1823 CE

(approx.) – The first officially recognised gold is found in Australia, by surveyor James McBrien at Fish River, near Bathurst, New South Wales, predating the Australian gold rushes. Joseph Smith first goes to the place near Manchester, New York, where the golden plates are stored, having been directed there by God through an angel (according to what he writes in 1838). According to tradition, William Webb Ellis invents the sport of rugby football at Rugby School in England.

In the 1820s, the 19th century.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • February 28 – José de la Riva Agüero is sworn as the first president of Peru following a coup against the government of José de la Mar. He only rules 115 days.source
  • February 28 – Johnson v. McIntosh decided in the Marshall Court, a landmark Supreme Court decision relating to enduring aboriginal title and tribal sovereignty in the United States.United Statessource
  • March 19 – Emperor Agustín de Iturbide of Mexico abdicates, thus ending the short-lived First Mexican Empire.source
  • May 5 – Emperor Pedro I of Brazil inaugurates Brazil's first Assembleia Geral, with 50 Senators and 102 Deputies.source
  • May 7 – Mikhail Semyonovich Vorontsov is appointed as Governor-General of Novorossiya (New Russia), the portion of Russian Empire bordering the Black Sea (in modern days it constitutes southern regions of Ukraine).source
  • May 10 – Louis-Joseph Papineau and John Neilson are in London to present a petition of 60,000 signatures against favouring Union of the coloniesCanadasource
  • June 23 – Peruvian president José de la Riva Agüero is impeached by Congress. He rebels and establishes a short-lived rival government in Trujillo.source
  • July 1 – The Congress of Central America declares absolute independence from Spain, Mexico and any other foreign nation, including North America, and a republican system of government is established.source
  • July 16 – José Bernardo de Tagle elected as the second president of Peru by the Peruvian Congress.source
  • 19 July – The Governors Court is abolished by the Third Charter of Justice; it was replaced by the New South Wales Legislative Council.Australiasource
  • August 4 – Felipe Enrique Neri, Baron de Bastrop, the Mexican government administrator in charge of Anglo-American immigration into Mexico's state of Coahuila y Tejas, allows Stephen F. Austin to put together an 11-man police force, that will later be expanded to become the Texas Ranger Division.source
  • 14 September – Samuel Marsden and Samuel Leigh resume their departure from New Zealand. Thomas Kendall changes his mind and stays.New Zealandsource
  • September 23 - Cadiz falls to the French, ending the liberal revolution and restoring Ferdinand VII to the throneSpainsource
  • November 12 – The first Constitution of Peru is proclaimed, albeit it is almost immediately annulled by Simón Bolívar.source
  • November 12: Pedro I of Brazil closes the Constituent Assembly.Brazilsource
  • December 2 – James Monroe first introduces the Monroe Doctrine in the State of the Union address, declaring that any European attempts to recolonize the Americas would be considered a hostile act towards the United States.source
  • date unknown - Slavery is abolished in Chile.Chilesource
  • On 11 September, Sirohi State taken under British protection in return for acknowledgment of supremacy and government in accordance with the advice of the political resident.Indiasource

Conflict & Security

  • 13 January – Edward Paget, former MP for Caernarvon, is appointed Commander-in-Chief of British forces in India.Walessource
  • January 22 – By secret treaty signed at the Congress of Verona, the Quintuple Alliance gives France a mandate to invade Spain for the purpose of restoring Ferdinand VII (who has been captured by armed revolutionary liberals) as absolute monarch of the country.source
  • 22 January - By secret treaty signed at the Congress of Verona, the Quintuple Alliance gives France a mandate to invade Spain for the purpose of restoring Ferdinand VII (who has been captured by armed revolutionary liberals) as absolute monarch of the country.Francesource
  • 28 January - O'Higgins is deposed by a conservative coup. An interim Government Junta takes power.Chilesource
  • March 13: The Battle of Jenipapo took place, where Brazilian patriots were defeated by Portuguese troops in Piauí during the Brazilian War of Independence.Brazilsource
  • April 7 – French forces, the "Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis", cross the Spanish border at the Bidasoa River.source
  • April 10 – Siege of Pamplona begins in Navarre as French troops besiege the city's garrison.source
  • May 23 – The rebel Spanish government withdraws from Madrid to Seville following the French advance.source
  • May 25 – The Duke of Angoulême, commander of the invading French forces, establishes a regency in Madrid on behalf of Ferdinand VII who remains a captive of the Spanish government.source
  • August 9 – The Arikara War breaks out between the Arikara nation and the United States, the first American military conflict with the Plains Indians.United Statessource
  • August 31 – Battle of Trocadero: French infantry of the "Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint Louis" capture the fort of Trocadero and turn its guns on Cádiz.source
  • August 31 - Spanish liberal revolutionaries suffer a major defeat against the French at the Battle of TrocaderoSpainsource
  • September 17 – Pamplona surrenders to French forces after a five-month siege.source
  • September 23 – First Anglo-Burmese War: Burmese forces attack the British on Shapura, an island close to Chittagong.source
  • 23 September – First Burmese War: Burmese attack the British on Shapura, an island close to Chittagong.United Kingdomsource
  • September 30 – Cádiz surrenders to the French and Ferdinand VII of Spain is restored to his throne, immediately repealing the liberal Spanish Constitution of 1812. Despite French advice, he begins an era of repression against his opponents known as the Ominous Decade.source
  • The first Anglo-Ashanti War begins.source
  • The Sealers' War, also known as 'The War of the Shirt', in the Otago region, finally comes to an end (before July). (see also 1810)New Zealandsource

Exploration & Expansion

  • January 23 – In Paviland Cave on the Gower Peninsula of Wales, William Buckland inspects the "Red Lady of Paviland", the first identification of a prehistoric (male) human burial (although Buckland dates it as Roman).source
  • February 20 – Explorer James Weddell's expedition to Antarctica reaches latitude 74°15' S and longitude 34°16'45" W: the southernmost position any ship has reached at this time.source
  • 20 February – Explorer James Weddell's expedition to Antarctica reaches latitude 74°15' S and longitude 34°16'45" W, further south than any ship has reached previously.United Kingdomsource
  • March 15 – Sailor Benjamin Morrell erroneously reports the existence of the island of New South Greenland near Antarctica.source
  • 7 May – John Kent arrives in Foveaux Strait to investigate the possibility of setting up a flax trade.New Zealandsource
  • 5 June – A path through the Liverpool Range, now known as Pandora's Pass, is found by Allan Cunningham.Australiasource
  • 3 August – The Brampton arrives at the Bay of Islands. On board are Samuel Marsden, Henry Williams and family, and the Wesleyan missionaries John Hobbs and Nathaniel Turner (and family).New Zealandsource
  • August 24 – Hugh Glass gets mauled by a sow grizzly while on a fur trapping expedition in the Missouri Territory and has to crawl 200 miles for help.source
  • October 22 – Simón Bolívar writes to Paraguayan dictator José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia to release his friend the explorer Aimé Bonpland under threat of invasion. Rodríguez never responds to the letter.source
  • 31 October – John Oxley explores the Tweed River.Australiasource
  • October – HMS Essex, a former American frigate of 1799, is hulked at Cork to serve as a prison ship; from 1824 to 1834 she serves in this capacity at Kingstown.Irelandsource
  • British expedition up the St. Clair River; site of Corunna surveyed as a potential capital for Upper Canada.source
  • A group of men hike Eyjafjallajökull to inspect craters. They discovered a fissure vent near the summit caldera a bit to the west of Guðnasteinn.Icelandsource

Religion & Belief

  • January 28 - King Louis XVIII of France announces creation of the Hundred Thousand Sons of Saint LouisSpainsource
  • 16 May – William White and others arrive in the St Michael to reinforce the Wesleyan missionaries in the Bay of Islands.New Zealandsource
  • 18 July – Act for building additional Places of Worship in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland passed.Scotlandsource
  • 9 August – Reverend Marsden, in person, delivers the letter sacking Thomas Kendall from the Church Missionary Society. (see 1822)New Zealandsource
  • August 16 – Tsar Alexander I of Russia draws up a secret "manifesto", designating his second younger brother Nikolai to succeed him, bypassing Nikolai's older brother, Grand Duke Konstantin. The existence of the manifesto is revealed on Alexander's death in 1825.source
  • September 10 – Simón Bolívar is named dictator of Peru.source
  • September 22 – Joseph Smith first goes to the place near Manchester, New York, where the golden plates are stored, having been directed there by God through an angel (according to what he writes in 1838).source
  • September 28 – Roman Catholic Cardinal Annibale della Genga is elected Pope Leo XII.source
  • December 23 – The poem A Visit From St. Nicholas, attributed to Clement Clarke Moore, is first published.United Statessource
  • Catholic Association formed by Daniel O'Connell, to further Catholic emancipation.Irelandsource
  • London Missionary Society sets up southern Africa's first printing press in Tyhume Valley.South Africasource
  • The Presbyterian Church of Wales draws up a "Confession of Faith" and becomes a separate body.Walessource

Economy & Finance

  • 18 July – Excise Act reduces duties on the distillation of whisky, encouraging its commercial production.Scotlandsource
  • The Bank of Van Diemen's Land is established, it is Van Diemen's Land first commercial financial institution.Australiasource
  • Bergens Sparebank was established. It is Norway's second oldest bank.Norwaysource

Technology & Infrastructure

  • 15 February – Surveyor James McBrien at the Fish River near Bathurst discovers gold. It is the first known report of gold, though it is not made public, the Australian gold rushes do not begin until 1851.Australiasource
  • April 6 - French cross the river Bidasoa on the Franco-Spanish borderSpainsource
  • 17 June – Charles Macintosh patents the waterproof material later used to make Mackintosh coats.Scotlandsource
  • 5 August – the Royal Hibernian Academy of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture is established by letters patent in Dublin.Irelandsource
  • 25 November – Opening of The Royal Suspension Chain Pier at Brighton, designed by Captain Samuel Brown, RN, the first pleasure pier on the mainland of England.United Kingdomsource
  • James Fenimore Cooper's first volume of his Leatherstocking series published in United States.Canadasource
  • King Carl III (Karl Johan) ordered to build the royal palace in Christiania.Norwaysource
  • Summer – Stanley Embankment completed by Thomas Telford carrying the Holyhead road between Anglesey and Holy Island.Walessource

Science & Discovery

  • 23 January – At Paviland Cave on the Gower Peninsula, William Buckland inspects the "Red Lady of Paviland", the first identification of a prehistoric (male) human burial (although Buckland dates it as Roman).United Kingdomsource
  • 23 January – In Paviland Cave on the Gower Peninsula, William Buckland inspects the "Red Lady of Paviland", the first identification of a prehistoric (male) human burial (first discovered on 21 December last).Walessource
  • February 15 (approx.) – The first officially recognised gold is found in Australia, by surveyor James McBrien at Fish River, near Bathurst, New South Wales, predating the Australian gold rushes.source
  • 19 August – After the arrival of John Hobbs and Nathaniel Turner, Samuel Leigh leaves the Kaeo mission.New Zealandsource
  • 10 December – Mary Anning finds the first complete Plesiosaurus skeleton, on the Jurassic Coast.United Kingdomsource
  • Olbers' paradox is described by the German astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers.source
  • William Charles Wentworth publishes the first book of Australian verse, Australasia: A Poem, in London.Australiasource

Health & Medicine

  • 1 May - William Farquhar was dismissed from his position as First Resident by Stamford Raffles .Singaporesource
  • November – the Highland Society’s Veterinary School, predecessor of the University of Edinburgh's Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, organises its first regular classes in Edinburgh under William Dick.Scotlandsource
  • Cape government enacts "ameliorative" laws to regulate slave treatment, outlawing the public flogging of female slaves.South Africasource

Crime & Justice

  • July 4 – Royal assent is given to several significant Acts of Parliament in the United Kingdom, after the Home Secretary (and future Prime Minister) Robert Peel had worked to get approval by Parliament. Approved are the Judgment of Death Act 1823, effectively abolishing the death penalty for over 100 offences and; allowing judges to commute sentences for capital offences (other than murder or treason) to imprisonment or transportation.; the Transportation Act allowing convicts transported to the colonies to be employed on public works. On July 10, the Gaols Act 1823 is given assent, beginning the process of prison reform based on the campaign of Elizabeth Fry.source
  • July – Robert Peel ensures the passage of five Acts of Parliament, effectively abolishing the death penalty for over one hundred offences, starting to reverse the Bloody Code; in particular, the 4 July Judgement of Death Act allows judges to commute sentences for capital offences other than murder or treason to imprisonment or transportation.United Kingdomsource
  • The Caergwrle Bowl, a decorated Middle Bronze Age artefact, is discovered.Walessource
  • John Frost is sentenced to six months in prison for a libel against the town clerk of Newport.Walessource

Disasters & Accidents

  • 26 March – The packet ship Alert sinks off The Skerries, Isle of Anglesey, with the loss of a hundred lives.Walessource
  • July 15 – The Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome is almost completely destroyed by fire.source
  • 7 September – The Brampton runs aground on leaving the Bay of Islands. On board are Samuel Marsden, Thomas Kendall and Samuel Leigh.New Zealandsource
  • November 3 – An explosion at the Rainton Colliery Company's Plain Pit mine at Chilton Moor in the north-east of England, kills at least 57 coal miners.source
  • 3 November – An explosion at the Rainton Colliery Company's Plain Pit mine at Chilton Moor in County Durham kills at least 57 coal miners, six years after an accident at the same pit killed 27.United Kingdomsource

Climate & Environment

  • August 23 – Hugh Glass is attacked and mauled by a sow grizzly bear and left for dead in the Missouri Territory. He crawls 200 miles before reaching help, events depicted in The Revenant (2015 film).United Statessource
  • November 15 – Lone Horn succeeds (probably) his father, and becomes chief of the Minneconjou Sioux; he will be chief until his death on October 16, 1875.United Statessource
  • Katla under the Mýrdalsjökull ice cap erupted.Icelandsource
  • AmaKhumalo, led by Mzilikazi, migrate north of the Vaal River due to the Difaqane.South Africasource

Culture & Society

  • February 3 – Gioachino Rossini's opera Semiramide is first performed, at La Fenice in Venice.source
  • February 3 – Jackson Male Academy, precursor of Union University, opens in Alabama.source
  • February 3 – Jackson Male Academy, precursor of Union University, opens in Tennessee.United Statessource
  • February 10 – The first worldwide carnival parade takes place in Cologne, Prussia.source
  • April 13 – Franz Liszt, 11, gives a concert in Vienna, after which he is personally congratulated by Ludwig van Beethoven.source
  • 13 April – Franz Liszt, 11, gives a concert in Vienna, after which he is personally congratulated by Ludwig van Beethoven.Germanysource
  • May 9 – Russian author Alexander Pushkin begins work on his verse novel Eugene Onegin.source
  • May 25 – The Catholic Association, a campaign for Catholic emancipation within the United Kingdom, begins in Ireland at a meeting of 13 people at a bookseller's house on Capel Street in Dublin.source
  • June 5 – Raffles Institution is established (as the Singapore Institution) by the founder of Singapore, Sir Stamford Raffles.source
  • 5 June - Stamford Raffles lays the foundation stone for the Singapore Institution, now known as the Raffles Institution.Singaporesource
  • 23 June – Phillip Tapsell is married for the first time, to Maria Ringa of Ngā Puhi, by Thomas Kendall. The bride runs away later the same day. This is probably the first Christian wedding in New Zealand (as later claimed by Tapsell himself).New Zealandsource
  • July 28 – The first theatrical adaptation of the Frankenstein story, Presumption; or, the Fate of Frankenstein, opens at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in London. On August 29, Mary Shelley attends a performance, the only version of her novel she will ever see.source
  • August 1 – William Pitt Amherst arrives in Calcutta with Lady Amherst to become the new Governor-General of India.source
  • August 5 – The Royal Hibernian Academy is founded in Dublin.source
  • 23 August – A major eisteddfod is held at Mold.Walessource
  • October 5 – The Lancet medical journal is founded by Thomas Wakley in London.source
  • November – According to tradition, William Webb Ellis invents the sport of rugby football at Rugby School in England.source
  • The Oxford Union is founded as a student debating society in England.source
  • Work begins on the British Museum in London, designed by Robert Smirke, and the Altes Museum in Berlin, designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel.source
  • A General Description of Nova Scotia, Thomas Chandler Haliburton his first workCanadasource
  • Rønne Theater is established on BornholmDenmarksource
  • Det Dramatiske Selskab in Stavanger was founded.Norwaysource

Births

  • 1 January - Manuel Baquedano (died 1897)Chilesource
  • January 8 – Alfred Russel Wallace, British naturalist, biologist (died 1913)source
  • February 15 – Li Hongzhang, Chinese politician, general and diplomat (died 1901)source
  • 17 February: Princess Paula of Brazil, princess of the Empire of BrazilBrazilsource
  • February 28 – Ernest Renan, French philosopher, philologist, historian and writer (died 1892)source
  • April 1 – Simon Bolivar Buckner, American soldier, politician and Confederate soldier (died 1914)source
  • April 3 – William M. Tweed, American political boss (died 1878)source
  • April 25 – Abdülmecid I, Ottoman Sultan (died 1861)source
  • 2 May – José Vicente Barbosa du Bocage, zoologist and politician (died 1907).Portugalsource
  • May 15 – Youssef Bey Karam, Lebanese nationalist leader (died 1889)source
  • July 9 (date uncertain) – Phineas Gage, improbable American head injury survivor (died 1860)source
  • August 3 – Thomas Francis Meagher, American Civil War general (died 1867)source
  • August 4 – Oliver P. Morton, American politician (died 1877)source
  • August 5 – Eliza Tibbets, mother of the California orange industry (died 1898)source
  • August 13 – Goldwin Smith, English historian (died 1910)source
  • December 6 – Friedrich Max Müller, German-born Orientalist (died 1900)source
  • December 22 – Thomas Wentworth Higginson, American Unitarian minister, abolitionist (died 1911)source
  • ? – Muhammad Baqir Sharif Tabatabae, Iranian Islamic scholar.Iransource

Deaths

  • 5 January – George Johnston (born 1764), marine and Lieutenant-Governor of New South WalesAustraliasource
  • January 26 – Edward Jenner, English physician, medical researcher (born 1749)source
  • February 7 – Ann Radcliffe, English writer (born 1764)source
  • February 11 – Carnival tragedy of 1823: About 110 boys are killed during a stampede at the Convent of the Minori Osservanti in Valletta, Malta.source
  • March 14 – Charles François Dumouriez, French general (born 1739)source
  • March 14 – John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent, British Royal Navy admiral (born 1735)source
  • June 1 – Louis-Nicolas Davout, French marshal (born 1770)source
  • August 18 – Demerara rebellion of 1823: In the British colony of Demerara-Essequibo (modern-day Guyana in South America), an insurrection of 10,000 black slaves begins; it is suppressed after three days, but hundreds of suspects are executed in the reprisals that follow.source
  • August 20 – Pope Pius VII, Italian Benedictine (born 1742)source
  • August 20 – Pope Pius VII dies after a reign of more than 23 years that began on March 14, 1800; he is remembered for crowning Napoleon Bonaparte as Emperor of France.source
  • August 22 – Lazare Carnot, French general, politician and mathematician (born 1753)source
  • September 11 – David Ricardo, English economist (born 1772)source
  • 11 September – José Correia da Serra, Abbot, polymath, philosopher, diplomat, politician and scientist (born 1750 or 1751).Portugalsource
  • September 17 – Abraham-Louis Breguet, Swiss horologist, inventor (born 1747)source
  • September 20: Geir Vídalín, first Bishop of Iceland.Icelandsource
  • November 7 – General Rafael del Riego is executed in Madrid for high treason.source
  • November 7 - Rafael del Riego, liberal politician, general and revolutionary; executed by Ferdinand VII for leading the liberal revolution against him (born 1784)Spainsource
  • December 3 – Giovanni Battista Belzoni, Italian explorer, pioneer archaeologist of Egypt (born 1778)source