Year 1817 (MDCCCXVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar).

Events of 1817

January - March

• January 19 - An army of 5,423 soldiers, led by General José de San Martín, starts crossing the Andes from Argentina to liberate Chile and then Peru.
• February 12 - The Argentine/Chilean patriotic army defeats the Spanish in the Battle of Chacabuco.
• March 3
  • The Alabama Territory is created by splitting the Mississippi Territory in half, 9 months before Mississippi becomes a U.S. state.
    • President James Madison vetoes John C. Calhoun's Bonus Bill.
• March 4 - James Monroe succeeds James Madison as the President of the United States of America.

April - June

• April - Earthquake in Palermo, Italy
• April 3 - Princess Caraboo appears in Almondsbury in Gloucestershire, England.
• April 15 - The first American school for the deaf opens in Hartford, Connecticut.
• April 17 - Martin Van Buren passes Erie Canal bill.
• April 28 - Rush-Bagot Treaty is signed.
• May - The General Convention of the Episcopal Church founded General Theological Seminary while meeting in New York City.
• June 5 - First Great Lakes steamer, the , is launched.
• June 25 - Large prison riot in Copenhagen prison - army is sent for to quell it.

July - September

• July 4 - At Rome, New York, construction on the Erie Canal begins.
• August 22 - City of Araraquara, Brazil founded.
• August 23 - Earthquake near the site of the ancient Greek city of Helike results in 65 deaths.

October - December

• October - President and Mrs. James Monroe move back into the White House, after restoration repairs.
• October 31 - Emperor Ninkō accedes to the throne of Japan.
• November 20 - The first Seminole War begins in Florida.
• November 22 - Fredric Cailliaud discovers the old Roman emerald mines at Sikait, Egypt.
• December 10 - Mississippi is admitted as the 20th U.S. state, separated from the Alabama Territory.

Undated

• Elgin Marbles are displayed in the British Museum.
• John Kidd extracts naphthalene from coal tar.
• Samuel Taylor Coleridge publishes Biographia Literaria.
• A Typhus epidemic occurs in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
• Outbreak of the Pernambucan Revolt.

Births

January - June

• January 6 - J. J. McCarthy, Irish architect (d. 1882)
• January 8 - Sir Theophilus Shepstone, British-born South African statesman (d. 1893)
• February 19 - King William III of the Netherlands (d. 1890)
• February 22 - Carl Wilhelm Borchardt, German mathematician (d. 1880)
• March 6 - Clémentine of Orléans, daughter of King Louis-Philippe of France and mother of Tsar Ferdinand I of Bulgaria (d. 1907)
• March 22 - Braxton Bragg, American Confederate general (d. 1876)
• May 15 - Debendranath Tagore, Indian philosopher (d. 1905)
• June 30 - Joseph Dalton Hooker, English botanist (d. 1911)

July - December

• July 12 - Henry David Thoreau, American philosopher (d. 1862)
• July 24 - Adolphe, Grand Duke of Luxembourg (d. 1905)
• August 3 - Archduke Albert, Austrian general (d. 1895)
• August 14 - Alexander H. Bailey, American politician (d. 1874)
• August 24 - Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, Russian writer (d. 1875)
• October 17 - Sir Syed Ahmad Khan (Bahadaur) Founder of the Two Nation Theory for a future Pakistan (d. 1898)
• November 3 - Leonard Jerome, American entrepreneur and grandfather of Sir Winston Churchill (d. 1891)
• November 12 - Bahá'u'lláh, Persian founder of the Bahá'í Faith (d. 1892)
• November 17 - Benjamin Champney, American painter (d. 1907)
• November 30 - Theodor Mommsen, German writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1903)

See also Category: 1817 births.

Deaths

January - June

• January 12 - Juan Andres, Spanish Jesuit (b. 1740)
• January 16 - Alexander J. Dallas, American statesman and financier (b. 1759)
• April 4 - André Masséna, French marshal (b. 1758)
• April 12 - Charles Messier, French astronomer (b. 1730)
• June 24 - Thomas McKean, American lawyer and signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1734)

July - December

• July 14 - Anne Louise Germaine de Staël, French writer (b. 1766)
• July 18 - Jane Austen, English novelist (b. 1775)
• July 19 - John Palmer, Bath architect (b. c. 1738)
• October 16 - Manuel Piar, Venezuelan military leader (b. 1774)
• November 14 - Policarpa Salavarrieta, Colombian spy and revolutionary who worked for the Independence of Colombia (b. 1795)
• November 30 - Jean-Baptiste-Melchior Hertel de Rouville, Canadian politician (b. 1748)
• 12 December - Emperor Tekle Giyorgis I of Ethiopia, (b. about 1751)

See also Category: 1817 deaths.