January–March •
January 6 – (December 25, 1815 on the Russian Julian calendar):
Tsar Alexander I of Russia signs an order, expelling the
Jesuits from
St. Petersburg and Moscow. •
January 9 – • Sir
Humphry Davy's
Davy lamp is first tested underground as a
coal mining safety lamp, at
Hebburn Colliery in northeast England; •
Ludwig van Beethoven wins the custody battle for his nephew
Karl. •
January 17 – Fire nearly destroys the city of
St. John's, Newfoundland. •
February 10 –
Friedrich Karl Ludwig, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck, dies and is succeeded by
Friedrich Wilhelm, his son and founder of the
House of Glücksburg. •
February 20 –
Gioachino Rossini's
opera buffa The Barber of Seville premières at the
Teatro Argentina in Rome. •
March 1 – The
Gorkha War between the
United Kingdom and
Nepal is ended after more than a year by the ratification of the
Treaty of Sugauli, with Nepal ceding about one-third of its territory to British Indian control. •
March 16 – U.S. Secretary of State
James Monroe is nominated by a caucus of Democratic-Republican Party members of Congress, to be its party's representative in the U.S. presidential election; Monroe receives 65 votes, and Secretary of War
William H. Crawford receives 54 votes. •
March 21 – The
Institut de France is reorganized by King
Louis XVIII into four royal academies: a revived
Académie française; the Royal Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres; the Royal Academy of Sciences; and the
Académie des Beaux-Arts. •
March 22 – The United States signs a treaty with the
Cherokee Nation, acknowledging that it will return land in Alabama and Georgia that had been illegally ceded to the U.S. in
1814 by the
Creek Nation. General and future U.S. president
Andrew Jackson, refuses to honor the treaty, and uses the controversy as a justification for removing Indians from the southeastern United States.
April–June •
March 29–
April 10 – The
Second Bank of the United States obtains its charter. •
March 30–
April 11 – In
Philadelphia, the
African Methodist Episcopal Church is established by
Richard Allen and other African-American Methodists, the first such denomination in the U.S. completely independent of White churches. •
April 28 – The French
Caisse des dépôts et consignations, a public investment body, is created by
Louis XVIII. • April –
Banjul, capital of
the Gambia, is founded as a trading post named Bathurst. •
May 2 –
Leopold of Saxe-Coburg (later King of the Belgians) marries
Charlotte Augusta, daughter of the
Prince Regent, at
Carlton House in London. •
May 8 – Divorce is abolished in France by the
Chambre introuvable, after having been permitted following the French Revolution. •
June 4 (N.S.) (
May 23 O.S.) – The
Governorate of Estonia of the Russian Empire emancipates its peasants from
serfdom. •
June 16 – The
Society for the Promotion of Permanent and Universal Peace is founded in London. •
June 19 –
Battle of Seven Oaks: The
Hudson's Bay Company is defeated by the
North West Company, near
Winnipeg, Canada.
July–September •
July 2 – The French frigate
Medusa runs aground off the coast of
Senegal, with 140 lives lost in the botched rescue that takes weeks, leading to a scandal in the French government. •
July 9 – The
United Provinces of South America (today
Argentina,
Uruguay,
Bolivia and southern
Brazil) declares
independence from Spain. •
August 12–
24 – The
Treaty of St. Louis, between the United States and the
Council of Three Fires tribes, is signed in
St. Louis. •
August 14 – The United Kingdom formally annexes the
Tristan da Cunha archipelago in the southern Atlantic Ocean, ruling it from the
Cape Colony. •
August 27 –
Bombardment of Algiers: An Anglo-Dutch fleet forces
Omar Agha,
Dey of Algiers to free Christian slaves. •
September 3 –
Pope Pius VII sends a directive to
Stanisław Bohusz Siestrzeńcewicz, the
Roman Catholic Archbishop of Mohilev, advising Siestrzeńcewicz not to continue the
Russian Bible Society's plans to circulate the Scriptures written in the
Russian language, commenting that "if the Sacred Scriptures were allowed in the vulgar tongue, more detriment than benefit would arise." •
September 6 – King
Louis XVIII dissolves the
Chambre introuvable, the legislature that had been elected after the
Second Bourbon Restoration re-established the old monarchy.
October–December •
October 21 –
Penang Free School is founded by Rev. Sparke Hutchings, on the island of
Penang (in modern-day Malaysia). •
November 1–
December 3 –
1816 United States presidential election:
James Monroe defeats
Rufus King. •
November 10 – The British troop transport
Harpooner, returning from Quebec to Britain, is wrecked at
Cape Pine on
Newfoundland (island) with the loss of 208 of the 385 people on board. •
November 19 – The
University of Warsaw is established. •
December 11 –
Indiana is admitted as the 19th
U.S. state. •
December 12 – The thrones of
Sicily and
Naples are merged into the
Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, under King
Ferdinand I. •
December 9–
21 – The
American Colonization Society is established, to support the emigration of free
African Americans to Africa.
Date unknown •
Saint Pierre and Miquelon resettled. •
René Laennec invents the
stethoscope. •
Robert Stirling patents his
Stirling engine, at this time known as "Stirling's air engine", in the United Kingdom. •
E. Remington and Sons, the firearm and later typewriter manufacturing company, is founded in the United States. • Mutuelle de L'assurance contre L'incendie ("L'Anciente Mutuelle"), predecessor of
Axa, the global
insurance and
financial services company, is founded in
Rouen,
France. == Births ==