January–March •
January 8 – After much controversy,
Michael Faraday is finally elected as a member of the
Royal Society in London, with only one vote against him. •
January 21 –
First Anglo-Ashanti War:
Battle of Nsamankow – forces of the
Ashanti Empire crush British forces in the
Gold Coast (modern-day
Ghana), killing the British governor
Sir Charles MacCarthy. •
February 10 –
Simón Bolívar is proclaimed dictator of
Peru. •
February 20 —
William Buckland formally announces the name
Megalosaurus, the first scientifically validly named non-avian dinosaur species. •
February 21 – The
Chumash Revolt of 1824 begins against the Spanish presence in
Alta California (now the U.S. state of
California) as an uprising by the
Chumash people at
Mission Santa Inés (now
Solvang,
Mission Santa Barbara, and
Mission La Purisima (now
Lompoc in what is now
Santa Barbara County, California. By
June 28, the uprising ends after the Spanish government and the Chumash leaders reach a peace agreement. •
March 4 – The
Royal National Lifeboat Institution is founded in the British Isles. •
March 5 – The
First Anglo-Burmese War begins in much of what is now
Bangladesh, and lasts for almost two years until the surrender of territories by the Kingdom of Burma on February 24, 1826. •
March 7 – In the
Florida Territory, the announcement is made from
St. Augustine that the capital will be moved to
Tallahassee. •
March 9 – The
Netherlands Trading Society (
Netherlandsche Handel-Maatschappij), predecessor of the Dutch bank
ABN AMRO, is founded. •
March 11 – The
United States War Department creates the
Bureau of Indian Affairs. •
March 17 – The
Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 is signed to resolve territorial disputes between the British Empire and the Netherlands over control of the Malay Peninsula and the Dutch East Indies (now Malaysia and Indonesia) •
March 19 – American explorer
Benjamin Morrell departs
Antarctica after a voyage later plagued by claims of fraud.
April–June •
April 7 – The
Mechanics' Institution is established in
Manchester, England at the Bridgewater Arms hotel, as part of a national movement for the education of working men. The institute is the precursor to two Universities in the city: the
University of Manchester and the
Metropolitan University of Manchester (MMU). •
April 9 – The first permanent settlers arrive to construct the new city of
Tallahassee, Florida, selected to be the capital of the
Florida Territory newly acquired from the Kingdom of Spain; the area has been selected because it is roughly equidistant from the territory's main cities,
Pensacola and
St. Augustine. •
April 19 –
Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron), the British poet, dies at the age of 36 in the Greek city of
Missolonghi, where he had taken ill while making plans to liberate the Greeks from Ottoman rule, "not in combat, but of a fever caught in the unhealthy conditions at Missolonghi... exacerbated, it is generally agreed, by the over-zealous actions of his doctors, who
bled him excessively." •
April 30 – The
April Revolt (
La Abrilada) in
Portugal begins when
Prince Miguel acts against his
Liberal opponents in defiance of his father
John VI. •
May 7 –
Ludwig van Beethoven's
Ninth Symphony (the "Choral") premieres at the
Theater am Kärntnertor in Vienna. The deaf composer has to be turned around on the stage to witness the enthusiastic audience reaction. •
May 24 –
First Anglo-Burmese War: The British take
Rangoon, capital of the Kingdom of Burma (now Yangon, Myanmar), in a surprise attack. •
June 16 – The
Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is established in Great Britain.
July–September •
July 2 – The
Confederation of the Equator begins in
Pernambuco, Brazil: Wealthy landowners against the government of
Emperor Pedro I initiate a secessionist movement for the independence of Pernambuco. •
July 8 – Queen
Kamāmalu of Hawaii dies of
measles, while accompanying her husband during a visit to the United Kingdom. •
July 10 –
Visit of the Marquis de Lafayette to the United States:
Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette and a beloved hero of the American Revolution, departs from the port of
Le Havre in France on the ship
Cadmus for a triumphant return to the United States; he arrives in New York on August 15. •
July 13 – King
Kamehameha II of Hawaii dies of
measles, during a visit to the United Kingdom, before he can meet with King
George IV. Because of the slow communications of the era, news of the King's death does not reach Hawaii until the following March; his funeral would then take place on May 11, 1825, and subsequently he is succeeded by his brother
Kamehameha III. •
July 19 – Don
Agustín de Iturbide, who had formerly been
President of Mexico and then proclaimed himself Emperor Agustin the First, until being overthrown on March 19, 1823, is executed by a firing squad in the city of
Padilla, five days after returning from exile in England. •
July 25 – The
Montparnasse Cemetery opens in Paris, France. •
August 6 –
Peruvian War of Independence:
Battle of Junín – Pro-independence forces defeat the Spanish in the highlands of the Junín region. •
August 7 – The
First Anglo-Ashanti War ends when forces of the
Ashanti Empire flee the field. •
August 15 – The
visit of the Marquis de Lafayette to the United States begins at
Staten Island. •
September 16 –
Charles X succeeds his brother
Louis XVIII as King of France. •
September 26 – The earliest reference by the British government to an official renaming of its South Pacific Ocean territory as "Australia" comes in a dispatch titled "Taking Possession of Melville and Bathurst Islands", as the Admiral Sir
Gordon Bremer refers to "the North Coast of
New Holland or
Australia".
October–December •
October 4 – The
First Constitution of Mexico is ratified, declaring the country to be a
federal republic called the United Mexican States (Estados Unidos Mexicanos). •
October 10 – The
Edinburgh Town Council founds the Edinburgh Municipal Fire Brigade, the first
fire brigade in Britain, under the leadership of
James Braidwood. •
October 21 –
Joseph Aspdin patents
Portland cement, receiving BP 5,022 for
An Improvement in the Mode of Producing an Artificial Stone. •
November 5 –
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the first
technological university in the English-speaking world, is founded in
Troy, New York. • – In the
1824 St. Petersburg flood, the worst up to that time in the Russian capital,
Saint Petersburg, water rises above normal, and at least 200 people are killed. •
November 30 – The first sod is turned in
Ontario for the first of four
Welland Canals. The canal opens for a trial run five years later to the day, on November 30, 1829. •
December 3 –
1824 United States presidential election: None of the four candidates for U.S. president—
Andrew Jackson,
John Quincy Adams,
Henry Clay or
William H. Crawford— gain a majority of the electoral votes, although Jackson has a plurality of 40.5% of the popular vote.
John C. Calhoun wins a majority of the electoral votes for Vice President. The election for President is carried out by the
U.S. House of Representatives on February 9, 1825, pursuant to the Twelfth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, with each of the 24 states having a vote, of which Adams receives 13 votes for the minimum majority necessary . •
December 9 –
Peruvian War of Independence:
Battle of Ayacucho – Colombian and Peruvian forces led by
Antonio José de Sucre defeat the Spanish. The commander,
Viceroy de la Serna, surrenders, ending Spain's domination of South America. •
December 24 – The first American social fraternity,
Chi Phi (ΧΦ), is founded at
Princeton University. •
December 28 – In Australia, in what is now
New South Wales, the
Bathurst War comes to an end, with the defeat of the
Wiradjuri indigenous nation and the peaceful surrender of their leader, Chief
Windradyne, at a feast at Parramatta.
Date unknown • Egyptian and Albanian troops of the Ottoman Empire overturn the Greek revolt on
Crete. • The Dutch sign the Masang Agreement, temporarily ending hostilities in the
Padri War. • The name
Australia, recommended by
Matthew Flinders in 1804, is adopted by the
British Admiralty as the official name of the country once known as
New Holland. • The
Panoramagram is invented as the first stereoscopic viewer. • The
Colorado potato beetle is first described, by
Thomas Say. == Births ==