/year

The 1820s

720 sourced entries across 10 years, inside the 19th century. Each year below opens its own page; the lines under it are that year’s highest-ranked entries.

1820 CE75 entries

  • March 3 and 6 – The Missouri Compromise becomes law, allowing admission of Missouri and Maine, as slave and free states respectively, as U.S. states.
  • March 26 – Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, receives his First Vision in Palmyra, New York.
  • August 24 – A Constitutionalist insurrection breaks out at Oporto, Portugal.

1821 CE67 entries

  • May 5 – The first edition of the Manchester Guardian newspaper (from 1959 simply The Guardian) is published in England.
  • June 14 – Egyptian conquest of Sudan (1820–1824): King Badi VII of Sennar surrenders his throne and realm without a fight to Ismail Pasha, general of the Ottoman Empire, ending the existence of the Funj Sultanate in Sudan.
  • June 24 – Battle of Carabobo: Simón Bolívar wins Venezuela's independence from Spain.

1822 CE82 entries

  • January 7 – The first freed slaves from the United States arrive on the west coast of Africa, founding Monrovia on April 25.
  • March 19 – The Holy Alliance sends the Ottoman Empire a final ultimatum after Ottoman repression of Austrian subjects in Bucharest during the Wallachian uprising, otherwise facing war with Austria.
  • August 5–13 – A sequence of earthquakes occurs in the northern part of the Ottoman Empire, causing severe damage from Gaziantep to Antakya in modern Turkey and from Aleppo to Khan Sheikhun in modern Syria. At least 20,000 people are killed.

1823 CE79 entries

  • 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.
  • 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).
  • November – According to tradition, William Webb Ellis invents the sport of rugby football at Rugby School in England.

1824 CE69 entries

  • 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 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
  • September 13 – With his crew and 29 convicts aboard the Amity, John Oxley arrives at and founds the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement at what becomes Brisbane, Queensland, in Australia, after leaving Sydney.

1825 CE77 entries

  • May – History of Brisbane: The Australian city of Brisbane is founded.
  • September – The Lady Margaret Boat Club is founded by 12 members of St John's College, Cambridge.
  • October–December – Dispute between the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata and the Empire of Brazil over the Banda Oriental region leads to the Cisplatine War.

1826 CE71 entries

  • February 4 – James Fenimore Cooper's novel The Last of the Mohicans is first printed, by a publisher in Philadelphia.
  • June 14–15 – The Auspicious Incident: Mahmud II, sultan of the Ottoman Empire, crushes the last mutiny of janissaries in Istanbul.
  • June 20 – The Burney Treaty is signed in Bangkok between the United Kingdom and the Rattanakosin Kingdom of Siam, securing British power in southeast Asia.

1827 CE69 entries

  • January – In Laos, King Anouvong of Vientiane leads the Laotian Rebellion against Siam and successfully attacks Nakhon Ratchasima (the Siamese later invade Vientiane and nearly destroy the whole city).
  • October 20 – Greek War of Independence: Battle of Navarino – British, French and Russian naval forces destroy the Turko-Egyptian fleet in Greece. This is the last naval action to be fought under sail alone.
  • November – The term "socialist" is coined by Robert Owen in his London periodical, The Co-operative Magazine and Monthly Herald.

1828 CE68 entries

  • February 21 – The Cherokee Phœnix, the earliest newspaper published by Native Americans in the United States and in one of their indigenous languages, Cherokee, is first issued in New Echota.
  • May 9 – The Sacramental Test Act in the United Kingdom removes most prohibitions on nonconformists and Catholics holding public office.
  • August 27 – In South America, the Empire of Brazil and United Provinces of the Río de la Plata (modern-day Argentina) recognize the independence of Uruguay, causing the end of the Cisplatine War. Simón Bolívar declares himself dictator of Gran Colombia.

1829 CE63 entries

  • January 19 – August Klingemann's adaptation of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust premieres in Braunschweig.
  • March 21 – The bloodless Wellington–Winchilsea duel takes place at Battersea near London
  • August 14 – King's College London is founded by Royal Charter, under the patronage of King George IV and the Prime Minister, The Duke of Wellington.