Events in History
- Jan 1 Baron Van der Capellen resigns as governor of Dutch-Indies
- Jan 30 The Menai Suspension Bridge, considered the world's first modern suspension bridge, connecting the Isle of Anglesey to the north West coast of Wales is opened.
- Feb 11 University College London founded; known until 1836 as London University
- Feb 13 American Temperance Society forms in Boston
- Feb 24 The signing of the Treaty of Yandaboo marks the end of the First Burmese War
- Feb 28 M Biela, an Austrian officer, discovers Biela's Comet
- Mar 4 1st US railroad chartered, Granite Railway in Quincy, Massachusetts
- Mar 14 General Congress of South American States assembles at Panama
- Apr 1 Samuel Morey is issued the first U.S. patent for an internal-combustion engine, which he calls a “Gas or Vapour Engine"
- Apr 10 The 10,500 inhabitants of the Greek town Messolonghi start leaving the town after a year's siege by Turkish forces. Very few of them survive.
- Apr 23 Missolonghi, Greece captured by Turks
- May 22 HMS Beagle departs on its first voyage to survey Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego
- Jun 15 Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II abolishes the elite Janissary corps executing thousands for treason to make way for a more modern army
- Jun 20 Siam and Britain sign trade/peace treaty
- Jun 21 Maniots defeat Egyptians under Ibrahim Pasha in the Battle of Vergas
Event of Interest
Jul 4 Past presidents Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both die on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, President John Quincy Adams calls "visible and palpable remarks of Divine Favor"
- Jul 26 Vilnus Lithuanian riots cause death of many Jews
- Jul 30 Java prince Dipo Negoro surprise attacks Dutch colony, 82 killed
- Aug 19 Canada Co chartered to colonize Upper Canada (Ontario)
- Aug 22 Colonies under Jedediah Strong Smith move near Salt Lake Utah
- Aug 24 Netherland's South Willems Port (Bosch-Liege) opens
- Sep 3 USS Vincennes leaves NY to become 1st warship to circumnavigate globe
- Oct 7 Granite Railway (1st chartered railway in US) begins operations
- Nov 15 Dutch Business Me gets monopoly on opium trade in Java/Madura
- Nov 25 The Greek frigate Hellas arrives in Nafplion to become the first flagship of the Hellenic Navy
- Nov 27 John Walker invents friction match in England
- Dec 16 Benjamin W. Edwards rides into Mexican controlled Nacogdoches, Texas and declares himself ruler of the Republic of Fredonia.
Birthdays in History
- Jan 6 Herman Grimm, German writer, novelist (Ralph Waldo Emerson), born in Kassel, Hesse (d. 1901)
- Jan 12 Charles Cruft, American teacher, lawyer, railroad executive, and Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Terre Haute, Indiana (d. 1883)
- Jan 15 Mikhail Saltykov, Spas-Ugol Russia, satirist (Family of Noblemen)
- Jan 22 [Merriwether] Jeff Thompson, Partisan (Confederate Army), (d. 1876)
- Jan 25 Rembt Tobias Hugo Pieter Liebrecht Alexander van Boneval Faure, Dutch lawyer and politician
- Jan 26 Julia Dent Grant, 1st lady (1862-76)
- Jan 27 Richard Taylor, Lt Gen (Confederate Army), (d. 1879)
- Feb 3 Walter Bagehot, England, economist/sociologist
- Feb 4 Halbert Eleazer Paine, American lawyer and Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Chardon, Ohio (d. 1905)
- Feb 9 John Alexander Logan, American political leader and Major General (Union Army), born in Murphysboro, Illinois (d. 1886)
- Feb 15 George J Stoney, Irish physicist
- Feb 16 Joseph V von Scheffel, German writer (Gaudeamus)
- Mar 4 John Buford, American Major General (Union Army), born in Woodford County, Kentucky (d. 1863)
- Mar 4 Theodore Judah, American railroad engineer (d. 1863)
- Mar 17 Oskar Peschel, German journalist/geography (Volkerkunder)
- Mar 20 Carel Vosmaer, Dutch art historian/poet/editor
- Mar 29 Wilhelm Liebknecht, German socialist (Social Democratic Party), born in Giessen, Germany (d. 1900)
- Apr 2 Philip Dale Roddey, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Moulton, Alabama (d. 1897)
- Apr 4 Zénobe Gramme, Belgian electrical engineer (Gramme dynamo), born in Jehay-Bodegnée, Belgium (d. 1901)
- Apr 6 Gustave Moreau, French painter
- Apr 8 Pancha Carrasco, Costa Rican war heroine (d. 1890)
- Apr 9 Thomas Hewson Neill, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (d. 1885)
- Apr 20 Dinah Craik, English writer (John Halifax, Gentleman), born in Stoke-on-Trent (d. 1887)
- Apr 26 George Hull Ward, American general (d. 1863)
- Apr 26 Ambrose R. Wright, American Civil War General (d. 1872
- May 3 Charles XV, King of Sweden and Norway (1859-72), born in Stockholm, Sweden (d. 1872)
- May 4 Frederick Edwin Church, American romantic landscape painter (Hudson River Sch), born in Hartford, Connecticut (d. 1900)
- May 5 Eugénie de Montijo, Empress of France (1853-71), born in Granada, Kingdom of Spain (d. 1920)
- May 7 Varina Howell Davis, First Lady of the Confederate States (1862-65), born in Natchez, Mississippi (d. 1906)
- May 21 Danillo II, ruler of Montenegro
- May 29 Ebenezer Butterick, inventor (tissue paper dress pattern)
- Jun 6 Sarah Parker Remond, African-American abolitionist, born in Salem, Massachusetts (d. 1894)
- Jun 16 Constantin von Ettingshausen, Austrian geologist and botanist (d. 1897)
- Jun 24 George Goyder, surveyor-general of South Australia (d. 1898)
- Jul 4 Green Clay Smith, American politician and Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Richmond, Kentucky (d. 1895)
- Jul 8 Benjamin Henry Grierson, American Major General (Union Army), born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (d. 1911)
- Jul 8 Robert Kingston Scott, American governor of South Carolina (1868-1872) and Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Armstrong County, Pennsylvania (d. 1900)
- Jul 11 Alexander Afanasyev, Russian ethnographer and folklorist, born in Boguchar, Voronezh Governorate, Russian Empire (d. 1871)
- Jul 13 Stanislao Cannizzaro, Italian chemist (Reaction of Cannizzaro)
- Jul 21 James Gillpatrick Blunt, American physician, abolitionist, and Major General (Union Army), born in Trenton, Maine (d. 1881)
- Jul 24 Francisco Solano Lopez, President of Paraguay (1862-70), born in Asunción, Paraguay (d. 1870)
- Aug 2 William Denison Whipple, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Madison County, New York (d. 1902)
- Aug 6 Thomas Alexander Browne, Australian writer (d. 1915)
- Aug 7 Carl AE Ahlqvist, [A Oksanen], Finnish poet (Suomalainen Runousoppi)
- Aug 21 Karl Gegenbaur, German anatomist, born in Würzburg, Germany (d. 1903)
- Aug 26 Princess Alexandra of Bavaria (d. 1875)
- Aug 27 Frank Stillman Nickerson, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Swanville, Maine (d. 1917)
- Sep 4 Martin Wiberg, Swedish computer pioneer, born in Viby, Scania, Sweden (d. 1905)
- Sep 9 Frederich I W L, Grand Duke of Baden (1856-1907)
- Sep 9 Thomas John Lucas, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Dearborn County, Indiana (d. 1908)
- Sep 17 G F Berhard Riemann, German mathematician (zeta-function)
- Oct 7 William Brimage Bate, American Brigadier-General (Confederate Army) and 23rd Governor of Tennessee (1882-86)
- Oct 8 Matt Whitaker Ransom, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Warren County, North Carolina (d. 1904)
- Oct 13 Lafayette Curry Baker, American investigator spy and Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Stafford, New York (d. 1868)
- Oct 31 Hugh Boyle Ewing, American diplomat, author, attorney, and Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Lancaster, Ohio (d. 1905)
- Nov 2 Robert Hopkins Hatton, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Steubenville, Ohio (d. 1862)
- Nov 2 William Haines Lytle, US politician, poet and Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Cincinnati, Ohio (d. 1863)
- Nov 3 Jasper Adalmorn Maltby, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Kingsville, Ohio (d. 1867)
- Nov 13 Charles Frederick Worth, English fashion designer (House of Worth), born in Bourne, Lincolnshire (d. 1895)
- Nov 17 John McArthur, Scottish-American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Erskine, Scotland (d. 1906)
- Nov 24 Collodi, [Carlo Lorenzini], Italian author (Pinocchio)
- Nov 30 George Washington Deitzler, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Pine Grove, Pennsylvania (d. 1884)
- Dec 1 William Mahone, Major General (Confederate Army), (d. 1895)
George McClellan
Dec 3 George McClellan, American Major General (Union Army), born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (d. 1885)
George McClellan
- Dec 5 John Benjamin Sanborn, American lawyer, politician, and Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Epsom, New Hampshire (d. 1904)
- Dec 8 Friedrich Siemens, German industrialist
- Dec 18 Charles-A Chatrian, [Erckmann-C], French writer (L'ami Fritz)
- Dec 18 Mercer Brooke John, (Confederate Navy), (d. 1906)
- Dec 22 James Scott Negley, American politician and Major General (Union Army), born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (d. 1901)
- Dec 26 Martinus Nijhoff, Dutch publisher (Van Dale) and founder (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers), born in Arnhem, Netherlands (d. 1894)
- Dec 28 Conrad Busken Huet, Dutch vicar/literary (Country of Rubens)
Weddings in History
Wedding of Interest
Feb 5 Future US President Millard Fillmore (26) weds Abigail Powers (27)
Millard Fillmore
Wedding of Interest
Oct 17 Historian Thomas Carlyle (30) weds Jane Welsh (25)
Thomas Carlyle
Deaths in History
- Jan 3 Louis Gabriel Suchet, French marshal (b. 1770)
- Feb 13 Peter Ludwig von der Pahlen, Russian general, dies at 80
- Feb 25 Piotr A von der Pahlen, military governor of St Petersburg, dies at 60
- Mar 1 Friedrich Weinbrenner, German architect, dies at 59
- Mar 10 Johan VI M L J, King of Portugal (1816-26), dies at 56
- Apr 3 Reginald Heber, bishop & hymn writer, dies
- Jun 1 Jean Frédéric Oberlin, Alsatian pastor (b. 1740)
- Jun 3 Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin, Russian writer (b. 1766)
- Jun 7 Joseph von Fraunhofer, German physicist (b. 1787)
John Adams
Jul 4 John Adams, 2nd US President (1797-1801), dies at 90
John Adams
Thomas Jefferson
Jul 4 Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States(1801-09), dies at 83
Thomas Jefferson
Stamford Raffles
Jul 5 Stamford Raffles, British statesman and founder of Singapore dies at 44 of apoplexy
Stamford Raffles
- Jul 8 Luther Martin, American statesman (b. 1748)
- Jul 22 Giuseppe Piazzi, Italian astronomer (found 1st asteroid-Ceres), dies at 80
- Jul 25 Pavel Ivanovich Pestel, Russian officer, hanged at 33 [OS Jul 13]
- Jul 25 Kondraty Fyodorovich Ryleyev, Russian poet and revolutionary (b. 1795)
- Aug 13 René Laënnec, French physician who invented the stethoscope, dies of tuberculosis at 46
- Sep 22 Johann Peter Hebel, German writer (Allemannische Gedichte), dies at 66
- Sep 25 Giovanni Battista Brocchi, Italian Geologist, dies at 54
- Oct 3 Jens I Baggesen, Danish writer/linguist (Labyrinth), dies
- Oct 25 Philippe Pinel, French physician (the father of modern psychiatry), dies at 81
- Dec 7 John Flaxman, Engl sculptor (tombs at St Paul's Cathedral), dies at 71
- Dec 15 William Browser, revolting slave, executed in NYC