Nineteenth Century History : 1800 – 1824
1800 The population of the world is about one billion. Worcestershire Sauce invented. James Ross discovers the magnetic North Pole. Pius VI becomes Pope. Thomas Jefferson elected US President. Alessandro Volta invents the voltaic cell.
1801 Kingdom of Etruria founded by Napoleon in Tuscany. Thomas Young publishes proof of the principle of interference of light, supporting the wave theory of light. Young helps to break the translations of the Rosetta Stone found in 1799.
1802 Legion of Honour created. First British Factory act. First practical steamboat, Charlotte Dundas, invented by William Symington. Plans for constructing a tunnel between France and England were proposed.
1803 Act of Mediation replaces Helvetic Republic by Swiss Confederation. US purchases Louisiana from Napoleon, who had taken it from Spain. American inventor Robert Fulton builds the first steamboat to run a passenger service. Chemist John Dalton puts forth the theory of the atom, unbeknowst to him first put forward by Leucippus and his disciple Democritus in the 5th century BC.
1804 Napoleon crowns himself Emperor of France. François Appert develops food canning. John Stevens invents the screw propeller. Richard Trevithick builds the steam locomotive.
1805 Battle of Trafalgar: Nelson destroys Franco-Spanish fleet but is killed. Oliver Evans invents the amphibious vehicle, Orukter Amphibolos. Luigi Brugnatelli invents electroplating. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck coins the word “biology.”
1806 British occupy Beunos Aires, Argentina, but is forced by citizens to surrender. Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford, invents a coffee pot with a metal sieve to strain away the grounds. Noah Webster published A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language, the first truly American dictionary.
1807 Thomas Young publishes A Course of Lectures on Natural Philosophy and the Mechanical Arts, which introduces the modern concept of energy, the Young-Helmholtz theory of color vision, and describing astigmatism. Robert Fulton opens American rivers to two-way travel with his steamboat the Clermont, travelling New York and Albany.
1808 Papal states partly annexed to Italy. James Madison elected US President. Goethe completes first part of Faust. Jane Aitken’s Bible first Bible printed by a woman.
1809 Revolts in Quito and other places in Spanish South America. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck credited for orginating theory of evolution (although it was proposed centuries earlier).
1810 Napoleon divorces Josephine. Frederick Koenig invents an improved printing press. Peter Durand invents the tin can. John H. Hall invents breech-loading rifle. First Oktoberfest, held in Bavaria as celebration of Ludwig I’s wedding on 27 October.
1811 Chilean revolution. Robert Fulton granted a patent for the practical steamboat.
1812 War between Britain and US, now referred to as the 1812 War (with no definite outcome).
1813 Wellington invades France. Napoleon gives crown of Spain to Ferdinand. Robert Fulton’s Demolos is the first steam powered armored warship: at 140ft in length, it carries thirty 32-pound cannons.
1814 Napoleon banished to Elba. Louis XVIII enters Paris. Society of Jesus reconstituted by Pope Pius VII. Greek national movement begins. George Stephenson designs the first railway steam locomotive. The first plastic surgery is performed in England. John Jethro Woods invents a plough with a replaceable cast-iron tip. The Star-Spangled Banner lyrics written by Francis Scott Key; the melody originates from an 18th century drinking song called To Anacreon in Heaven. (The Star-Spangled Banner officially became becomes the US national anthem in 1931.)
1815 Napoleon begins his Hundred Days reign; he is defeated at Battle of Waterloo and banished to St Helena. John Roulstone writes the first 3 verses of the nursery rhyme Mary Had a Little Lamb after his classmate, Mary Sawyer came to school followed by her pet lamb. Humphry Davy invents the miner’s safety lamp.
1816 James Monroe elected US President. Luddite anti-machinery riots. Karl D. Sauerbronn develops the modern bicycle.
1817 David Ricardo publishes Principles of Political Economy.
1818 Thomas Blanchard of Middlebury, Connecticut, builds a woodworking lathe that does the work of 13 men. His invention helps to lower wood prices.
1819 The Six Acts restrict meetings in Britain. Samuel Fahnestock patents a soda fountain.
1820 Spanish revolution. Charles Xavier Thomas de Colmar of France produces the arithmometer, the world’s first commercially available calculator: users dial numbers onto a set of wheels with a stylus, then use a hand crank to perform calculations.
1821 Iturbide declares an independent Mexican Empire.
1822 Brazil declares independent Empire. English mathematician Charles Babbage proposes to Parliament the construction of a machine to perform mathematical calculations. His designs for the Difference Engine and, later (1834), the more sophisticated Analytical Engine foreshadow the modern electronic computer. Babbage spends decades trying to build his theoretical computer, with the help of Ada Byron Lovelace, a mathematical prodigy and daughter of the poet Byron. Lovelace proposes a method for giving the machine instructions and is sometimes considered the first computer programmer. Unfortunately, Babbage runs out of funds before he can complete either machine.
1823 Leo XII becomes Pope. The game of rugby invented at Rugby school in Rugby, England. Mackintosh raincoat invented by Charles Mackintosh of Scotland.
1824 Charles X becomes King of France. John Quincy Adams elected US President. JW Goodrich introduces the world to rubber galoshes. Michael Faraday invents the first toy balloon. Joseph Aspdin patents Portland cement.
1800 – 1824 | 1825 – 1849 | 1850 – 1874 | 1875 – 1899
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