January–March •
January 1 – The first edition of
Alexandre Balthazar Laurent Grimod de La Reynière's
Almanach des gourmands, the first guide to restaurant cooking, is published in Paris. •
January 4 –
William Symington demonstrates his
Charlotte Dundas, the "first practical steamboat", in Scotland. •
January 30 –
Monroe and Livingston sail for Paris to discuss, and possibly buy,
New Orleans; they end up completing the
Louisiana Purchase. •
February 19 • An
Act of Mediation, issued by
Napoleon Bonaparte, establishes the
Swiss Confederation to replace the
Helvetic Republic. Under the terms of the act,
Graubünden,
St. Gallen,
Thurgau, the
Ticino and
Vaud become Swiss cantons. •
Ohio is admitted as the 17th U.S. state. •
February 20 –
Kandyan Wars:
Kandy, Ceylon is taken by a British detachment. •
February 21 –
Edward Despard and six others are hanged and beheaded for plotting to assassinate King
George III, and to destroy the
Bank of England. •
February 24 –
Marbury v. Madison: The
Supreme Court of the United States establishes the principle of
judicial review. •
February 25 – A major redistribution of territorial sovereignty within the
Holy Roman Empire is enacted, via an act known as the
Reichsdeputationshauptschluss. •
March 9 –
Aargau becomes a Swiss canton.
April–June •
March–
April – The
franc germinal is introduced in France. •
April 5 —
Ludwig van Beethoven puts on a big Akademie concert at the
Theater an der Wien, in Vienna consisting of the premieres of his
second symphony,
third piano concerto, and his oratorio
Christ on the Mount of Olives. •
April 26 – The
L'Aigle meteorite falls in Normandy, causing a shift in scientific opinion on the origin of meteorites. •
April 30 – The
Louisiana Purchase is made from France by the United States. •
May –
First Consul of France, Citizen Bonaparte, begins making
preparations to invade England. •
May 18 – The
Napoleonic Wars begin, when the United Kingdom declares war on France, after France refuses to withdraw from Dutch territory. •
May 19 –
Master Malati, a
Coptic Christian leader, is beheaded by a
Muslim mob in
Cairo, Egypt. •
June 7 –
Indiana Territory governor (and future U.S. president)
William Henry Harrison signs
treaties at
Fort Wayne, with representatives of the
Delaware,
Shawnee,
Potawatomi,
Miami,
Kickapoo,
Eel River,
Wea,
Piankeshaw and
Kaskaskia Indian tribes. The U.S. Senate ratifies the treaties on November 25. •
June 14 –
Napoleon Bonaparte orders the establishment of five military camps to defend the coast of France, located at
Bayonne,
Ghent,
Saint-Omer,
Compiègne,
Saint-Malo, and one in the occupied Netherlands, at
Utrecht. Each one has 20,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry to defend it.
July–September •
July 4 – The
Louisiana Purchase is announced to the American people. •
July 5 – The
convention of Artlenburg leads to the French occupation of
Hanover (which had been ruled by the British king). •
July 23 –
Robert Emmet's uprising in Ireland begins. •
July 26 – The
wagonway between
Wandsworth and
Croydon is opened, being the first public railway line in England. •
August 3 – The British begin the
Second Anglo-Maratha War, against the
Scindia Dynasty of
Gwalior. •
August 31 – The
Lewis and Clark Expedition begins as Lewis and a crew of 11 depart on the Ohio River. •
September 6 –
John Dalton, British scientist, begins using symbols to represent the atoms of different elements. •
September 11 –
Second Anglo-Maratha War:
Battle of Delhi – British troops under
General Lake defeat the
Marathas of
Scindia's army, under General Louis Bourquin. •
September 20 – Irish rebel
Robert Emmet is executed. •
September 23 –
Second Anglo-Maratha War:
Battle of Assaye – British-led troops defeat
Maratha forces.
October–December •
October 14 –
Orissa, an area of
India along the
Bay of Bengal that comprises the modern-day Indian state of
Odisha, is occupied by the British under the
British East India Company, after the Second Anglo-Maratha War. The
Maratha Empire formally cedes the area in the Treaty of
Deogaon, signed on December 17. •
October 20 – The Senate ratifies the
Louisiana Purchase Treaty, doubling the size of the United States. •
November 18 –
Haitian Revolution:
Battle of Vertières – The Haitian army, led by
Jean-Jacques Dessalines, defeats the French army sent by
Napoleon. •
November 30 • The
Balmis Expedition starts in Spain, with the aim of vaccinating millions against smallpox in
Spanish America and the
Philippines. • At
the Cabildo in
New Orleans, Spanish representatives Governor Manuel de Salcedo and the Marqués de Casa Calvo officially transfer
Louisiana (New Spain) to French representative Prefect
Pierre Clément de Laussat. Barely three weeks later, France transfers the same land to the United States. •
December 9 – The proposed
Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution, requiring that electoral ballots distinctly list the choice for president and the choice for vice president, is approved by Congress for submission to the states for ratification; passed in the wake of the problems in the
1800 presidential election, the amendment is ratified by 13 of the 17 states and is proclaimed in effect on September 25, 1804. •
December 20 – The
Louisiana Purchase is completed as the French prefect, de Laussat, formally transfers ownership of land between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains to the United States, by way of commissioners
William C. C. Claiborne and
James Wilkinson. Claiborne is appointed as the area's first American governor.
Date unknown • Major breakthroughs in
chemistry occur, with the identification of the elements
rhodium and
palladium (by
William Hyde Wollaston);
osmium and
iridium (by
Smithson Tennant); and
cerium (by
Wilhelm Hisinger,
Jons Jakob Berzelius and
Martin Heinrich Klaproth) == Births ==