1802 CE

Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, begins removal of the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon in Athens, claiming they are at risk of destruction during the Ottoman occupation of Greece; the first shipment departs Piraeus on board Elgin's ship, the Mentor, "with many boxes of moulds and sculptures", including three marble torsos from the Parthenon. Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, begins removal of the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon in Athens, where they are at risk of destruction during the Ottoman occupation of Greece; the first shipment departs Piraeus on board Elgin's ship, the Mentor, "with many boxes of moulds and sculptures", including three marble torsos from the Parthenon. Gia Long captures Hanoi, completing his unification of Vietnam.

In the 1800s, the 19th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • March 25–27 – The Treaty of Amiens between the French Republic and the United Kingdom ends the War of the Second Coalition. The treaty also ends the French Revolutionary Wars.source
  • 25 March - Treaty of Amiens, temporarily ended hostilities between France and the United Kingdom during the French Revolutionary Wars.Francesource
  • April 26 – A general amnesty signed by Napoleon allows all but about 1,000 of the most notorious émigrés of the French Revolution to return to France as part of a conciliatory gesture to make peace with the various factions of the Ancien Régime that ultimately consolidates his own rule.source
  • April 30 – The Enabling Act of 1802 authorizes the creation of Ohio from the Northwest Territory and sets a precedent for the creation of future states from the western territories.United Statessource
  • April – The British occupation of the Danish West Indies ends.Denmarksource
  • May 20 – By the Law of 20 May 1802, Napoleon reinstates slavery in the French colonies, revoking its abolition in the French Revolution.source
  • July 5 – Parliamentary elections begin in the United Kingdom, with voting continuing until August 28; the Tories, led by Henry Addington, win control of the House of Commons.source
  • 5 July – 28 August – General election brings victory for the Tories led by Henry Addington.United Kingdomsource
  • 10 July - The British occupation of the Swedish colony of Saint Barthélemy discontinues.Swedensource
  • August 2 – In a plebiscite, Napoleon Bonaparte is confirmed as the First Consul of France.source
  • September 11 – The Italian region of Piedmont becomes a part of the French First Republic.source
  • 8 October - A Unitarian Association is formed in South Wales, with Josiah Rees and Iolo Morganwg among its leaders.Walessource
  • November 16 – The newly elected British Parliament is inaugurated by King George III, who tells the members, "In my intercourse with foreign powers, I have been actuated by a sincere disposition of the maintenance of peace," but adds that "My conduct will be invariably regulated by a due consideration of the actual situation of Europe, and by a watchful solicitude for the permanent welfare of my people."source
  • The planned village of Lybster is established by the local landowner, General Patrick Sinclair.Scotlandsource
  • A fragile Peace of Amiens is concluded between England and FranceSouth Africasource

Conflict & Security

  • January 5 – Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, begins removal of the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon in Athens, claiming they are at risk of destruction during the Ottoman occupation of Greece; the first shipment departs Piraeus on board Elgin's ship, the Mentor, "with many boxes of moulds and sculptures", including three marble torsos from the Parthenon.source
  • 5 January – Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin, British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, begins removal of the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon in Athens, where they are at risk of destruction during the Ottoman occupation of Greece; the first shipment departs Piraeus on board Elgin's ship, the Mentor, "with many boxes of moulds and sculptures", including three marble torsos from the Parthenon.United Kingdomsource
  • February 3 – Leclerc and the first 5,000 of 20,000 troops arrive at Cap-François (modern Cap-Haïtien).source
  • April 21 – About 12,000 Wahhabi Sunnis under the command of Abdul-Aziz bin Muhammad, the second ruler of the First Saudi State attack and sack Karbala, kill between 2,000 and 5,000 inhabitants and plunder the tomb of Husayn ibn Ali, grandson of Muhammad and son of Ali ibn Abi Talib.source
  • May – Madame Marie Tussaud first exhibits her wax sculptures in London, having been commissioned, during the Reign of Terror in France, to make death masks of the victims.source
  • June 8 – Haitian revolutionary Toussaint Louverture is seized by French troops and imprisoned at the Fort de Joux.source
  • 9 July - The Lærdal Rebellion ends.Norwaysource
  • July 22 – Gia Long captures Hanoi, completing his unification of Vietnam.source
  • October 2 – War ends between Sweden and Tripoli. The United States also negotiates peace, but war continues over the size of compensation.source
  • October 2 – First Barbary War: Fighting ends between Sweden and Tripoli. The United States also negotiates peace, but war continues over the size of compensation.United Statessource
  • October 15 – French Army General Michel Ney enters Switzerland with 40,000 troops, on orders of Napoleon Bonaparte.source
  • The Tlingit start resisting Russian incursions into their territory.Canadasource
  • A Panoramic painting of the Battle of Copenhagen created by Heinrich August Grosch (1763-1843) is on public display in a purpose-built wooden rotunda ay present-day Sølvgade 20–22 in Copenhagen. In 1800,Denmarksource
  • Margrave of Baden- Charles Frederick (21 October 1771–27 April 1803)Germanysource
  • Ministry of War of the Russian EmpireRussiasource
  • John Home publishes History of the Rebellion of 1745.Scotlandsource

Exploration & Expansion

  • January 29 – The French Saint-Domingue expedition (40,000 troops) led by General Charles Leclerc (Bonaparte's brother-in-law) lands in Saint-Domingue (modern Haiti) in an attempt to restore colonial rule following the Haitian Revolution in which Toussaint Louverture (a black former slave) has proclaimed himself Governor-General for Life and established control over Hispaniola.source
  • 14 February – Acting lieutenant John Murray, commander of the Lady Nelson, explores Port Phillip.Australiasource
  • 8 April – Matthew Flinders meets the French explorer Nicolas Baudin at Encounter Bay.Australiasource
  • 1 May – Matthew Flinders becomes the first European to visit the You Yangs ranges near Geelong, Victoria. He and three of his men climb to the highest point, naming it "Station Peak". It is later renamed Flinders Peak.Australiasource
  • 21 May – Governor King questions the Captains of three ships, the Britannia, Speedy and Venus i about whaling off the New Zealand coast.New Zealandsource
  • May – Amelia, commanded by William Proby, Lord Proby sails to Cork, Waterford and Dublin to land 150 discharged seaman.Irelandsource
  • August - Sir William and Lady Hamilton visit Milford Haven, along with Admiral Horatio Nelson. Nelson subsequently visits Monmouth and the Naval Temple on The Kymin. Also on his Welsh expedition he visits Cyfarthfa Ironworks, in recognition of its contribution to the war effort.Walessource
  • Hans Jonatan, an escaped slaved from the West Indies arrives in Iceland, landing in Djúpivogur unbeknownst to the Danish government.Icelandsource
  • The whaler Harriet is the first ship known to have visited the Bay of Islands since 1793.New Zealandsource

Religion & Belief

  • 10 October – the reforming quarterly The Edinburgh Review is first published by Archibald Constable.Scotlandsource
  • Linen Hall Library moves into permanent premises in the White Linen Hall in Belfast.Irelandsource
  • First Christian Brothers' school founded by Edmund Rice in Waterford.Irelandsource
  • Solomon Hirschell elected rabbi of the Great Synagogue of London, becoming recognised as chief rabbi of the United Kingdom.United Kingdomsource
  • Thomas Charles - The Welsh Methodists VindicatedWalessource

Economy & Finance

  • Alexander Mackenzie is knighted for his efforts in 1802 and becomes a member of the XY Company.Canadasource
  • National income - ₹11,115 millionIndiasource
  • Lærdalske lette infanterikompani was formed.Norwaysource
  • Ministry of Finance of the Russian EmpireRussiasource
  • Malcolm Laing publishes History of Scotland from the Union of the Crowns to the Union of the Kingdoms.Scotlandsource
  • North Wales Baptist Association is launched by Christmas Evans.Walessource
  • Royal Anglesey Yacht Club founded at Beaumaris.Walessource

Technology & Infrastructure

  • March 16 – The United States Army Corps of Engineers is re-established, and the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York is established under its management, opening on July 4.source
  • June 1 – The United States Patent and Trademark Office is established within the Department of State.source
  • June 1 – William Thornton is appointed the first superintendent of the United States Patent Office.United Statessource
  • July 19 – Éleuthère Irénée du Pont founds E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, the modern DuPont chemical company, as a gunpowder manufactory near Wilmington, Delaware.source
  • July 31 – William Wordsworth, leaving London for Dover and Calais with his sister Dorothy, witnesses the early morning scene which he captures in his sonnet "Composed upon Westminster Bridge".source
  • 27 August – West India Docks, first commercial docks in London, open.United Kingdomsource
  • 2 October – first Start Point lighthouse on Sanday, Orkney, completed by Robert Stevenson.Scotlandsource
  • October 12 – Joseph Gardner Swift and Simeon Magruder Levy become the first graduates of the United States Military Academy.United Statessource
  • 5 November – Marc Isambard Brunel begins installation of his blockmaking machinery at Portsmouth Block Mills.United Kingdomsource
  • Johann Wilhelm Ritter builds the first electrochemical cell.Germanysource
  • George Bodley of Exeter patents the first enclosed kitchen stove.United Kingdomsource

Science & Discovery

  • February – The Rosetta Stone is brought to England by Colonel Tomkyns Hilgrove Turner, who arrives at Portsmouth on the captured French frigate L'Egyptiane.source
  • March 28 – H. W. Olbers discovers the asteroid Pallas.source
  • 8 April - Organic Articles presented by Napoleon.Francesource
  • April 10 – The Great Trigonometrical Survey of India begins with the measurement of a baseline near Madras.source
  • 6 May – William Herschel coins the term asteroid and on 1 July first uses the term binary star to refer to a star which revolves around another.United Kingdomsource
  • 5 July – André-Jacques Garnerin and Edward Hawke Locker make a 17-mile (27.4-km) balloon flight from Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London, to Chingford in just over 15 minutes.United Kingdomsource
  • John Playfair publishes Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth in Edinburgh, popularising James Hutton's theory of geology.Scotlandsource
  • Abraham Rees - The New Cyclopaedia, vol. 1Walessource

Health & Medicine

  • January – Mitchell's Hospital Old Aberdeen admits its first residents.Scotlandsource
  • April 12 — Beethoven leaves Vienna for a small nearby Austrian village named Heiligenstadt where he would cope with his declining mental and physical health including his growing deafness. He would stay until October and there he would write an unsent letter to his brothers called the Heiligenstadt Testament. In the letter, Beethoven contemplates suicide but it was his passion for the art of music that prevented him so.source
  • December 2 – The Health and Morals of Apprentices Act in the United Kingdom comes into effect, regulating conditions for child labour in factories. Although poorly enforced, it pioneers a series of Factory Acts.source
  • 2 December – The Health and Morals of Apprentices Act (2 June) comes into effect, regulating conditions for child labour in factories. Although poorly enforced, it pioneers a series of Factory Acts.United Kingdomsource
  • Cork Fever Hospital and House of Recovery founded by Dr. John Milner Barry in Cork.Irelandsource
  • London Fever Hospital founded.United Kingdomsource
  • Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, admits its first intake.United Kingdomsource

Crime & Justice

  • 4 May – The Golden Horns of Gallehus are stolen.Denmarksource
  • June 2 – Indigenous Australian Pemulwuy, a leader of the resistance to European settlement of Australia, is shot dead by Henry Hacking.source
  • 2 June – Pemulwuy is shot and killed following the killing of four white men at Parramatta and Toongabbie.Australiasource
  • The Sjöundá Murders: Bjarni Bjarnason and Steinunn Sveinsdóttir murder a man and woman at a farm in Sjöundá.Icelandsource
  • Criminal Jurisdiction Act (British statute)Indiasource
  • Ministry of Justice of the Russian EmpireRussiasource
  • Moscow School of the Order of St CatherineRussiasource
  • Edward Jones (Bardd y Brenin) - The Musical and Poetical Relicks of the Welsh Bards, vol. 2Walessource

Disasters & Accidents

  • October 16 – The port of New Orleans and the lower Mississippi River are closed to American traffic by order of the city's Spanish administrator, Juan Ventura Morales, threatening the economy in the western United States, and prompting the need for the Louisiana Purchase.source
  • November 23 – East Indiaman Vryheid, in the service of the Batavian Republic, is shipwrecked in a gale off Hythe, Kent, in the south of England; only 18 of 472 on board survive.source
  • 23 November – East Indiaman Vryheid, in the service of the Batavian Republic, is shipwrecked in a gale off Hythe, Kent; only 18 of 472 on board survive.United Kingdomsource

Climate & Environment

  • October 26 – A powerful 7.9 earthquake shakes the Romanian district of Vrancea destroying hundreds of buildings, triggering landslides and killing 4 people. This earthquake is considered one of the strongest to have shaken Europe.source
  • 2-3 December – 75mm of rain falls in a 30-hour period in Dublin causing serious flooding. Two ships sank at the North Wall, while "all of the major rivers around the city, the Liffey, Poddle and Dodder burst their banks." The stone-built Ormond Bridge (modern day site of O'Donovan Rossa Bridge) was washed away, necessitating a replacement.Irelandsource
  • Drought and famine plague the AmaZulu region, causing internal strife, social dislocation, and thousands of refugees.South Africasource

Culture & Society

  • January 15 – Canonsburg Academy (modern-day Washington & Jefferson College) is chartered by the Pennsylvania General Assembly.source
  • 29 January – Greenock Burns Club holds the first Burns dinner, in Alloway.Scotlandsource
  • March 3 – Ludwig van Beethoven publishes his Piano Sonata No. 14, commonly known as the "Moonlight Sonata" (Mondschein), in Vienna; the availability of the sheet music is announced by Giovanni Cappi in the newspaper Wiener Zeitung.source
  • 3 March – Ludwig van Beethoven publishes his Piano Sonata No. 14, commonly known as the "Moonlight Sonata" (Mondschein), in Vienna; the availability of the sheet music is announced by Giovanni Cappi in the newspaper Wiener Zeitung.Germanysource
  • March 11 – The Rosetta Stone is presented to the Society of Antiquaries of London, which in turn presents it to the British Museum.source
  • March 16 – Congress authorizes the establishment of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.United Statessource
  • May 19 – Napoleon establishes the French Legion of Honour (Légion d'honneur).source
  • June 1 – At Huế, shortly before his conquest of Tonkin, Nguyen Anh is crowned as the Emperor Gia Long, the first ruler of the Nguyễn dynasty in Vietnam.source
  • June – The first account of Thomas Wedgwood's experiments in photography is published by Humphry Davy in the Journal of the Royal Institution in London. Since a fixative for the image has not yet been developed, the early photographs quickly fade.source
  • 9 October – The first book printed in Australia, an abridged version of the New South Wales General Standing Orders, is published under supervision by the government printer, George Howe.Australiasource
  • Saint Mary's University is founded at Halifax.Canadasource
  • Det Dramatiske Selskab in Trondheim was founded.Norwaysource
  • Imperial Philanthropic SocietyRussiasource
  • Sir Robert Williames Vaughan marries Anna Maria Mostyn, daughter of Sir Roger Mostyn, 5th Baronet.Walessource

Births

Deaths

  • February 3 – Pedro Rodríguez, Count of Campomanes, Spanish statesman, writer (born 1723)source
  • February 26 – Esek Hopkins, American Revolutionary War admiral (born 1718)source
  • April 18 – Erasmus Darwin, English physician and botanist (born 1731)source
  • April 26 – Edmund Nelson (clergyman), English priest (born 1722)source
  • May 9 – Erik Magnus Staël von Holstein, Swedish ambassador (born 1749)source
  • May 22 – Martha Washington, first First Lady of the United States (born 1731)source
  • 2 June – Pemulwuy (born c. 1750), Indigenous Australian resistance leaderAustraliasource
  • July 6 – Daniel Morgan, American pioneer, Congressman from Virginia, and general (born 1736)source
  • July 15 – John de Verdion, London-based bookseller and language instructor (born 1740s)source
  • July 22 – Xavier Bichat, French anatomist and pathologist (born 1771)source
  • July 24 – Joseph Ducreux, French noble, portrait painter, pastelist, miniaturist, and engraver (born 1735)source
  • 25 July – Friedrich Karl Joseph von Erthal, Archbishop of Mainz (born 1719)Germanysource
  • 8 August – Field Commandant Tjaart van der Walt is killed in a skirmish against the Xhosa and Khoi-Khoi in the Kouga MountainsSouth Africasource
  • September 26 – Jurij Vega, Slovenian mathematician, physicist, and soldier (born 1754)source
  • November 15 – George Romney, English artist (born 1734)source
  • November 16 – André Michaux, French botanist (born 1746)source
  • December 31 – Francis Lewis, signer of the United States Declaration of Independence (born 1713)source
  • Johann Georg Joseph Spangler (an Austrian Composer) dies on 2 November 1802, (aged 50).Austriasource