January to June at the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 by
George Cruikshank, a caricature of
Lord Castlereagh dividing up Europe between the
great powers at the
Congress of Vienna. • 2 January •
Lord Byron marries
Anna Isabella Milbanke at
Seaham,
County Durham. •
The Prince Regent divides the
Order of the Bath into three classes: the Knights Grand Cross, Knights Commander and Companions. • 3 January –
Austria, Britain and Bourbon-restored France form a secret defensive alliance treaty against
Prussia and
Russia. • 8 January –
War of 1812:
Battle of New Orleans –
American forces under General
Andrew Jackson defeat the British in the last major battle of the war. he will be the most senior officer so to appear until
2021. • 13 February – The
Cambridge Union Society, one of the oldest debating societies in the world, founded at the
University of Cambridge. • 15 March – Importation Act, first of the
Corn Laws, passed by Parliament, preventing the import of cheap foreign grain. • 29 March – The
Duke of Wellington leaves
Vienna, where he has been leading Britain's delegation at the
Congress of Vienna, to take command of British and allied army gathering near
Brussels • 30 May – The
East Indiaman Arniston, repatriating wounded troops to Britain from
Ceylon, is wrecked near
Waenhuiskrans, South Africa with the loss of 372 of the 378 on board. • 16 June –
Napoleonic Wars:
Battle of Quatre Bras –
Marshal Ney wins a strategic victory over an Anglo-Dutch force. • 18 June – Napoleonic Wars: the
Duke of Wellington wins a decisive victory over
Napoleon at the
Battle of Waterloo. in August 1815
, by John James Chalon. HMS Bellerophon'' is at the centre of the picture, surrounded by crowds in small boats who have come to see
Napoleon • 21 June – News of the victory at Waterloo reaches
London from
Broadstairs late that evening.
July to December • 10 July –
Apothecaries Act prohibits unlicensed medical practitioners. • 15 July –
Napoleon boards off
Rochefort and surrenders to Captain
Frederick Lewis Maitland of the
Royal Navy. • 24 July–4 August – anchors off the south
Devon coast with
Napoleon on board prior to his being taken into exile. • 31 July – The
1815 Philadelphia train accident, a boiler explosion, kills at least 13 people in County Durham. • 1 August –
William Smith publishes the first national
geological map of the UK,
A Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales, with part of Scotland. • 18 October – The
Bible Christian Church, a Wesleyan
Methodist denomination, is founded by
William O'Bryan in north
Devon and
Cornwall. • 3 November – Sir
Humphry Davy announces his invention of the
Davy lamp as a
coal mining safety lamp. • 5 November –
Ionian Islands become a British protectorate.
Undated •
Jones, Watts and Doulton begin life as a
stoneware pottery in
South London. • ''
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'' retrospectively recognises statistics for
first-class cricket in England from this year. ==Publications==