24 March — in the Mikhailovsky Castle, as a result of a palace coup, Emperor Paul I was killed. The conspiracy involved Agramakov; N. P. Panin, Vice-Chancellor; L. L. Bennigsen; P. A. Zubov (a favorite of Catherine), commander of the Izyum Light Cavalry Regiment; Pahlen, Governor-General of St. Petersburg; and the commanders of the Guards regiments: the Semyonovsky Regiment — N. I. Depreradovich, the Cavalier Guard Regiment — F. P. Uvarov, the Preobrazhensky Regiment — P. A. Talyzin; and, according to some accounts, the Emperor’s aide-de-camp, Count Pyotr Vasilyevich Golenishchev-Kutuzov. According to one version, Paul was killed by Nikolai Zubov (Suvorov’s son-in-law, elder brother of Platon Zubov), who struck him with a golden snuffbox (a joke later circulated at court: “The Emperor died of an apoplectic stroke from a snuffbox to the temple”). According to another version, Paul was strangled with a scarf or crushed by a group of conspirators who, piling onto the Emperor and onto one another, did not know exactly what was happening. Mistaking one of the killers for his son Konstantin, he cried out: “Your Highness, and you are here? Have mercy! Air, air!.. What wrong have I done to you?” These were his last words.
Emperor Alexander I ascended the Russian throne.
14 April — Emperor Alexander I abolished the Secret Expedition attached to the Senate and abolished torture during interrogations.
27 November — at the age of 71, Darya Saltykova died, having spent more than 30 years in confinement.
1 January — the first asteroid, Ceres, was discovered by the astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi of Palermo. In 2006 it was classified as a dwarf planet.
26 August — Philippe Lebon patents a two-stroke internal combustion engine.