 22 September – French Revolution: The Era of the historical French Republican Calendar begins.

November

• 6 November – War of the First Coalition: Battle of Jemappes – Austrian armies under the command of Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen are defeated in Belgium (at this time part of the Austrian Netherlands) by the French Army led by General Charles François Dumouriez.^[5]
• 19 November – The National Convention passes a resolution pledging French support for the overthrow of the governments of other nations.^[6]

December

• 26 December – The trial of Louis XVI begins.

Ongoing

• French Revolution
• French Revolutionary Wars
• War of the First Coalition

Full date unknown

• Claude Chappe successfully demonstrates the first semaphore line, between Paris and Lille.
• Barthélemy Catherine Joubert, future general, becomes sub-lieutenant.