1803 CE

The First Consul of France Citizen Bonaparte begins making preparations to invade England. Emmet's insurrection: United Irishman Robert Emmet stages a rising in Dublin which is quelled by the military, with approximately fifty rebels and twenty soldiers dead. The Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, Lord Kilwarden, is hacked to death. Neither Michael Dwyer (from County Wicklow), nor Thomas Russell (in the North), nor rebels from Kildare, are able to offer support for the rebellion as planned. Emmet's insurrection in Ireland: United Irishman Robert Emmet stages a rising in Dublin which is quelled by the military, with approximately fifty rebels and twenty soldiers dead. The Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, Lord Kilwarden, is hacked to death.

In the 1800s, the 19th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

January 30 – Monroe and Livingston sail for Paris to discuss, and possibly buy, New Orleans; they end up completing the Louisiana Purchase.source
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.source
February 19 – Ohio is admitted as the 17th U.S. state.source
February 25 – A major redistribution of territorial sovereignty within the Holy Roman Empire is enacted, via an act known as the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss.source
25 February – A major redistribution of territorial sovereignty within the Holy Roman Empire is enacted via an act known as the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss.Germany source
February – The 3rd Cape Frontier War ends with an inconclusive peace that is arranged between the British administrators of the Cape Colony and the Xhosa before handing the Cape back to the DutchSouth Africa source
March 1 – Ohio is admitted as the 17th U.S. state, retroactive from August 7, 1953 (see History of Ohio).United States source
March 9 – Aargau becomes a Swiss canton.source
April 15 – Reykjavík is made a special jurisdiction with its own magistrate by royal decree. The first person to hold that position was the Dane Rasmus Frydensberg. His representative was Finnur Magnússon. In addition, two police officers were appointed, both of whom were Danish.Iceland source
25 May – Speaker of the House of Commons Charles Abbot allows journalists to report the proceedings of the House of Commons.United Kingdom source
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.source
July 4 – The Louisiana Purchase is announced to the American people.source
July 5 – The convention of Artlenburg leads to the French occupation of Hanover (which had been ruled by the British king).source
19 September – Alexander leaves Port Jackson to return Teina to New Zealand. Teina has stayed with Governor King while in Sydney and has been given gifts to take back with him, including pigs.New Zealand source
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.source
October 20 – The Senate ratifies the Louisiana Purchase Treaty, doubling the size of the United States.source
November 30 – 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.source
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.source
17 December - Treaty of Deogaon signed between the East India Company and the Rajah of Berar, Raghuji Bhonsle II. Bhonsle ceded territories, including Cuttack and Balasore, to the British.India source
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.source
Import of slaves to the Danish West Indies is abolished.Denmark source

Conflict & Security

February 20 – Kandyan Wars: Kandy, Ceylon is taken by a British detachment.source
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.source
April 30 – The Louisiana Purchase is made from France by the United States.source
April 30 – Louisiana Purchase is made by the United States from France.United States source
May 18 – The Napoleonic Wars begin, when the United Kingdom declares war on France, after France refuses to withdraw from Dutch territory.source
30 May – Following Britain's declaration of war on France, Édouard Mortier leads 12,000 troops in an Invasion of HanoverGermany source
May – First Consul of France, Citizen Bonaparte, begins making preparations to invade England.source
May - The First Consul of France Citizen Bonaparte begins making preparations to invade England.France source
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.source
July 23 – Robert Emmet's uprising in Ireland begins.source
23 July – Emmet's insurrection: United Irishman Robert Emmet stages a rising in Dublin which is quelled by the military, with approximately fifty rebels and twenty soldiers dead. The Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, Lord Kilwarden, is hacked to death. Neither Michael Dwyer (from County Wicklow), nor Thomas Russell (in the North), nor rebels from Kildare, are able to offer support for the rebellion as planned.Ireland source
23 July – Emmet's insurrection in Ireland: United Irishman Robert Emmet stages a rising in Dublin which is quelled by the military, with approximately fifty rebels and twenty soldiers dead. The Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, Lord Kilwarden, is hacked to death.United Kingdom source
August 3 – The British begin the Second Anglo-Maratha War, against the Scindia Dynasty of Gwalior.source
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.source
11 September – Battle of Delhi, during the Second Anglo-Maratha War, between British troops under General Lake, and the Marathas of Scindia's army under General Louis Bourquin.India source
September 23 – Second Anglo-Maratha War: Battle of Assaye – British-led troops defeat Maratha forces.source
November 18 – Haitian Revolution: Battle of Vertières – The Haitian army, led by Jean-Jacques Dessalines, defeats the French army sent by Napoleon.source
November 22 - Siege of Ganja beginsRussia source
December – Scorpion, William Dagg, master, lands in Dagg Sound.New Zealand source

Exploration & Expansion

1 January – Denmark–Norway abolishes transatlantic slave trade.Norway source
14 January – Lieut-Col David Collins is commissioned in England to found a new settlement on Bass Strait, preferably at Port Phillip.Australia source
30 January – George Bass asks Governor King of New South Wales for a fishing monopoly from a line bisecting New Zealand from Dusky Sound to Otago Harbour extending south to include the subantarctic islands. It is not granted but shows the sealers' area of interest at this time.New Zealand source
1 June – Alexander, Captain Robert Rhodes, arrives in Port Jackson with Teina aboard. Teina is the first Māori recorded to have left New Zealand since Tuki and Huru in 1793. Teina may have been related to Huru while the Sydney Gazette reports that Tuki spoke with the Alexander, possibly when it visited Doubtless Bay.New Zealand source
9 June – Matthew Flinders completes the first known circumnavigation of Australia.United Kingdom source
August 7 - Expedition to accomplish first Russian circumnavigation of the earth begins.Russia source
August 31 – The Lewis and Clark Expedition begins as Lewis and a crew of 11 depart on the Ohio River.source
John Colter becomes the fourth man selected by William Clark to join the Lewis and Clark Expedition.Canada source
Pascoe Grenfell contracts to trade in copper in the Swansea area.Wales source

Religion & Belief

19 April - Governor King proclaims toleration for Catholics and allows Fr James Dixon to say mass for Irish convicts.Australia source
26 June – John Macarthur writes the Statement of Improvement and Progression of Fine Woolled Sheep in New South Wales.Australia source
17 July - Thomas Burgess is consecrated Bishop of St David's.Wales source
Lismore Seminary is opened by the Catholic Church.Scotland source
Most of the 'Luckenbooths' in High Street, Edinburgh are demolished, opening up the prospect of St Giles' Cathedral.Scotland source
Jane Austen's novel Northanger Abbey, a satire on Gothic fiction, is advertised by a London publisher but is not in fact published until 1817, after her death.United Kingdom source
Thomas Johnes sets up a private printing press to publish translations of French medieval chronicles.Wales source
Rhys Davies (Y Glun Bren) preaches from the mounting-block in front of the Black Lion Inn at Talybont in Cardiganshire, beginning Independent Methodist activity there.Wales source

Economy & Finance

September - A new company, the Union Iron World Company, is formed to run Rhymney ironworks, after Benjamin Hall takes it over.Wales source
The XY Company is reorganized under Alexander Mackenzie's name.Canada source
National income - ₹11,369 millionIndia source
The new Bank of Ireland buys the former Irish Parliament House on College Green in Dublin from the Government of the United Kingdom for conversion to its headquarters by Francis Johnston.Ireland source

Technology & Infrastructure

January 4 – William Symington demonstrates his Charlotte Dundas, the "first practical steamboat", in Scotland.source
4 January – William Symington demonstrates his Charlotte Dundas, the "first practical steamboat".Scotland source
2 February – Charles Grimes discovered the Yarra River.Australia source
5 March – George Howe publishes the first issue of the weekly The Sydney Gazette and The New South Wales Advertiser, Australia's first newspaper.Australia source
July 26 – The wagonway between Wandsworth and Croydon is opened, being the first public railway line in England.source
27 July – Caledonian Canal authorized by Act of Parliament and construction begins; Thomas Telford also begins work on improving roads in Scotland.United Kingdom source
First Canadian Paper Mill is built in Quebec.Canada source
Belvelly Bridge, linking Great Island to the mainland of County Cork, is built.Ireland source
The construction of Ledaal is finished.Norway source
Dunraven Castle is built, near Southerndown.Wales source

Science & Discovery

April 26 – The L'Aigle meteorite falls in Normandy, causing a shift in scientific opinion on the origin of meteorites.source
September 6 – John Dalton, British scientist, begins using symbols to represent the atoms of different elements.source
6 September – John Dalton FRS composes his five main points of atomic theory, the first to do so.United Kingdom source
21 October – John Dalton presents a paper to the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society containing the first table of atomic weights.United Kingdom source
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)source
Humphry Repton publishes Observations on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening.United Kingdom source
Smithson Tennant discovers the chemical elements iridium and osmium.United Kingdom source
William Hyde Wollaston discovers the chemical element rhodium.United Kingdom source
Paeonia mascula is discovered growing on the island of Steep Holm - the only species of peony native to the British Isles.Wales source

Health & Medicine

March–April – The franc germinal is introduced in France.source
25 November - William James Hobart Thorne is born at Port Phillip. He is the first white child born in what will later become the state of Victoria. He dies on 2 July 1872.Australia source
November 30 – The Balmis Expedition starts in Spain, with the aim of vaccinating millions against smallpox in Spanish America and the Philippines.source

Crime & Justice

February 24 – Marbury v. Madison: The Supreme Court of the United States establishes the principle of judicial review.source
14 May - Illegal Masonic meeting held in Sydney and all participants arrested.Australia source
24 June – Lord Ellenborough's Act (the Malicious Stabbings or Shooting Act) includes a provision that makes abortion a crime for the first time, also introducing a crime of 'concealment of birth' which might be charged when infanticide cannot be proved.United Kingdom source
19 September – Emmet, found guilty of high treason at the Sessions House, Dublin, delivers his Speech from the Dock, including the phrase "Let no man write my epitaph."Ireland source
20 September – Emmet is hanged in Thomas Street, Dublin.Ireland source
21 October – Thomas Russell, co-founder of the Society of United Irishmen, is hanged at Downpatrick Gaol.Ireland source
November – The King confirms the death sentence of murderers Bjarni Bjarnason and Steinunn Sveinsdóttir at Sjöundá.Iceland source
27 December – Convict William Buckley escapes from Sullivan Bay, Victoria. He lives with the Wautharong Aboriginal people for 32 years.Australia source
Robert Davies (Bardd Nantglyn) - BarddoniaethWales source

Culture & Society

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.source
30 January – Napoleon authorizes the celebration of a Joan of Arc feast in Orléans on 8 May.France source
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.source
26 June - First public assembly of the South Wales Unitarian Association.Wales source
11 August – child actor Master Betty makes his debut in Belfast, followed on 28 November by Dublin.Ireland source
Thomas Jefferson completes Louisiana Purchase extending U.S. control west of the Mississippi River; federal plans to resettle Eastern tribes beyond the Mississippi soon begin.Canada source
Bertel Thorvaldsen completes his statue of Jason with the Golden Fleece, his first major success.Denmark source
Demidov Lyceum founded in Jaroslavl.Russia source
Jane Porter's historical novel Thaddeus of Warsaw is published, immediately going through several editions.United Kingdom source
Joseph Lancaster publishes Improvements in Education as it Respects the Industrious Classes.United Kingdom source

Births

1 January – Daniel Egan, politician (died 1870)Australia source
February 2 – Albert Sidney Johnston, American Confederate general (died 1862)source
February 15 – John Sutter, German-American pioneer (died 1880)source
March 27 – Charles Lafontaine, Swiss mesmerist (died 1892)source
May 12 – Justus von Liebig, German chemist (died 1873)source
12 May – Justus von Liebig, chemist (died 1873)Germany source
May 25 – Ralph Waldo Emerson, American writer (died 1882)source
May 25 – Edward Bulwer-Lytton, English novelist, playwright and politician (died 1873)source
May 25 – Ralph Waldo Emerson, essayist and poet (died 1882)United States source
21 July (in England): Henry Samuel Chapman, Judge, journalist, politician.New Zealand source
July 24 – Adolphe Adam, French composer (died 1856)source
July 31 – John Ericsson, Swedish inventor, engineer (died 1889)source
August 3 – Sir Joseph Paxton, English gardener, architect and Member of Parliament (died 1865)source
August 3 – Mary Dominus, American settler of Hawaii (died 1889)source
August – Francesca Anna Canfield, American linguist, poet and translator (died 1833)source
September 28 – Prosper Mérimée, French writer (died 1870)source
October 16 – Robert Stephenson, English civil engineer (died 1859)source
December 11 – Hector Berlioz, French composer (died 1869)source

Deaths

January 23 – Arthur Guinness, Irish brewer (born 1725)source
February 1 – Anders Chydenius, Finnish priest, politician (born 1729)source
1 February – María Isidra de Guzmán y de la Cerda, scholar (born 1768)Spain source
February 21 – Edward Despard, British revolutionary (born 1751)source
March 14 – Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, German poet (born 1724)source
April 6 – William Hamilton, British diplomat, antiquary (born 1730)source
April 7 – Toussaint L'Ouverture, Haitian revolutionary (born 1743)source
May 8 – John Joseph Merlin, Belgian-born British clock- and musical-instrument-maker and inventor (born 1735)source
May 19 – Master Malati, a Coptic Christian leader, is beheaded by a Muslim mob in Cairo, Egypt.source
18 July – Magnús Ketilsson, 71, author.Iceland source
September 13 – John Barry, officer in the Continental Navy during the American Revolutionary War, later in the United States Navy (born 1745)source
September 16 – Nicolas Baudin, French explorer (born 1754)source
16 September – Nicholas Baudin, French explorer (born 1754)Australia source
September 20 – Irish rebel Robert Emmet is executed.source
October 2 – Samuel Adams, American revolutionary leader (born 1722)source
October 8 – Vittorio Alfieri, Italian dramatist, poet (born 1749)source
December 18 – Johann Gottfried Herder, German philosopher, writer (born 1744)source
18 December – Johann Gottfried Herder, philosopher and writer (born 1744)Germany source