istoryworld
All Events
The British government uses Freetown, in Sierra Leone, as a base in the fight against the slave trade
A French army under Joachim Murat advances on Madrid, causing the Spanish royal family to flee
Napoleon transfers his brother Joseph Bonaparte from the throne of Naples to that of Spain
Napoleon gives the throne of Naples, vacated by his brother Joseph, to Joachim Murat
The German-born US entrepreneur John Jacob Astor establishes the American Fur Company
Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa set up a permanent base in Indiana, calling it Prophetstown
The French capture of Madrid provokes a British response and the resulting Peninsular War
An uprising in Madrid, brutally put down by the French, is vividly depicted by the Spanish painter Goya
The Portuguese royal family and their entourage arrive in Rio de Janeiro
Russia, after winning much of Finland from Sweden during the previous century, invades again in 1808
A British army under Arthur Wellesley (later duke of Wellington) defeats the French at Vimeiro, near Lisbon
The Shakers define their Millennial laws in the Testimony of Christ's Second Appearing
Beethoven's sixth symphony (the Pastoral) has its first performance in Vienna
Republican candidate James Madison wins the US presidential election, defeating Federalist Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
Baroness Howe demolishes Pope's Villa, earning herself the sobriquet Queen of the Goths, and builds a new house next door. The demolition is recorded by J M W Turner in his painting 'Pope's Villa at Twickenham'.
The British impose the so-called Hottentot Code, protecting Africans at the Cape but also tying them to employers' farms
Klemens von Metternich becomes foreign minister to the Austrian emperor Francis II
The Treaty of Fort Wayne is the climax of seven years in which William Henry Harrison has acquired millions of acres from the American Indians
Washington Irving uses the fictional Dutch scholar Diedrich Knickerbocker as the supposed author of his comic History of New York
With acts of defiance in Sucre, Bolivia becomes the first American province to rebel against the Spanish authorities
Ranjit Singh, maharaja of the Punjab, agrees an eastern boundary between himself and the British in the Treaty of Amritsar
British commander Arthur Wellesley builds the lines of Torres Vedras, to defend the promontory leading south to Lisbon
Napoleon annexes the Papal States and is excommunicated by the pope, Pius VII
French chemist Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac shows that when gases combine they do so in simple ratios by volume (later known as his Law of Combining Volumes)
In the Treaty of Hamina (or Fredrikshamn), Sweden cedes Finland to Russia as an autonomous grand duchy
