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 Biela's Comet rediscovered by Austrian astronomer Wilhelm von Biela (originally discovered 1772)
- 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 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 and peace treaty
- Jun 21 Maniots defeat Egyptians under Ibrahim Pasha in the Battle of Vergas
United States Declaration of Independence
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"
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- Jul 26 Riots in Vilnius, Lithuania cause the 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 Netherlands 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, Russian satirist (Family of Noblemen), born in Spas-Ugol, Russia (d. 1889)
- Jan 22 [Merriwether] Jeff Thompson, Partisan (Confederate Army), (d. 1876)
- Jan 25 Rembt Tobias Hugo Pieter Liebrecht Alexander van Boneval Faure, Dutch lawyer & politician, born in Groningen, Netherlands (d. 1909)
- 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 Johnstone Stoney, Irish physicist (introduced term electron), born in Oakley Park, Ireland (d. 1911)
- 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 (Costa Rica's first woman in the military), born in Cartago, Costa Rica (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 and Union officer in the American Civil War, born in Worcester, Massachusetts (d. 1863)
- Apr 26 Ambrose R. Wright, American Civil War General, born in Louisville, Georgia (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, American inventor (tissue paper dress pattern), born in Sterling, Massachusetts (d. 1903)
- 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, English surveyor-general of South Australia, born in Liverpool, England (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)
Francisco Solano López
Jul 24 Francisco Solano López, President and Dictator of Paraguay (1862-70), born in Asunción, Paraguay (d. 1870)
Francisco Solano López
- 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 (Robbery Under Arms), born in London (d. 1915)
- Aug 7 August Ahlqvist, Finnish poet (Suomalainen Runousoppi), born in Kuopio, Finland (d. 1889)
- 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 Frederick I, Grand Duke of Baden (1856-1907), born in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg (d. 1907)
- Sep 9 Thomas John Lucas, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Dearborn County, Indiana (d. 1908)
- Sep 17 Berhard Riemann, German mathematician (zeta-function), born in Breselenz, Hanover (d. 1866)
- 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, born in Menzendorf, Germany (d. 1904)
- 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 25 Peter von der Pahlen, Baltic courtier and military governor of St Petersburg, dies at 80
- Mar 1 Friedrich Weinbrenner, German architect, dies at 59
- Mar 10 Johan VI M L J, King of Portugal (1816-26), dies at 56
- 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