istoryworld
All Events
A 12-year-old Dorset child, Mary Anning, discovers at Lyme Regis a 21 ft (6.4m) fossil of an icthyosaur
All but one of 300 Mameluke guests are assassinated during an entertainment by Muhammad Ali in Cairo
Italian chemist Amedeo Avogadro publishes a hypothesis, about the number of molecules in gases, that becomes known as Avogadro's Law
Percy Bysshe Shelley is expelled from Oxford university for circulating a pamphlet with the title The Necessity of Atheism
English author Jane Austen publishes her first work in print, Sense and Sensibility, at her own expense
Masked Luddites smash machinery in night raids on factories in Nottingham
John Jacob Astor establishes Astoria, a settlement on the Pacific coast to develop his fur trade with China
Mortlake’s two small breweries merge as a single business
The citizens of Bogotá declare the independence of the province of Colombia
The colonists of Paraguay throw out their Spanish governor and declare independence
Dora Jordan is forced to leave Bushy House after being abandoned by her royal lover, the Duke of Clarence
An American army attacks and destroys Tecumseh's base at Prophetstown
Augustus Welby Pugin is born in London, the son of the architectural illustrator Augustus Charles Pugin
Today's Drury Lane Theatre opens
Turner completes the building of his villa. Initially called Solus Lodge, the name is changed to Sandycombe Lodge a year later.
French scientist Georges Cuvier introduces scientific palaeontology with his Research on the Fossil Bones of Quadrupeds
Lord Castlereagh becomes British foreign secretary in Spencer Perceval's government
Britain's first primary school is established by Robert Owen at New Lanark in Scotland
The British prime minister, Spencer Perceval, is assassinated in the lobby of the House of Commons by John Bellingham
After the death of Perceval, Lord Liverpool begins a 15-year spell as Britain's prime minister
Napoleon launches an attack on his ally, the Russian tsar Alexander I, with an army of more than 600,000 men
The French author Stendhal serves in the French army during the invasion of Russia
Damage to US trade by British orders in council prompts war (the War of 1812) between the two nations
The Spanish authorities recover control of Venezuela, ending the region's first brief spell of independence
The Spanish Cortes in Cadiz produces a strikingly liberal new constitution for Spain
