Directory

1804 CE

The First Serbian uprising begins the Serbian Revolution. By 1817, the Principality of Serbia will have proclaimed self-rule from the Ottoman Empire, the first nation-state in Europe to do so. The Lewis and Clark Expedition departs from Camp Dubois and begins its historic journey by traveling up the Missouri River. Coronation of Napoleon I: At the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris, Napoleon crowns himself as the first Emperor of the French in a thousand years. Witnessing this, Simón Bolívar dedicates himself to liberating Venezuela from Spanish rule.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 1 – Haiti gains independence from France, becoming the first independent Black state in the New World.source
  • February 15 – New Jersey becomes the last of the northern United States to abolish slavery.source
  • February 20 – Hobart is established in its permanent location in Van Diemen's Land (modern-day Tasmania) as a British penal colony.source
  • March 21 – The Napoleonic Code is adopted as French civil law.source
  • April 26 – Henry Addington resigns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.source
  • May 10 – William Pitt the Younger begins his second term as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.source
  • May 18 – Napoleon Bonaparte is proclaimed Emperor of the French by the French Senate.source
  • June 15 – The Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified by New Hampshire, and arguably becomes effective (subsequently vetoed by the Governor of New Hampshire).source
  • July 27 – The Twelfth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which reforms the way that candidates for President and Vice President are chosen, is ratified by Tennessee, removing doubt surrounding adoption.source
  • November 3 – The Treaty of St. Louis is signed by Quashquame and William Henry Harrison; controversy surrounding the treaty eventually causes the Sauk people to ally with the British during the War of 1812, and is the main cause of the Black Hawk War of 1832.source
  • November 20 – Said bin Sultan, Sultan of Muscat and Oman, starts to rule.source
  • December 3 – Thomas Jefferson defeats Charles C. Pinckney in the United States presidential election.source
  • The Nguyễn dynasty emperor Gia Long changes his country's official name from Đại Việt to Việt Nam.source

Conflict & Security

  • February 14 – The First Serbian uprising begins the Serbian Revolution. By 1817, the Principality of Serbia will have proclaimed self-rule from the Ottoman Empire, the first nation-state in Europe to do so.source
  • February 16 – First Barbary War: Stephen Decatur leads a raid to burn the pirate-held frigate at Tripoli to deny her further use by the captors.source
  • February 22–April 22 – 1804 Haiti massacre, an ethnic cleansing with the goal of eradicating the white population on Haiti.source
  • March 4–March 5 – The Castle Hill convict rebellion breaks out in New South Wales, led by Irish convicts in Australia.source
  • October 5 – Action of 5 October 1804: War between Spain and the United Kingdom is triggered by the battle between four British warships (Indefatigable, Medusa, Amphion and Lively) and four Spanish frigates (Medee, Fama, Clara and Mercedes), all carrying treasure and merchandise. Captain Graham Moore of Indefatigable informs Spanish Admiral Jose Bustamante of his orders to detain the treasure-laden ships and, "not receiving a satisfactory answer, an Action commenced"; La Mercedes is sunk and the other three ships surrender.source
  • December 12 – Spain declares war on the United Kingdom.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • April 4 – Samuel Taylor Coleridge sets sail on The Speedwell for the Mediterranean. In Malta, he obtains employment as a public official.source
  • May 14 – The Lewis and Clark Expedition departs from Camp Dubois and begins its historic journey by traveling up the Missouri River.source
  • Matthew Flinders recommends that New Holland be renamed Australia (from the Latin australis meaning "of the south").source

Religion & Belief

  • February 4 – The Sokoto Caliphate is founded in West Africa.source
  • August 11 – In reaction to Napoleon being proclaimed emperor of France, Francis II assumes the title of a hereditary emperor of Austria (as Francis I) in addition to his title as emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. This latter title will become obsolete two years later when the formation of the Confederation of the Rhine instigated by Napoleon signals the end of the Holy Roman Empire.source
  • December 2 – Coronation of Napoleon I: At the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris, Napoleon crowns himself as the first Emperor of the French in a thousand years. Witnessing this, Simón Bolívar dedicates himself to liberating Venezuela from Spanish rule.source
  • Thomas Charles is instrumental in founding the British and Foreign Bible Society.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • February 21 – Cornishman Richard Trevithick's newly built Penydarren steam locomotive operates on the Merthyr Tramroad, between Penydarren in Merthyr Tydfil and Abercynon in South Wales, following several trials since February 13, the world's first locomotive to work on rails.source
  • May 21 – Père Lachaise Cemetery a 118 acre km2 cemetery in Paris, France, is opened.source
  • Shimizu-gumi, predecessor of Shimizu Corporation, a major construction company in Japan, is founded in Kanda region, Edo (modern-day Tokyo).source

Science & Discovery

  • April 5 – The High Possil meteorite, the first recorded meteorite to fall in Scotland in modern times, falls at High Possil.source
  • June 21 – Smithson Tennant announces the discovery of the elements iridium and osmium; three days later, William Hyde Wollaston reveals to the Royal Society that he is the formerly anonymous discoverer of palladium.source
  • September 1 – German astronomer K. L. Harding discovers the asteroid Juno.source

Health & Medicine

  • World population reaches 1 billion people.source
  • Morphine is first isolated from the opium poppy by the German pharmacist, Friedrich Sertürner.source

Crime & Justice

  • November 30 – The Democratic-Republican-controlled United States Senate begins an impeachment trial against Federalist-partisan Supreme Court of the United States Justice Samuel Chase, on charges of political bias (he is acquitted by the United States Senate of all charges on March 1, 1805).source

Disasters & Accidents

  • April 2 – Forty merchantmen are wrecked when a convoy led by British frigate runs aground off Portugal with considerable loss of life.source

Culture & Society

  • February 18 – Ohio University is chartered by the Ohio General Assembly.source
  • March 10 – Louisiana Purchase, Three Flags Day: In St. Louis, a formal ceremony is conducted to transfer ownership of Louisiana Territory from France to the United States.source
  • March 17 – Friedrich Schiller's play Wilhelm Tell is first performed at Weimar, under the direction of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.source
  • June 9 – Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 in E–flat is premiered in Vienna.source
  • October 8 – Jean-Jacques Dessalines holds his coronation as Jean-Jacques I, Emperor of Haiti.source
  • John Wedgwood founds the Royal Horticultural Society.source

Births

  • February 29 – Carl von Rokitansky, Czech medical doctor and pathologist (d. 1878)source
  • March 20 – Neal Dow, mayor of Portland, Maine and Father of Prohibition (d. 1897)source
  • May 13 – Per Gustaf Svinhufvud af Qvalstad, treasurer of Tavastia province, manor host, and paternal grandfather of President of Finland P. E. Svinhufvud (d. 1866)source
  • May 16 – Elizabeth Peabody, Transcendental activist, educator (d. 1894)source
  • June 1 – George Sand, French writer (d. 1876)source
  • July 1 – George Sand, French novelist (d. 1876)source
  • July 4 – Nathaniel Hawthorne, American writer (d. 1864)source
  • July 23 – Jane Irwin Harrison, de facto First Lady of the United States (d. 1846)source
  • September 5 – William Alexander Graham, United States Senator from North Carolina (1840–1843), Confederate States Senator (1864–1865) (d. 1875)source
  • September 14 – Louis Désiré Maigret, Roman Catholic bishop of Honolulu (d. 1882)source
  • October 18 – Mongkut, Rama IV, King of Siam (d. 1868)source
  • November 23 – Franklin Pierce, 14th President of the United States (d. 1869)source
  • December 7 – Noah Haynes Swayne, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1884)source
  • December 10 – Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi, German mathematician (d. 1851)source

Deaths

  • January 4 – Charlotte Ramsey Lennox, British author and poet (b. 1727)source
  • February 6 – Joseph Priestley, British chemist (b. 1733)source
  • February 7 – William Bingham, American Continental congressman, senator for Pennsylvania (b. 1752)source
  • March 13 – Damodar Pande, Prime Minister of Nepal (b. 1752)source
  • March 21 – Louis Antoine, Duke of Enghien (executed) (b. 1772)source
  • March 30 – Victor-François, 2nd duc de Broglie, Marshal of France (b. 1718)source
  • April 9 – Jacques Necker, French statesman (b. 1732)source
  • April 15 – Jean-Charles Pichegru, French general (strangled in prison) (b. 1761)source
  • July 11 – Aaron Burr, Vice President of the United States, shoots former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton during a duel; Hamilton dies the next day.source
  • August 20 – Lewis and Clark Expedition: The Corps of Discovery, whose purpose is to explore the Louisiana Purchase, suffers its only death when Sergeant Charles Floyd dies, apparently from acute appendicitis.source
  • September 4 – Richard Somers, American naval officer (killed in battle) (b. 1778)source
  • October 2 – Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot, French steam vehicle pioneer (b. 1725)source
  • October 29 – Sarah Crosby, the first female Methodist preacher (b. 1729)source
  • November 18 – Philip Schuyler, general in the American Revolution, a United States senator from New York, father of Angelica Schuyler Church and Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton, father-in-law of Alexander Hamilton (b. 1733)source