Events in History in 1802

Election of Interest

Jan 25 Napoleon Bonaparte elected president of Italian (Cisalpine) Republic

  • Jan 26 Congress passes an act calling for a US Capitol library
  • Jan 29 John Beckley of Virginia appointed first Librarian of Congress
  • Feb 2 1st leopard exhibited in US, Boston (admission 25 cents)
  • Feb 8 Simon Willard patents banjo clock
  • Mar 16 1st US Military Academy at West Point is established through Congressional act (opened July 4, 1802)
  • Mar 16 US Army Corps of Engineers established (2nd time)
  • Mar 25 Great Britain and the French Republic sign the Treaty of Amiens
  • Mar 28 Wilhelm Olbers discovers 2 Pallas, the second asteroid known to man
  • Apr 8 French Protestant church becomes state-supported & -controlled
  • Apr 10 Great Trigonometrical Survey begun to survey entire Indian subcontinent, led by William Lambton and the East India Company (completed 1871)

Event of Interest

Apr 15 William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy see a "long belt" of daffodils, inspiring the former to pen "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud".

  • May 3 Washington, D.C. is incorporated as a city
  • May 19 French Order of Legion d'Honneur forms
  • Jun 4 Grieving over the death of his wife, Marie Clotilde of France, King Charles Emmanuel IV of Sardinia abdicates his throne in favor of his brother, Victor Emmanuel

Event of Interest

Jun 15 Toussaint Louverture leaves Haiti, prisoner on French ship Héros

  • Jul 4 1st US Military Academy opens at West Point, NY
  • Jul 7 1st comic book "The Wasp" is published in Hudson, New York criticizing Republican politicians
  • Aug 2 Napoleon Bonaparte declared "Consul for Life" after winning national referendum
  • Aug 7 Napoleon orders re-instatement of slavery on St Domingue (Haiti)
  • Aug 25 Toussaint Louverture imprisoned in Fort de Joux, Jura, France
  • Aug 27 The West India Quay officially opens - London’s first purpose-built dock, with the then largest brick building in the world [1]
  • Sep 11 France annexes the Kingdom of Piedmont
  • Oct 10 1st non-Indian settlement in Oklahoma
  • Nov 1 Delegates meet at Chillicothe, Ohio, to form a state constitutional convention.
  • Dec 2 Britain sells Suriname to the Netherlands