1819

1819 (MDCCCXIX) was a common year starting on Friday (dominical letter C) of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Wednesday (dominical letter E) of the Julian calendar, the 1819th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 819th year of the 2nd millennium, the 19th year of the 19th century, and the 10th and last year of the 1810s decade. As of the start of 1819, the Gregorian calendar was 12 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1918.

Events

January–March

• January 2 – The Panic of 1819, the first major peacetime financial crisis in the United States, begins.
• January 25 – Thomas Jefferson founds the University of Virginia.
• January 29 – Sir Stamford Raffles lands on the island of Singapore.
• February 2 – The Supreme Court of the United States under John Marshall rules in favor of Dartmouth College in the famous Dartmouth College v. Woodward case, allowing Dartmouth to keep its charter and remain a private institution.
• February 6 – A formal treaty between Hussein Shah of Johor and the British Sir Stamford Raffles establishes a trading settlement in Singapore.
• February 15 – The United States House of Representatives agrees to the Tallmadge Amendment barring slaves from the new state of Missouri (the opening vote in a controversy that leads to the Missouri Compromise).
• February 19 – Captain William Smith in British merchant brig Williams sights Williams Point, the northeast extremity of Livingston Island in the South Shetlands, the first land discovered south of latitude 60° S.
• February 22 – Spain cedes Florida to the United States by the Adams–Onís Treaty in exchange for the American renunciation of any claims on Texas that it might have from the Louisiana Purchase and $5 million.
• March 1 – The U.S. naval vessel USS Columbus is launched in Washington, D.C.
• March 6 – McCulloch v. Maryland: The U.S. Supreme Court rules that the Bank of the United States is constitutional.
• March 20 – Burlington Arcade opens in London.
• March 23 – In Mannheim, Duchy of Baden, German dramatist August von Kotzebue is assassinated by Karl Ludwig Sand.

April–June

• May 22 – The SS Savannah leaves port at Savannah, Georgia on a voyage to become the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean, although only a fraction of the trip will be made under steam. The ship arrives at Liverpool, England on June 20.

July–September

• August 6 – Norwich University is founded by Captain Alden Partridge in Vermont as the first private military school in the United States.
• August 7 – Battle of Boyacá: Simón Bolívar is victorious over the Royalist Army in Colombia. Colombia acquires its definitive independence from Spanish rule.
• August 16 – Peterloo Massacre: The cavalry charges into a crowd of protesters in Manchester, UK, resulting in 15 deaths and over 600 injuries.
• September 20 – The Carlsbad Decrees are issued throughout the German Confederation.

October–December

• October 15 – Desolation Island in the South Shetland Islands of the Antarctic is discovered by Captain William Smith in the Williams.
• December 14 – Alabama is admitted as the 22nd U.S. state.
• December 17 – The Republic of Gran Colombia is formally established with Simón Bolívar as its first president.

Date unknown

• The ʻAi Noa Movement takes power in Hawaii.
• Serfdom is abolished in Livonia.
• The city of Fernandina of Jagua (later Cienfuegos) is founded in Cuba.
• A British Arctic expedition under William Parry comprising HMS Hecla and HMS Griper reaches longitude 112°51' W in the Northwest Passage, the furthest west which will be attained by any single-season voyage for 150 years.^[1]
• The African Slave Trade Patrol is founded to stop the slave trade on the coast of West Africa.

Births

January–June

Jacques Offenbach

• January 6 – Baldassare Verazzi, Italian painter (d. 1886)
• February 8 – Sidonija Rubido, Croatian singer (d. 1884)
• February 8 – John Ruskin, English writer, artist, and social critic (d. 1900)
• February 11 – Samuel Parkman Tuckerman, American composer (d. 1890)
• February 14 – Christopher Latham Sholes, American inventor (d. 1890)
• February 20 – Alfred Escher, Swiss politician, railroad entrepreneur (d. 1882)
• February 22 – James Russell Lowell, American poet and essayist (d. 1891)
• March 3 – Gustave de Molinari, Belgian economist (d. 1912)
• March 14 – Erik Edlund, Swedish physicist and meteorologist (d. 1888)
• March 26 – Louise Otto-Peters, German women's rights movement activist (d. 1895)
• March 31 – Chlodwig, Prince of Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1901)
• April 4 – Queen Maria II of Portugal (d. 1853)
• April 11 – Charles Hallé, German pianist and conductor (d. 1895)
• April 18 – Franz von Suppé, Austrian composer (d. 1895)
• April 28 – Ezra Abbot, American Biblical scholar (d. 1884)
• May 5 – Stanisław Moniuszko, Polish composer (d. 1872)
• May 24 – Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom (d. 1901)
• May 27 – Julia Ward Howe, American abolitionist and poet (d. 1910)
• May 31
  • Walt Whitman, American poet (d. 1892)
  • William Worrall Mayo, English-American physician and chemist (d. 1911)
• June 5 – John Couch Adams, English astronomer (d. 1892)
• June 10 – Gustave Courbet, French painter (d. 1877)
• June 20 – Jacques Offenbach, German-born composer (d. 1880)
• June 29 – Nicolae Bălcescu, Wallachian revolutionary (d. 1852)

July–December

Clara Schumann

Léon Foucault

Theodor Fontane

• July 9 – Elias Howe, American inventor and sewing machine pioneer (d. 1867)
• July 19 – Gottfried Keller, Swiss writer (d. 1890)
• July 26 – Justin Holland, American musician and civil rights activist (d. 1887)
• August 1
  • Richard Dadd, British painter (d. 1886)
  • Herman Melville, American novelist (d. 1891)
• August 13 – Sir George Gabriel Stokes, Irish mathematician and physicist (d. 1903)
• August 25 – Allan Pinkerton, American detective (d. 1884)
• August 26 – Prince Albert, Prince Consort to Queen Victoria (d. 1861)
• September 7 – Thomas Hendricks, Vice President of the United States (d. 1885)
• September 13 – Clara Schumann, German composer and pianist (d. 1896)
• September 18 – Léon Foucault, French physicist (d. 1868)
• September 22 – Wilhelm Wattenbach, German historian (d. 1897)
• September 23 – Hippolyte Fizeau, French physicist (d. 1896)
• September 26 – Edward Watkin, English Railway pioneer and politician (d. 1901)
• September 28 – Narcís Monturiol, Catalan intellectual, artist and engineer, inventor of the first combustion engine-driven submarine, which was propelled by an early form of air-independent propulsion (d. 1885).
• October 16 – Austin F. Pike, American politician from New Hampshire (d. 1886)
• October 20 – The Báb, Persian founder of the Bábi Faith (d. 1850)
• November 4 – Christopher Raymond Perry Rodgers, American admiral (d. 1892)
• November 9 – Annibale de Gasparis, Italian astronomer (d. 1892)
• November 22 – George Eliot, British novelist (d. 1880)
• November 24 – John Cummings Howell, United States Navy admiral (d. 1892)
• December 10 – Felice Orsini, Italian revolutionary (d. 1858)
• December 30 – Theodor Fontane, German writer (d. 1898)

Deaths

January–June

• January 9 – Princess Catherine Pavlovna of Russia, Queen of Württemberg (b. 1788)
• January 19 – Elsa Beata Bunge, Swedish botanist (b. 1734)
• February 5 – Nikolai Nikolev, Russian poet and playwright (b. 1758)
• February 17 – Henry Constantine Jennings, British collector and gambler (b. 1731)
• February 25 – Francisco Manoel de Nascimento, poet (b. 1734)
• March – Nonosbawsut, Beothuk leader
• March 10 – Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, German philosopher (b. 1743)
• May 8 – Kamehameha I, King of Hawaii (b. 1738)
• May 22 – Hugh Williamson, American Founding Father (b. 1735)
• June 6 – Johann von Hiller, Austrian general (b. 1754)
• June 28 – María Antonia Santos Plata, Neogranadine rebel leader and heroine (b. 1782)

July–December

James Watt

• July 1 – Jemima Wilkinson, American preacher (b. 1754)
• July 20 – John Playfair, Scottish scientist and mathematician (b. 1748)
• August 3 – Simon Knéfacz, Croatian writer (b. 1752)
• August 21 – Haim Farhi, Jewish adviser to Ottoman Empire (assassinated) (b. 1760)
• August 23 – Oliver Hazard Perry, American naval officer (b. 1785)
• August 25 – James Watt, Scottish inventor (b. 1736)
• September 12 – Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Prussian general (b. 1742)
• September 18 – John Langdon, American Founding Father (b. 1741)
• September 20 – Abbé Faria, hypnotist (b. 1746)
• October 7 – William Samuel Johnson, American Founding Father (b. 1727)
• October 13 – Imperial Concubine Chun of the Jiaqing Emperor of China
• November 9 – Simon Snyder, American politician (b. 1759)
• December 5 – Friedrich Leopold zu Stolberg-Stolberg, German poet (b. 1750)
• December 19 – Sir Thomas Fremantle, English naval officer and politician (b. 1765)

Date unknown

• Mariano Osorio, Governor of Chile (b. 1777)
• Franciszek Ksawery Branicki, Polish nobleman (b. c. 1730)

References