Events in History
- Jan 1 Official reopening of the White House
Historic Publication
Jan 1 Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus" is published anonymously by the small London publishing house of Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones
Mary Shelley
Event of Interest
Jan 2 Lord Byron completes "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" (4th canto)
Lord Byron
Event of Interest
Jan 30 John Keats composes his sonnet "When I Have Fears"
John Keats
Victory in Battle
Mar 16 Second Battle of Cancha Rayada - Spanish forces defeat Chileans under José de San Martín
José de San Martín
- Mar 18 US Congress approves 1st pensions for government service
- Apr 4 Congress decides on the US flag: 13 red & white stripes & 20 stars
- Apr 5 In the Battle of Maipú, Chile's independence movement - led by Bernardo O'Higgins and José de San Martín - win a decisive victory over Spain, leaving 2,000 Spaniards and 1,000 Chilean patriots dead.
Victory in Battle
Apr 7 General Andrew Jackson conquers St Marks, Florida from Seminole indians
Andrew Jackson
Event of Interest
Apr 20 Napoleon Bonaparte bids emotional farewell to his old guard at Palace of Fontainebleau
Napoléon Bonaparte
- Apr 21 Franz Grillparzer's "Sappho" premieres in Vienna
Event of Interest
Apr 28 US President James Monroe proclaims naval disarmament on Great Lakes and Lake Champlain
James Monroe
- May 4 Netherlands & Britain sign treaty against illegal slave handling
- May 24 General Andrew Jackson captures Pensacola, Florida
- May 28 Walk-in-the-Water, 1st steam vessel to sail Lake Erie launched
- Jun 3 Maratha Wars between British and Maratha Confederacy in India ends
- Jul 11 English poet John Keats writes "In the Cottage Where Burns is Born", "Lines Written in the Highlands", and "Gadfly"
- Sep 7 Carl III of Sweden-Norway is crowned king of Norway, in Trondheim
- Sep 23 Border demarcation markers for Moresnet formally installed.
- Sep 30 Congress of Aken: Russia, Austria, Prussia, France & England
- Oct 9 Congress of Aken returns to France from Libya
- Oct 19 US Government and Chickasaw Indians sign a treaty
- Oct 20 49th parallel forms as border between US & Canada
- Oct 20 US and Britain agree to joint control of Oregon country
- Nov 21 Russia's Tsar Alexander I petitions for a Jewish state in Palestine
- Dec 3 Illinois becomes 21st state USA (Admission day)
- Dec 25 1st known Christmas carol ("Silent Night, Holy Night" - "Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht) sung (Austria)
- Dec 25 Handel's Messiah, premieres in the US in Boston, performed by The Handel & Haydn Society
Birthdays in History
- Jan 11 John Reese Kenly, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Baltimore, Maryland (d. 1891)
- Jan 14 Zacharias Topelius, Finnish historical novelist (Surgeon's Stories), born in Nykarleby, Finland (d. 1898)
- Jan 17 Antoine Dorion, (L) joint premier of Canada (1858, 1863-64)
- Jan 18 Johannes van Vloten, Dutch literary/theologist
- Jan 28 George Sewall Boutwell, MC (Union), (d. 1905)
- Jan 31 William Raine Peck, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1871)
- Feb 6 William Maxwell Evarts, American lawyer & statesman (Union), born in Charlestown, Massachusetts (d. 1901)
- Feb 8 Austin Blair, Gov/MC (Union), (d. 1894)
- Feb 10 Isham Green Harris, Gov (Confederacy), (d. 1897)
- Feb 12 Otto Ludwig, German writer (Die Heiterethei)
Frederick Douglass
Feb 14 Frederick Douglass, African-American abolitionist, lecturer and editor who was also an escaped slave (exact birth year unknown), born in Talbot County, Maryland (d. 1895)
Frederick Douglass
- Feb 23 Jeremy F Gilmer, Maj Gen/Chief Engineer Confederate War Dept
- Mar 6 William Claflin, 27th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1905)
- Mar 10 George Wythe Randolph, American Secretary of War for the Confederacy, born in Charlottesville, Virginia (d. 1867)
- Mar 11 John Wilkins Whitfield, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Franklin, Tennessee (d. 1879)
- Mar 12 John Lorimar Worden, Capt (Union Navy), (d. 1897)
- Mar 13 Albion Parris Howe, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Standish, Maine (d. 1897)
- Mar 15 Mariano Álvarez, Filipino general (d. 1924)
- Mar 22 John Ainsworth Horrocks, English-born explorer of South Australia (d. 1846)
- Mar 23 Don Carlos Buell, American Major General (Union Army), born in Lowell, Ohio (d. 1898)
- Mar 25 Isaac Ingalls Stevens, American Major General (Union Army), born in North Andover, Massachusetts (d. 1862)
- Mar 28 Wade Hampton, American politician, Lt Gen (Confederate Army), born in Charleston, South Carolina (d. 1902)
- Apr 4 Thomas Mayne Reid, Irish-American novelist (The Headless Horseman), born in Ballyroney, County Down, Ireland (d. 1883)
- Apr 5 Lewis Baldwin Parsons, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Perry, New York (d. 1907)
- Apr 6 Aasmund Olavsson Vinje, Norwegian poet (d. 1870)
- Apr 8 Christian IX, King of Denmark (1863-1906), born in Gottorf Castle, Schleswig, Duchy of Schleswig (d. 1906)
- Apr 14 Marie of Saxe-Altenburg, Queen of Hanover, born in Hildburghausen, Saxe-Hildburghausen (d. 1907)
- Apr 20 Heinrich Göbel, German-born mechanic and inventor, born in Springe, Germany (d. 1893)
- Apr 22 Cadwallader Colden Washburn, American Major General (Union Army), born in Livermore, Maine (d. 1882)
- Apr 23 James Anthony Froude, English historian and novelist (The Nemesis of Faith), born in Dartington Rectory, Devon (d. 1894)
- Apr 23 John Gill Shorter, American politician (17th Governor of Alabama), born in Monticello, Georgia (d. 1872)
Alexander II
Apr 29 Alexander II, Tsar of Russia (1855-81), born in the Moscow Kremlin in Russia (d. 1881)
Alexander II
- May 1 José Amador de los Ríos, Spanish historian and poet, born in Baena, Spain (d. 1878)
Karl Marx
May 5 Karl Marx, German philosopher (Communist Manifesto, Das Kapital), born in Trier, Prussia (d. 1883)
Karl Marx
- May 20 William George Fargo, founder (Wells Fargo)
- May 25 Jacob Burckhardt, Swiss cultural historian, born in Basel, Switzerland (d. 1897)
- May 27 Amelia Jenks Bloomer, American reformer who campaigned for temperance and women’s rights, born in Homer, New York (d. 1894)
- May 28 P. G. T. Beauregard, American Confederate general (Hero of Sumter), born in St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana (d. 1893)
- May 31 John Albion Andrew, American politician (25th Governor of Massachusetts), born in Windham, Massachusetts (d. 1867)
- Jun 3 Louis Faidherbe, French general (d. 1889)
- Jun 17 Sophie of Württemberg, Queen of Netherlands as wife of William III, born in Ludwigsburg Palace, Stuttgart, Württemberg (d. 1877)
- Jun 21 Joseph Abel Haskin, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Troy, New York (d. 1874)
- Jun 23 Simon Vissering, Dutch economist/minister of Finances (1879-81)
- Jul 1 Ignaz Semmelweis, Hungarian physician who discovered the cause of puerperal (childbed) fever and introduced antisepsis into medical practice, born in Budapest, Hungary (d. 1865)
- Jul 10 John Stuart Williams, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Mount Sterling, Kentucky (d. 1898)
- Jul 14 Nathaniel Lyon, American Brigadier General (Union Army), 1st Union General to die in battle, born in Ashford, Connecticut (d. 1861)
- Jul 18 Louis Gerhard De Geer, 1st Swedish Prime Minister (1876-80), born in Finspång Castle, Sweden (d. 1896)
Emily Brontë
Jul 30 Emily Brontë, English novelist (Wuthering Heights), born in Thornton, West Yorkshire (d. 1848)
Emily Brontë
- Jul 30 John Heemskerk, Dutch politician (Minister of the Interior 1866-88), born in Amsterdam, Netherlands (d. 1897)
- Jul 31 Heinrich Kiepert, German cartographer/geographer
- Aug 1 Maria Mitchell, 1st US woman astronomer (Vassar), born in Nantucket, Massachusetts (d. 1889)
- Aug 2 Prince Alexander of the Netherlands, Prince of Orange-Nassau, born in Soestdijk, Netherlands (d. 1848)
- Aug 3 Joseph Schadde, Flemish architect (New Stock exchange Antwerp), born in Antwerp (d. 1894)
- Aug 4 Lovell Harrison Rosseau, American lawyer politician and Major General (Union Army), born in Stanford, Kentucky (d. 1869)
- Aug 13 Lucy Stone, American abolitionist (US Woman's Suffrage Association), born in West Brookefield, Massachusetts (d. 1893)
- Aug 18 William Farquhar Barry, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in NYC, New York (d. 1879)
- Aug 23 Rufus Ingalls, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Denmark, Maine (d. 1893)
- Aug 30 Alexander H. Rice, American businessman and politician, 30th Governor of Massachusetts (1876-78), born in Newton, Massachusetts (d. 1895)
- Sep 7 Thomas Talbot, American politician, 31st Governor of Massachusetts, born in Cambridge, New York (d. 1885)
- Sep 12 Richard Jordan Gatling, American inventor (hand-cranked machine gun), born in Hertford County, North Carolina (d. 1903)
- Sep 13 Gustave Aimard, French world explorer and writer (Grande Flibuste), born in Paris (d. 1883)
- Sep 16 Francis Seymour Haden, English surgeon and etcher, born in London (d. 1910)
- Sep 18 Marcellus Augustus Stovall, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Sparta, Georgia (d. 1895)
- Oct 4 Francesco Crispi, Italian statesman, born in Ribera, Italy (d. 1901)
- Oct 8 John Henninger Reagan, American Confederate politician, born in Sevier County, Tennessee (d. 1905)
- Oct 15 Irvin McDowell, American Major General (Union Army), born in Columbus, Ohio (d. 1885)
- Oct 18 Edward Otho Cresap Ord, American engineer and Major General (Union Army), born in Cumberland, Maryland (d. 1883)
- Oct 22 Leconte de Lisle, French poet and writer, born in Saint-Paul, Réunion, France (d. 1894)
- Oct 25 Pavel Melnikov, Russian historian and author (In the Forests), born in Nizhny Novgorod, Russian Empire [NS=Nov 6]
- Nov 3 Gustavus Adolphus DeRussy, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Brooklyn, New York (d. 1891)
- Nov 4 Alexander Robert Lawton, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1896)
- Nov 5 Benjamin Franklin Butler, American Major General (Union Army), born in Deerfield, New Hampshire (d. 1893)
- Nov 7 Emil du Bois-Reymond, German physiologist, co-discoverer of nerve action potential and founder of modern electrophysiology, born in Berlin, Germany (d. 1896)
- Nov 9 Ivan Turgenev, Russian novelist, poet and playwright (Fathers & Sons), born in Oryol, Russian Empire (d. 1883)
- Nov 22 Samuel Gibbs French, American Major General (Confederate Army), born in Mullica Hill, New Jersey (d. 1910)
- Nov 29 George Brown, Canadian publisher (Toronto Globe), PM (L) (1858)
- Dec 4 William Wing "Old Blizzards" Loring, American Major General (Confederate Army), born in Wilmington, North Carolina (d. 1886)
- Dec 12 Paul Octave Hébert, American Brigadier General and 14th Governor of Louisiana, born in Plaquemine, Louisiana (d. 1880)
Mary Todd Lincoln
Dec 13 Mary Todd, American wife of Abraham Lincoln and US First Lady (1861-65), born in Lexington, Kentucky (d. 1882)
Mary Todd Lincoln
- Dec 21 Amalia, wife of king Otto of Greece
- Dec 21 Lewis H. Morgan, American ethnologist (Systems of Consanguinity), born in Aurora, New York (d. 1881)
- Dec 23 David Addison Weisiger, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1899)
- Dec 24 James Prescott Joule, English physicist (the law of conservation of energy), born in Salford, United Kingdom (d. 1889)
- Dec 30 James Cantey, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1874)
Weddings in History
Wedding of Interest
Sep 29 Inventor Samuel Morse (27) weds Lucretia Walker in Concord, New Hampshire
Samuel Morse
Deaths in History
- Feb 13 George Rogers Clark, American frontier military leader in Revolutionary War, dies at 65
- Feb 13 Absalom Jones, African-American abolitionist and clergyman, dies at 71
- Feb 15 Charles XIII, King of Sweden (1809-18)/Norway (1814-18), dies at 69
- Feb 28 Adriaan Loosjes Pzn, Dutch publisher and writer (Moral Stories), dies at 56
- Mar 25 Caspar Wessel, Danish-Norwegian mathematician, dies at 72
- Apr 18 Quint Ondaatje, Dutch jurist & politician, dies at 59
- May 2 Herman W Daendels, governor-gen of Guinea (1815-18), dies at 55
Paul Revere
May 10 Paul Revere, American silversmith and patriot who alerted the colonial militia to the approach of British forces before the battles of Lexington and Concord, dies at 83
Paul Revere
- May 14 Matthew Lewis, English novelist (The Monk), dies at 42
- May 26 Michael A Barclay de Tolly, Russian fieldmarshal/War Minister, dies
- Jun 4 John van Well, choreographer/mime (Pierrot), dies at 44
- Jun 12 Egwale Seyon, Emperor of Ethiopia
- Jun 29 Carl Philipp Fohr, German painter and cartoonist, dies at 22
- Jul 28 Gaspard Monge, French mathematician (b. 1746)
- Aug 22 Warren Hastings, 1st governor-general of India (1773-84), dies at 85
- Aug 28 Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable, trader, founder of Chicago, dies
- Aug 31 Arthur St. Clair, American soldier and politician (President of the Continental Congress, 1787), dies at 81
- Sep 1 Robert Calder, British naval officer, dies at 73
- Sep 18 Olof Swartz, Swedish botanist (work on pteridophytes), dies at 57
- Oct 5 Nancy Hanks Lincoln, mother of Abraham Lincoln, dies at 34
- Oct 22 Joachim H Campe, German theory/author, dies at 72
Abigail Adams
Oct 28 Abigail Adams, 2nd first lady (1797-1801), dies of typhoid fever at 73
Abigail Adams