Events in History
- Jan 16 Godert Alexander Gerard Philip, Baron van der Capellen, becomes Governor-General of Dutch East Indies
Event of Interest
Jan 28 Sir Stamford Raffles lands in Singapore
Stamford Raffles
- Feb 6 Stamford Raffles founds Singapore as a British trading port
- Feb 19 British explorer William Smith discovers the South Shetland Islands, and claims them in the name of King George III
- Feb 22 Spain renounces claims to Oregon Country, Florida (Adams-Onís Treaty)
- Mar 2 Territory of Arkansas organized
- Mar 2 US passed its 1st immigration law
- Apr 2 1st successful agricultural journal ("American Farmer") first publishes
- Apr 26 Odd Fellows Lodge forms
- May 22 1st steam propelled vessel to cross Atlantic (Savannah leaves Ga)
- Jun 12 Dutch colonial troops driven out of Palembang, Sumatra
- Jun 20 320 ton Savannah becomes 1st steamship to cross any ocean (Atlantic)
Historic Publication
Jun 23 First editions of "The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent." by Washington Irving released, featuring story "Rip Van Winkle"
Washington Irving
- Jul 3 1st savings bank in US (Bank of Savings in NYC) opens its doors
Event of Interest
Jul 4 William Herschel makes last telescopic observation of 1819 comet
William Herschel
- Jul 16 Fabian Gottlieb von Bellinghausen sets sail to explore Antarctica for Tsar Alexander I
- Aug 2 1st parachute jump in US
- Aug 6 Norwich University is founded in Vermont as the first private military school in the United States
- Aug 7 Battle of Boyacá; Bolívar defeats Spanish in Colombia
- Aug 16 Peterloo Massacre, Manchester, England: cavalry charges demonstrators, 15 people killed and 400–700 injured
- Aug 17 The Church Missionary Society establishes New Zealand's second mission station at Kerikeri
- Sep 6 Thomas Blanchard patents lathe
- Sep 17 First whaling ship arrives in Hawaii
- Oct 22 1st ship sails by Erie-channel (Rome-Utica)
- Nov 4 Māori Chiefs Hongi Hika and Rewa sell 13,000 acres (5260 hectares) at Kerikeri to the Church Missionary Society for 48 felling axes, New Zealand
- Dec 14 Alabama admitted to Union as 22nd state
- Dec 17 Congress of Angostura establishes Colombia's independence from Spain
Birthdays in History
- Jan 1 Arthur Hugh Clough, poet, friend of Matthew Arnold
- Jan 1 George Foster Shepley, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Saco, Maine (d. 1878)
- Jan 3 Charles Piazzi Smyth, Astronomer Royal for Scotland (d. 1900)
- Jan 6 Baldassare Verazzi, Italian painter (d. 1886)
- Jan 9 James Francis, Premier of Victoria (d. 1884)
- Jan 12 Zealous Bates Tower, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Cohasset, Massachusetts (d. 1900)
- Jan 14 Frederick Steele, American Major General (Union Army), born in Delhi, New York (d. 1868)
- Feb 1 Henry Lawrence Eustis, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Boston, Massachusetts (d. 1885)
Emperor Norton
Feb 4 Emperor Norton [Joshua Abraham Norton], British born self proclaimed "Norton I, Emperor of the United States," born in London, England (d. 1880)
Emperor Norton
- Feb 8 John Ruskin, writer/critic/artist/Gothic Revivalist (Prerafaelite)
- Feb 14 James Green Martin, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Elizabeth City, North Carolina (d. 1878)
- Feb 14 Christopher Latham Sholes, American newspaper man, politician and inventor of the typewriter, born in Mooresburg, Pennsylvania (d. 1890)
- Feb 19 Mark Prager Lindo, English/Dutch author/novelist/writer
- Feb 20 Alfred Escher, Swiss politician, railroad entrepreneur (d. 1882)
- Feb 22 James Russell Lowell, poet/critic/diplomat/abolitionist
- Mar 11 Henry Tate, English sugar producer (Tate Gallery)
- Mar 19 David Henry Williams, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania (d. 1891)
- Mar 22 William Wirt Adams, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1888)
- Mar 26 Louise Otto-Peters, German suffragist, women's rights movement activist and author (The Wandering Star), born in Meissen, Germany (d. 1895)
- Mar 28 Sir Joseph Bazalgette, English civil engineer (London's Metropolitan Board of Works), born in Clay Hill, Enfield, London (d. 1891)
- Mar 29 Edwin Drake, American businessman who drilled 1st productive US oil well, born in Greenville, New York (d. 1881)
- Mar 29 Isaac Mayer Wise, American rabbi and founder (American Hebrew Congregations), born in Steingrub, Bohemia, Austrian Empire (d. 1900)
- Mar 31 Prince Chlodwig zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1901)
- Apr 4 Queen Maria II of Portugal, Daughter of Emperor Pedro I of Brazil, born in Palace of São Cristóvão, Rio de Janeiro, Kingdom of Brazil (d. 1853)
- Apr 6 Johann A H Scheler, Belgian librarian
- Apr 18 Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, Cuban Revolutionary (d. 1874)
- Apr 28 Ezra Abbot, American Bible scholar (d. 1884)
- May 1 William Steele, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1885)
- May 15 Thomas Leonidas Crittenden, American lawyer, politician, and Major General (Union Army), born in Russellville, Kentucky (d. 1893)
- May 16 Daniel Ammen, Capt (Union Navy), (d. 1898)
Walt Whitman
May 31 Walt Whitman, American poet (Leaves of Grass), born in West Hills, New York (d. 1892)
Walt Whitman
- Jun 3 Johann Barthold Jongkind, Lattrop Neth, Dut/Fr painter (Winter Scenes)
- Jun 5 John Couch Adams, English astronomer (co-discover Neptune)
- Jun 10 J D Gustave Courbet, French realist painter (Demoiselles the la Seine)
- Jun 12 Charles Kingsley [Parson Lot], English vicar and historian (Westward Ho!)
- Jun 14 Henry J. Gardner, 23rd Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1892)
- Jun 30 William A Wheeler, (R) 19th VP (1877-81)
- Jul 2 Thomas Anderson, Scottish Chemist (discovered pyridine)
- Jul 4 Reuben Eaton Fenton, Governor (Union), (d. 1885)
- Jul 6 Ernst Wilhelm von Brücke, German Physician and Physiologist, born in Berlin, Germany
- Jul 8 Alexander Hays, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Franklin, Pennsylvania (d. 1864)
- Jul 8 Francis Leopold McClintock, British naval officer and explorer (d. 1907)
- Jul 9 Elias Howe, Spencer Mass, invented sewing machine
- Jul 19 Gottfried Keller, German-Swiss poet and novelist, born in Zurich (d. 1890)
Herman Melville
Aug 1 Herman Melville, American author (Moby Dick, Billy Budd), born in New York City (d. 1891)
Herman Melville
- Aug 6 Samuel Powhatan Carter, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Elizabethton, Tennessee (d. 1891)
- Aug 8 Charles Anderson Dana, Asst Secy War, (Union) (d. 1897)
- Aug 9 William Thomas Green Morton, dentist, used ether (HOF 1920)
- Aug 9 Jonathan Homer Lane, American astrophysicist who mathematically analyzed the Sun as a gaseous body, born in Geneseo, New York (d. 1880)
- Aug 12 Daniel Davidson Bidwell, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Buffalo, New York (d. 1864)
- Aug 13 George Gabriel Stokes, physicist/mathematician (spectroscope)
- Aug 17 James Henry Van Alen, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Kinderhook, New York (d. 1886)
- Aug 18 Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, Duchess of Leuchtenberg, born in Peterhof Palace, Russia (d. 1876)
- Aug 25 Allan Pinkerton, American private detective and founder of Chicago detective agency, born in Glasgow (d. 1894)
- Aug 26 Albert "Bertie" von Saksen-Coburg-Gotha, husband of queen Victoria
- Sep 6 Nicolae Filimon, Romanian writer and critic (Ciocoii Vechi Si Noi), born in Bucharest, Romania (d. 1865)
- Sep 6 William Starke Rosecrans, American inventor, politician and US Army General (Union Army), born in Delaware County, Ohio (d. 1898)
- Sep 7 Jean E "Adriaan" van Bevervoorde, journalist (History of Holland)
- Sep 9 Martin Luther Smith, Major General (Confederate Army), (d. 1866)
- Sep 14 Henry Jackson Hunt, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Detroit, Michigan (d. 1889)
- Sep 17 Leon Foucault, French physicist (pendulum proved Earth rotates), born in Paris (d. 1968)
- Sep 17 Marthinus Wessels Pretorius, 1st president (Republic South Africa)
- Sep 17 Thomas A. Hendricks, 21st US Vice President (D); died in office in 1885
- Sep 21 Princess Louise Marie Thérèse of France (d. 1864)
- Sep 22 Wilhelm Wattenbach, German historian (d. 1897)
- Sep 23 Hippolyte Fizeau, French physicist (d. 1896)
- Sep 28 Jacob G de Hoop Scheffer, Dutch vicar/theologist
- Oct 2 George Washington Getty, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Washington, D.C. (d. 1901)
- Oct 6 Willem A Scholten, Dutch potato-flour manufacturer (d. 1892)
- Oct 10 Zebulon York, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1900)
- Oct 15 Marinus FAG Campbell, bibliography/literary
- Oct 16 Austin F. Pike, American politician from New Hampshire (d. 1886)
- Oct 19 Samuel McGowan, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Laurens County, South Carolina (d. 1897)
- Oct 19 Joseph C Juglar, French physician/economist (Crises Commercial)
- Oct 20 Daniel Edgar Sickles, American politician, diplomat and Major General (Union Army), born in NYC, New York (d. 1914)
- Oct 20 The Báb, Persian founder of the Bábí Faith (d. 1850)
- Oct 25 Zachariah C. Deas, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Camden, South Carolina (d. 1882)
- Nov 10 Cyrus West Field, American financier noted for success of 1st transatlantic cable, born in Stockbridge, Massachusetts (d. 1892)
- Nov 22 George Eliot, [Mary Anne Evans], English author (Middlemarch, Silas Marner), born in Nuneaton, Warwickshire (d. 1880)
- Nov 23 Benjamin Mayberry Prentiss, American politician and Major General (Union Army), born in Belleville, Virginia (d. 1901)
- Nov 23 Josiah Dwight Whitney, Northampton Massachusetts, American Geologist who led the California Geological Survey (Mount Whitney and Whitney Glacier are named for him)
- Dec 16 Robert Selden Garnett, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1861)
- Dec 17 Samuel Jones, Major General (Confederate Army), (d. 1887)
- Dec 18 Yakov Petrovich Polonsky, Russian poet (Stichotvorenija)
- Dec 19 James Clifford Veatch, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Elizabeth, Indiana (d. 1895)
- Dec 20 John Geary, 1st SF postmaster, 1st mayor (May 1, 1850)
- Dec 22 Pierre Ossian Bonnet, French mathematician (d. 1892)
- Dec 23 Jan Jakob Lodewijk ten Kate, Dutch poet and clergyman (d. 1889)
- Dec 26 E. D. E. N. Southworth, American novelist (d. 1899)
- Dec 30 John White Geary, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania (d. 1873)
- Dec 30 Theodor Fontane, German writer (Effi Briest)
Deaths in History
- Jan 14 Peter Pindar, English satirist (b. 1738)
- Jan 20 Carlos IV [English: Charles], King of Spain (1788-1808), dies at 70
- Mar 8 Benjamin Ruggles Woodbridge, doctor, Massachusetts militia officer, member of the Massachusetts legislature (b. 1739)
- Mar 10 Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, writer, dies
- Mar 23 August v Kotzebue, writer, dies
- May 2 Mary Moser, English painter (Flowers Still Life), dies at 74
Kamehameha I
May 8 Kamehameha I, King of Hawaii (1782-1819), dies at 81
Kamehameha I
- May 16 Alexander van Bylandt, military, dies at 75
- May 22 John H van Kinsbergen, lt-admiral/founder (Corps Marines), dies at 84
- Jun 26 Slome Duikelar, [Abraham J Swalff], Yiddish writer, dies
- Jul 1 Jemima Wilkinson, American preacher (b. 1752)
- Jul 20 John Playfair, Scottish geologist/mathematician, dies
- Aug 23 Oliver Hazard Perry, American naval hero (Battle of Lake Erie),, dies on 34th birthday
James Watt
Aug 25 James Watt, Scottish inventor, mechanical engineer and chemist (steam engine), dies at 83
James Watt
- Sep 12 Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Prussian general (b. 1742)
- Sep 14 Erik Acharius, Swedish botanist, dies
- Oct 6 Charles Emanuel II, King of Sardinia (1796-1802)/Jesuit, dies
- Oct 15 F Louise W, daughter of viceroy Willem V, dies at 48
- Oct 15 Sergey Vyazmitinov, Russian general and statesman (b. 1744)
- Nov 5 Dirk van den Boetzelaer, Regent of Holland, dies at 55
- Nov 15 Daniel Rutherford, Scottish chemist and physician (b. 1749)
- Dec 5 Friedrich Leopold Graf zu Stolberg, German poet, lawyer and translator, dies at 69
- Dec 9 Ann C Coleman, fiancee of President Buchanan, commits suicide
- Dec 19 Sir Thomas Fremantle, British naval officer and politician (b. 1765)