Directory

1803 CE

An Act of Mediation, issued by Napoleon Bonaparte, establishes the Swiss Confederation to replace the Helvetic Republic. Under the terms of the act, Graubünden, St. Gallen, Thurgau, the Ticino and Vaud become Swiss cantons. The wagonway between Wandsworth and Croydon is opened, being the first public railway line in England. The Balmis Expedition starts in Spain, with the aim of vaccinating millions against smallpox in Spanish America and the Philippines.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 30 – Monroe and Livingston sail for Paris to discuss, and possibly buy, New Orleans; they end up completing the Louisiana Purchase.source
  • February 19 – An Act of Mediation, issued by Napoleon Bonaparte, establishes the Swiss Confederation to replace the Helvetic Republic. Under the terms of the act, Graubünden, St. Gallen, Thurgau, the Ticino and Vaud become Swiss cantons.source
  • February 19 – Ohio is admitted as the 17th U.S. state.source
  • February 25 – A major redistribution of territorial sovereignty within the Holy Roman Empire is enacted, via an act known as the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss.source
  • March 9 – Aargau becomes a Swiss canton.source
  • June 7 – Indiana Territory governor (and future U.S. president) William Henry Harrison signs treaties at Fort Wayne, with representatives of the Delaware, Shawnee, Potawatomi, Miami, Kickapoo, Eel River, Wea, Piankeshaw and Kaskaskia Indian tribes. The U.S. Senate ratifies the treaties on November 25.source
  • July 4 – The Louisiana Purchase is announced to the American people.source
  • July 5 – The convention of Artlenburg leads to the French occupation of Hanover (which had been ruled by the British king).source
  • October 14 – Orissa, an area of India along the Bay of Bengal that comprises the modern-day Indian state of Odisha, is occupied by the British under the British East India Company, after the Second Anglo-Maratha War. The Maratha Empire formally cedes the area in the Treaty of Deogaon, signed on December 17.source
  • October 20 – The Senate ratifies the Louisiana Purchase Treaty, doubling the size of the United States.source
  • November 30 – At the Cabildo in New Orleans, Spanish representatives Governor Manuel de Salcedo and the Marqués de Casa Calvo officially transfer Louisiana (New Spain) to French representative Prefect Pierre Clément de Laussat. Barely three weeks later, France transfers the same land to the United States.source
  • December 9 – The proposed Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution, requiring that electoral ballots distinctly list the choice for president and the choice for vice president, is approved by Congress for submission to the states for ratification; passed in the wake of the problems in the 1800 presidential election, the amendment is ratified by 13 of the 17 states and is proclaimed in effect on September 25, 1804.source
  • December 20 – The Louisiana Purchase is completed as the French prefect, de Laussat, formally transfers ownership of land between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains to the United States, by way of commissioners William C. C. Claiborne and James Wilkinson. Claiborne is appointed as the area's first American governor.source

Conflict & Security

  • February 20 – Kandyan Wars: Kandy, Ceylon is taken by a British detachment.source
  • February 21 – Edward Despard and six others are hanged and beheaded for plotting to assassinate King George III, and to destroy the Bank of England.source
  • May 18 – The Napoleonic Wars begin, when the United Kingdom declares war on France, after France refuses to withdraw from Dutch territory.source
  • May – First Consul of France, Citizen Bonaparte, begins making preparations to invade England.source
  • June 14 – Napoleon Bonaparte orders the establishment of five military camps to defend the coast of France, located at Bayonne, Ghent, Saint-Omer, Compiègne, Saint-Malo, and one in the occupied Netherlands, at Utrecht. Each one has 20,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry to defend it.source
  • July 23 – Robert Emmet's uprising in Ireland begins.source
  • August 3 – The British begin the Second Anglo-Maratha War, against the Scindia Dynasty of Gwalior.source
  • September 11 – Second Anglo-Maratha War: Battle of Delhi – British troops under General Lake defeat the Marathas of Scindia's army, under General Louis Bourquin.source
  • September 20 – Irish rebel Robert Emmet is executed.source
  • September 23 – Second Anglo-Maratha War: Battle of Assaye – British-led troops defeat Maratha forces.source
  • November 18 – Haitian Revolution: Battle of Vertières – The Haitian army, led by Jean-Jacques Dessalines, defeats the French army sent by Napoleon.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • August 31 – The Lewis and Clark Expedition begins as Lewis and a crew of 11 depart on the Ohio River.source

Religion & Belief

  • May 19 – Master Malati, a Coptic Christian leader, is beheaded by a Muslim mob in Cairo, Egypt.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • January 4 – William Symington demonstrates his Charlotte Dundas, the "first practical steamboat", in Scotland.source
  • July 26 – The wagonway between Wandsworth and Croydon is opened, being the first public railway line in England.source

Science & Discovery

  • April 26 – The L'Aigle meteorite falls in Normandy, causing a shift in scientific opinion on the origin of meteorites.source
  • September 6 – John Dalton, British scientist, begins using symbols to represent the atoms of different elements.source
  • Major breakthroughs in chemistry occur, with the identification of the elements rhodium and palladium (by William Hyde Wollaston); osmium and iridium (by Smithson Tennant); and cerium (by Wilhelm Hisinger, Jons Jakob Berzelius and Martin Heinrich Klaproth)source

Health & Medicine

  • March–April – The franc germinal is introduced in France.source
  • November 30 – The Balmis Expedition starts in Spain, with the aim of vaccinating millions against smallpox in Spanish America and the Philippines.source

Crime & Justice

  • February 24 – Marbury v. Madison: The Supreme Court of the United States establishes the principle of judicial review.source

Culture & Society

  • January 1 – The first edition of Alexandre Balthazar Laurent Grimod de La Reynière's Almanach des gourmands, the first guide to restaurant cooking, is published in Paris.source
  • April 5 — Ludwig van Beethoven puts on a big Akademie concert at the Theater an der Wien, in Vienna consisting of the premieres of his second symphony, third piano concerto, and his oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives.source
  • April 30 – The Louisiana Purchase is made from France by the United States.[https://www.britannica.com/event/Louisiana-Purchase]source

Births

  • February 2 – Albert Sidney Johnston, American Confederate general (d. 1862)source
  • February 15 – John Sutter, German-American pioneer (d. 1880)source
  • March 27 – Charles Lafontaine, Swiss mesmerist (d. 1892)source
  • May 12 – Justus von Liebig, German chemist (d. 1873)source
  • May 24 – Charles Lucien Bonaparte, French naturalist, ornithologist (d. 1857)source
  • May 25 – Ralph Waldo Emerson, American writer (d. 1882)source
  • May 25 – Edward Bulwer-Lytton, English novelist, playwright and politician (d. 1873)source
  • July 31 – John Ericsson, Swedish inventor, engineer (d. 1889)source
  • August 3 – Sir Joseph Paxton, English gardener, architect and Member of Parliament (d. 1865)source
  • August 18 – Nathan Clifford, American politician, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1881)source
  • August – Francesca Anna Canfield, American linguist, poet and translator (d. 1833)source
  • September 4 – Sarah Childress Polk, First Lady of the United States (d. 1891)source
  • September 28 – Prosper Mérimée, French writer (d. 1870)source
  • October 16 – Robert Stephenson, English civil engineer (d. 1859)source

Deaths

  • January 23 – Arthur Guinness, Irish brewer (b. 1725)source
  • February 21 – Edward Despard, British revolutionary (b. 1751)source
  • February 23 – Praskovia Kovalyova-Zhemchugova, Russian serf actress, opera soprano (b. 1768)source
  • April 7 – Toussaint L'Ouverture, Haitian revolutionary (b. 1743)source
  • April 14 – Christoph Anton Migazzi, Austrian Catholic bishop (b. 1714)source
  • May 8 – John Joseph Merlin, Belgian-born British clock- and musical-instrument-maker and inventor (b. 1735)source
  • September 5 – Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, French general, author (b. 1741)source
  • September 13 – John Barry, officer in the Continental Navy during the American Revolutionary War, later in the United States Navy (b. 1745)source
  • September 16 – Nicolas Baudin, French explorer (b. 1754)source
  • October 26 – Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford, English politician (b. 1721)source
  • October 31 – Pandara Vanniyan, last King of Vanni (defeated by Lt. von Driberg)source
  • November 17 – John Willett Payne, British Royal Navy admiral (b. 1752)source
  • December 18 – Johann Gottfried Herder, German philosopher, writer (b. 1744)source
  • December 30 – Francis Lewis, American signer of the Declaration of Independence (b. 1713)source