Directory

1800 CE

Napoleon and his French army (40,000 men)—not including the field artillery and baggage trains—(35,000 light artillery and infantry, 5,000 cavalry) begin crossing the Alps. He selects the shortest route through the Great St Bernard Pass, and invades after five days traversing the northern region of Italy. French general Jean-Baptiste Kléber is assassinated in Cairo by Syrian Kurdish Muslim student Suleiman al-Halabi. Fort William College is established by Lord Wellesley, British Governor-General of India, in Calcutta, to promote Bengali, Hindi and other vernaculars of the Indian subcontinent.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • February 7 – A public plebiscite in France confirms Napoleon as First Consul, by a substantial majority.source
  • April 2 – The Treaty of Constantinople establishes the Septinsular Republic, the first autonomous Greek state since the Fall of the Byzantine Empire.source
  • June 3 – U.S. President John Adams moves to Washington. Because the President's Mansion is still under construction, President Adams takes up residence at Tunnicliffe's City Hotel near the unfinished U.S. Capitol Building.source
  • July 2 – The Union with Ireland Act 1800 is passed by the Parliament of Great Britain; the Irish Parliament passes similar legislation in the following month, uniting the two kingdoms and abolishing the Parliament of Ireland.source
  • August 1 – King George III gives royal assent to the second Act of Union to unite the Kingdom of Great Britain and Kingdom of Ireland (both ruled by him) into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, effective on January 1, 1801.source
  • September 30 – The Convention of 1800, or Treaty of Mortefontaine, is signed between France and the United States of America, ending the Quasi-War.source
  • October 1 – Third Treaty of San Ildefonso: Spain returns Louisiana (New Spain) to France, in return for the Tuscany area of Italy.source
  • November 1 – U.S. President John Adams becomes the first President of the United States to live in the Executive Mansion (later renamed the White House).source
  • November 17 – The United States Congress holds its first Washington, D.C., session.source
  • December 3 – The 1800 United States presidential election: The Electoral College casts votes for president and Vice President that result in a tie between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, requiring a contingent election which will select Jefferson as president.source

Conflict & Security

  • January 1 – Quasi-War: Action of 1 January 1800 – A naval battle off the coast of Haiti, between four United States merchant vessels escorted by naval schooner , and a squadron of armed barges manned by Haitian pirates (known as picaroons), under the command of general André Rigaud, ends indecisively.source
  • April 6 – War of the Second Coalition: Siege of Genoa – General André Masséna is surrounded by 40,000 Austrian troops under Field Marshal Michael von Melas and blockaded by a strong British squadron under Lord Keith.source
  • May 14 – Second Coalition: French forces under General Louis-Alexandre Berthier are halted by 400 Austro-Piedmont soldiers, at Fort Bard in the Aosta Valley.source
  • May 15 – Napoleon and his French army (40,000 men)—not including the field artillery and baggage trains—(35,000 light artillery and infantry, 5,000 cavalry) begin crossing the Alps. He selects the shortest route through the Great St Bernard Pass, and invades after five days traversing the northern region of Italy.source
  • June 4 – War of the Second Coalition: Siege of Genoa: The French army is evacuated from Genoa. Marshal André Masséna is allowed to march out, with all the honours of war. A portion of his force joins General Louis-Gabriel Suchet, and the rest is conveyed in British ships to Antibes.source
  • June 14 – French general Jean-Baptiste Kléber is assassinated in Cairo by Syrian Kurdish Muslim student Suleiman al-Halabi.source
  • June 14 – War of the Second Coalition: Battle of Marengo: Napoleon Bonaparte defeats the Austrian army (some 30,000 men) under General Michael von Melas near Marengo. The arrival of French reinforcements under General Louis Desaix reverses the battle. A late counterstroke turns a near-defeat into a political and strategic triumph. Desaix dies during the battle. Napoleon strengthens his position as First Consul and becomes the 'savior of France'. The Austrians lose 6,000 men killed or wounded and some 8,000 prisoners of war. The French lose over 5,000 men (25% total casualties).source
  • June 15 – Convention of Alessandria (Armistice of Marengo): Austria agrees to evacuate much of Italy and suspends military operations.source
  • June 19 – War of the Second Coalition: Battle of Höchstädt – General Jean Victor Marie Moreau leads French forces to victory, opening the Danube passageway to Vienna.source
  • June 27 – War of the Second Coalition: Battle of Neuburg – General Claude Lecourbe leads French forces to victory, securing control of the Danube from Austria.source
  • August 30 – The plot by African-American blacksmith and slave Gabriel Prosser to seize Richmond, Virginia, and guide a slave uprising, is thwarted by a massive downpour on the evening that it is set to begin; two other slaves have revealed Prosser's plans to authorities, who have prepared to follow him to the rendezvous point and arrest the conspirators, so that "neither the geographical extent of the plot nor the number of insurgents in the conspiracy was revealed"; eventually, 25 slaves, including Prosser, will be captured, tried and hanged.source
  • September 4 – Siege of Malta (1798–1800): The French garrison in Valletta surrenders to British troops, who had been called at the invitation of the Maltese. The islands of Malta and Gozo become the Malta Protectorate.source
  • November 22 – War of the Second Coalition: Hostilities resume.source
  • December 3 – War of the Second Coalition: Battle of Hohenlinden – The French army defeats Habsburg and Bavarian troops.source
  • December 24 – The Plot of the rue Saint-Nicaise fails to kill Napoleon Bonaparte.source
  • December 25 – The Armistice of Steyr is signed between French and Imperial forces in Germany, ending active hostilities of the War of the Second Coalition in Germany.source
  • War of the Second Coalition: Battle of Montebello: French forces under General Jean Lannes defeat the Austrians at Montebello. Lannes distinguishes himself in battle; the Austrians lose 659 killed and 1,445 wounded. The French claim only 600 casualties, but a more realistic assessment is that they suffer about 3,000 losses.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • March 26 – British Royal Navy officer Henry Waterhouse first charts the Antipodes Islands.source
  • October 7 – French privateer Robert Surcouf leads the 150-man crew of his corvette to capture the 40-gun, 437-man British East Indiaman in the Indian Ocean.source

Religion & Belief

  • March 14 – Papal conclave, 1799–1800: cardinal Barnaba Chiaramonti succeeds Pius VI as Pius VII, the 251st pope. He is crowned on March 21, in Venice.source
  • December 24 – Pierre Coudrin and Henriette Aymer de la Chevalerie found the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in Paris.source

Economy & Finance

  • January 1 – The Dutch East India Company dissolves.source

Science & Discovery

  • February 11 – Infrared radiation is discovered by astronomer Sir William Herschel.source
  • February 22 – The Baker rifle, designed by Ezekiel Baker, is selected by the British Board of Ordnance as a new standard.source
  • March 20 – Alessandro Volta describes his new invention, the voltaic pile, the first chemical battery, in a letter to the Royal Society of London.source

Health & Medicine

  • June 2 – The first smallpox vaccination is made in North America, at Trinity, Newfoundland.source

Disasters & Accidents

  • March 17 – The British Royal Navy ship of the line, , catches fire off the coast of Capraia, with the loss of 673 lives.source

Culture & Society

  • April 2 – Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 1 premieres at the Burgtheater, in Vienna.source
  • April 24 – The U.S. Library of Congress is founded in Washington, D.C.source
  • July 10 – Fort William College is established by Lord Wellesley, British Governor-General of India, in Calcutta, to promote Bengali, Hindi and other vernaculars of the Indian subcontinent.source
  • November 1 – Middlebury College is granted its charter by the Vermont General Assembly.source

Births

  • January 1 – Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere, English landowner (d. 1857)source
  • January 7 – Millard Fillmore, 13th President of the United States (d. 1874)source
  • January 11 – Ányos Jedlik, Hungarian physicist, inventor of the dynamo (d. 1895)source
  • January 12 – George Villiers, 4th Earl of Clarendon, English diplomat, statesman (d. 1870)source
  • March 3 – Heinrich Georg Bronn, German geologist, paleontologist (d. 1862)source
  • March 10 – George Hudson, English railway financier (d. 1871)source
  • March 13 – Mustafa Reşid Pasha, Turkish statesman, diplomat (d. 1858)source
  • April 16 – George Bingham, 3rd Earl of Lucan, British soldier (d. 1888)source
  • May 9 – John Brown, American abolitionist (d. 1859)source
  • June 2 – Nicholas P. Trist, secretary to President Andrew Jackson of the U.S. (d. 1874)source
  • June 17 – William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse, Irish astronomer (d. 1867)source
  • June 29 – William Boxall, 2nd director of the National Gallery in London (d. 1879)source
  • July 15 – Sidney Breese, American senator from Illinois, father of the Illinois Central Railroad (d. 1878)source
  • October 26 – Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, German field marshal (d. 1891)source

Deaths

  • January 20 – Thomas Mifflin, first Governor of Pennsylvania (b. 1744)source
  • February 27 – Adélaïde of France, French princess (b.1732)source
  • March 1 – John Hazelwood, English-born officer in the U.S. Continental Navy (b. 1726)source
  • March 21 – William Blount, U.S. statesman (b. 1749)source
  • June 30 – Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney, British politician (b. 1732)source
  • July 18 – John Rutledge, governor of South Carolina (b. 1739)source
  • August 25 – Elizabeth Montagu, English literary critic (b. 1718)source
  • October 10 – Gabriel Prosser, American slave revolutionary (b. approx. 1776)source
  • October 28 – Artemas Ward, American Major General in the American Revolutionary War, Congressman from Massachusetts (b. 1727)source
  • November 5 – Jesse Ramsden, English astronomical instrument maker (b. 1735)source
  • November 14 – François Claude Amour, marquis de Bouillé, French general (b. 1739)source
  • November 25 – Francisco Bouligny, former military governor of Spanish Louisiana (b. 1736)source
  • December 7 – Wilhelm von Knyphausen, Hessian Lieutenant-General (b. 1716)source
  • December 27 – Hugh Blair, Scottish Presbyterian preacher, man of letters (b. 1718)source