• February 27 – British
poet Lord Byron gives his first address as a member of the
House of Lords, in defense of
Luddite violence against
Industrialism in his home county of
Nottinghamshire. • March 15 – Luddites attack the
wool factory of
Frank Vickerman in
West Yorkshire, England. • May 25 –
Felling mine disaster: Coal mine explosion at
Felling colliery near
Jarrow, England – 96 dead. In the aftermath, physician
William Reid Clanny invents a miners'
safety lamp. • August –
Henry Bell's begins a passenger service on the
River Clyde in
Scotland, the first commercially successful
steamboat service in Europe. • August 12 – The
Middleton Railway, serving
coal pits at
Leeds in England, becomes the first to use
steam locomotives successfully in regular service. The first locomotive,
Salamanca, is also the first to use two
cylinders and has a
rack railway mechanism devised by
John Blenkinsop and built by
Matthew Murray. • August 19 –
War of 1812: defeats the
British frigate off the coast of
Nova Scotia. British shot is said to have bounced off
Constitution's sides, earning her the nickname "Old Ironsides". • Philippe Girard invents a
flax-spinning machine. • The
Old Oscar Pepper Distillery (the modern-day
Labrot & Graham Distillery), the oldest
Kentucky Bourbon whiskey distillery, is established along Glenn's Creek in
Woodford County, Kentucky. ==Awards==