Events in History
- Jan 16 Godert Alexander Gerard Philip, Baron van der Capellen, becomes Governor-General of Dutch East Indies
Event of Interest
Jan 25 University of Virginia chartered by Commonwealth of Virginia, with Thomas Jefferson one of its founders
Thomas Jefferson
Event of Interest
Jan 28 Sir Stamford Raffles lands in Singapore
Stamford Raffles
- Feb 6 Stamford Raffles founds Singapore as a British trading port
Historic Discovery
Feb 19 British explorer William Smith discovers the South Shetland Islands, and claims them in the name of King George III
George III
- Feb 22 The Adams–Onís Treaty between Spain and the United States is signed, ceding Florida to the US and defining the boundary between the US and New Spain
- 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
Event of Interest
Jul 16 Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen 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 23 1st ship sails through the Erie Canal from Rome, New York to Utica, New York
- 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, English poet, friend of Matthew Arnold, born in Liverpool, England (d. 1861)
- 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, born in Caprezzo, Italy (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
Christopher Latham Sholes
Feb 14 Christopher Latham Sholes, American newspaper man, politician and inventor of the typewriter, born in Mooresburg, Pennsylvania (d. 1890)
Christopher Latham Sholes
- Feb 19 Mark Prager Lindo, English Dutch writer, born in London, England (d. 1877)
- 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 hero, born in Bayamo, Spanish Cuba (d. 1874)
- Apr 28 Ezra Abbot, American Bible scholar, born in Jackson, Maine (d. 1884)
- May 1 William Steele, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Albany, New York (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)
Queen Victoria
May 24 Queen Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom and Ireland (1837-1901), born in London (d. 1901)
Queen Victoria
Walt Whitman
May 31 Walt Whitman, American poet (Leaves of Grass) and volunteer nurse during the Civil War, 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), born in Laneast, Launceston, Cornwall (d. 1892)
- Jun 10 Gustave Courbet, French realist painter (Demoiselles the la Seine), born in Ornans, Doubs, Kingdom of France (d. 1877)
- Jun 12 Charles Kingsley [Parson Lot], English vicar and historian (Westward Ho!), born in Holne Vicarage, England (d. 1875)
- Jun 14 Henry Gardner, 23rd Governor of Massachusetts (1855-58), born in Dorchester, Massachusetts (d. 1892)
- Jun 30 William A. Wheeler, American politician (19th Vice President of the United States), born in Malone, New York (d. 1887)
- Jul 2 Thomas Anderson, Scottish chemist (discovered pyridine), born in Leith, Scotland (d. 1874)
- Jul 4 Reuben Fenton, American merchant and politician (22nd Governor of New York), born in Carroll, New York (d. 1885)
- Jul 6 Ernst Wilhelm von Brücke, German physician and physiologist, born in Berlin, Germany (d. 1892)
- 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)
Elias Howe
Jul 9 Elias Howe, American inventor (invented sewing machine), born in Spencer, Massachusetts (d. 1867)
Elias Howe
- 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 NYC, New York (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 T. G. Morton, American dentist who first used ether as a surgical anaesthetic (HOF 1920), born in Charlton, Massachusetts (d. 1868)
- 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, Irish physicist and mathematician (spectroscope), born in Skreen, County Sligo, Ireland (d. 1903)
- 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 Adriaan van Bevervoorde, Dutch journalist (History of Holland), born in Groningen, Netherlands (d. 1851)
- Sep 7 Thomas A. Hendricks, 21st Vice President of the United States (D), born in Fultonham, Ohio (d. 1885)
- Sep 9 Martin Luther Smith, American Major General (Confederate Army), born in Danby, New York (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 whose pendulum proved that the Earth rotates, born in Paris (d. 1868)
- Sep 17 Marthinus Wessels Pretorius, 1st president of the Republic South Africa, born in Graaff Reinet, Cape Colony (d. 1901)
- Sep 21 Louise Marie Thérèse of Artois, Duchess of Parma and Piacenza, born in Élysée Palace, Paris, France (d. 1864)
- Sep 22 Wilhelm Wattenbach, German historian (d. 1897)
- Sep 23 Hippolyte Fizeau, French physicist (d. 1896)
- Sep 28 Jacob Gijsbert de Hoop Scheffer, Dutch vicar and theologian, born in The Hague, Netherlands (d. 1893)
- 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, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Avon, Maine (d. 1900)
- Oct 15 Marinus Frederik Andries Gerardus Campbell, Dutch bibliographer, born in Kampen, Netherlands (d. 1890)
- 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)
George Eliot
Nov 22 George Eliot [Mary Anne Evans], English author (Middlemarch, Silas Marner), born in Nuneaton, Warwickshire (d. 1880)
George Eliot
- 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, American Major General (Confederate Army), born in Powhatan County, Virginia (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, American lawyer & politician (1st SF postmaster; 1st mayor), born in Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania (d. 1873)
- Dec 22 Pierre Ossian Bonnet, French mathematician, born in Montpellier, France (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 2 Maria Luisa of Parma, Queen of Charles IV of Spain, dies at 67
- Jan 14 John Wolcot, English satirist (Peter Pindar), dies at 80
- 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 von Kotzebue, German dramatist, dies at 57
- Apr 15 Oliver Evans, American inventor who pioneered high-pressure steam engine, dies at 63
- 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 Jan Hendrik van Kinsbergen, Dutch naval officer and founder of Dutch Marines Corp, dies at 84
- Jun 26 Slome Duikelar [Abraham J Swalff], Yiddish writer, dies
- Jul 1 Jemima Wilkinson [Publick Universal Friend], American preacher, founded Universal Friends sect, dies at 66
- 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 (lichens), dies at 61
- Oct 6 Charles Emanuel II, King of Sardinia (1796-1802)/Jesuit, dies
- Oct 15 Princess Louise of Orange-Nassau, daughter of viceroy Willem V & Wilhelmina of Prussia, 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 (isolation of nitrogen in 1772), dies at 70
- 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 Thomas Fremantle, British naval officer, dies at 54