Directory

1818 CE

The Treaty of Mandeswar brings an end to the Third Anglo-Maratha War, ending the dominance of Marathas, and enhancing the power of the British East India Company, which controls territory occupied by 180 million Indians. First Seminole War: General Andrew Jackson and his American army invade Florida. First Seminole War – Battle of Miccosukee, Florida: General Andrew Jackson defeats chief Kinhagee.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • January 6 – The Treaty of Mandeswar brings an end to the Third Anglo-Maratha War, ending the dominance of Marathas, and enhancing the power of the British East India Company, which controls territory occupied by 180 million Indians.source
  • February 12 – Chilean Declaration of Independence from Spain is proclaimed in Chile.source
  • April 4 – The United States Congress adopts the flag of the United States as having thirteen red and white stripes, and one star for each state (twenty), with additional stars to be added whenever a new state is added to the Union.source
  • June 10 – The British Parliament is dissolved by the Prime Minister Lord Liverpool, and new elections are scheduled for August 4 for the House of Commons.source
  • August 1 – A separate Topographical Bureau of the United States Department of War is established.source
  • August 4 – 1818 United Kingdom general election for the House of Commons. The Tory Party, led by Prime Minister Robert Jenkinson, retains its control of the government but loses some seats.source
  • September 23 – Border markers are formally installed for the European territory of Moresnet.source
  • December 3 – Illinois is admitted as the 21st U.S. state.source

Conflict & Security

  • January 1 – Battle of Koregaon: Troops of the British East India Company score a decisive victory over the Maratha Empire.source
  • February 11 – Marie André Cantillon attempts to assassinate the Duke of Wellington in Paris.source
  • March 15 – First Seminole War: General Andrew Jackson and his American army invade Florida.source
  • April 1 – First Seminole War – Battle of Miccosukee, Florida: General Andrew Jackson defeats chief Kinhagee.source
  • April 5 – Chilean War of Independence – Battle of Maipú: Patriot rebels, led by José de San Martín, decisively defeat the Spanish Royalists.source
  • June 3 – Baji Rao II, Peshwa of the Maratha Confederacy, surrenders to Sir John Malcolm of the British East India Company, bringing an end to the Third Anglo-Maratha War and giving the company control of almost all of modern-day India.source
  • June – Battle of Kafir Qala: The Afghans defeat a Persian invasion.source
  • July 1 – After a war that began on November 5, 1817, the forces of the East India Company defeat Baji Rao II in battle and acquire control over the Maratha Empire.source
  • July 15 – U.S. President James Monroe convenes a cabinet meeting, to discuss whether General Andrew Jackson's unauthorized invasion and conquest of Spanish Florida should be disavowed by the White House. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams persuades the President that the action is justifiable, in stopping terror caused by the Seminole tribes.source
  • September 9 - Ottoman Empire Defeats the First Saudi State and captures Abdullah bin Saud Al Saudsource
  • The Barakzai brothers expel Mahmud Shah and the Sadozais out of Afghanistan, dividing the provinces up amongst themselves.source
  • Catholic–Orthodox clash in Aleppo.source
  • Akure–Benin War: Benin invasion of Akure.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • April 7 – Brooks Brothers, the oldest men's clothier in the United States, opens its first store on the northeast corner of Catherine and Cherry Streets in New York City, where the later South Street Seaport stands.source
  • April 14–August 9 – The United States Survey of the Coast operations is suspended.source
  • April 18 – John Ross sets sail on his ship, the Isabella, in search of the Northwest Passage.source
  • September – Sir Stamford Raffles sets out to visit Lord Hastings, Governor-General of India, to gain his approval to establish a trading station at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula (modern-day Singapore).source
  • October 20 – A treaty between the U.S. and the United Kingdom establishes the boundary between the U.S. and British North America as the 49th parallel, from the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains, also creating the Northwest Angle.source

Religion & Belief

  • March 22 – Easter Sunday in Western Christianity falls on its earliest possible date. In Western Christianity, it will not occur on this date again until 2285.source
  • October 5 – Claudine Thévenet (known as Mary of St. Ignatius) founds the Roman Catholic order Religious of Jesus and Mary in Lyon, France.source
  • Hamburg Temple disputes between branches of Judaism intensify in Germany.source

Economy & Finance

  • July 11 – The Bank of the United States reverses its policy of expanding credit, and sends notices to its borrowers nationwide demanding immediate repayment of balances due; the defaults during the next six months will trigger the Panic of 1819.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • January 12 – The Dandy horse (Laufmaschine bicycle) is patented by Karl Drais in Mannheim.source
  • February 3 – Jeremiah Chubb is granted a British patent for the Chubb detector lock.source
  • June 18 – At least 34 people are killed in Switzerland, when the melting of a glacier releases the natural dam of Lac de Mauvoisin, sending the waters of the lake and the Dranse River into the valley of Bagnes.source

Science & Discovery

  • January 3 (21:52 UTC) – Venus occults Jupiter. It is the last occultation of one planet by another before November 22, 2065.source
  • July 29 – French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel submits his prizewinning "Memoir on the Diffraction of Light" to the French Academy of Sciences, precisely accounting for the limited extent to which light spreads into shadows, and thereby demolishing the oldest objection to the wave theory of light.source

Culture & Society

  • January 1 – English author Mary Shelley publishes the novel Frankenstein anonymously.source
  • February 4 – Writer Walter Scott finds the Honours of Scotland in Edinburgh Castle.source
  • February 5 – Upon his death, King Charles XIII of Sweden (Charles II of Norway) is succeeded on both thrones by his adoptive son Charles XIV/III John, starting the Royal House of Bernadotte.source
  • May 11 – Charles XIV of Sweden–Norway is crowned king of Sweden.source
  • May 11 – The Old Vic Theatre is founded (as the Royal Coburg Hall) in London.source
  • May 11 – The Westmorland Gazette is first published at Kendal in the Lake District of England; in July, Thomas De Quincey will begin a 16-month term as editor.source
  • June 11 – Prince William, Duke of Clarence and St Andrews, third oldest son of King George III and the future King William IV of the United Kingdom, marries Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen.source
  • July 3 – English poet Lord Byron, resident in Italy, begins work on his satirical epic Don Juan. Although he completes the first canto by September 19, he will die in 1824 before he can finish the poem, after completing 16 cantos and working on the 17th.source
  • July 31 – The first newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio is issued by publisher Andrew Logan. Using the original name of the small settlement (population 172), Logan names the weekly paper The Cleaveland Gazette & Commercial Register.source
  • September 7 – Carl III of Sweden–Norway is crowned king of Norway, in Trondheim.source
  • November 11 – Anglo-Chinese College is founded by Robert Morrison in Malacca (later renamed Ying Wa College).source
  • November 16 – The Saint Louis Academy, which later becomes Saint Louis University, is founded by Reverend Louis William Valentine Dubourg in the United States.source
  • December 24 – The Christmas carol "Silent Night" (Stille Nacht), with words by the priest Josef Mohr, set to music by organist Franz Xaver Gruber, is first performed at St. Nikolaus Parish Church, in Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria.source
  • The first Serbian dictionary is published by Vuk Karadžić.source
  • Besses o' th' Barn Brass Band is formed in Whitefield, near Manchester by this date.source
  • The first edition of the Farmers' Almanac is published in the United States.source

Births

  • January 30 – Artúr Görgey, Hungarian military general, politician (d. 1916)source
  • February 4 – Emperor Norton, San Francisco eccentric and visionary (d. 1880)source
  • February 13 – Angelica Singleton Van Buren, Acting First Lady of the United States (d. 1877)source
  • March 28 – Wade Hampton III, Confederate soldier and South Carolinian politician (d. 1902)source
  • May 5 – Karl Marx, German political philosopher, co-author of The Communist Manifesto (d. 1883)source
  • June 3 – Louis Faidherbe, French general and colonial administrator (d. 1889)source
  • June 17 – Charles Gounod, French composer (d. 1893)source
  • July 1 – Ignaz Semmelweis, Hungarian physician, obstetrician (d. 1865)source
  • July 30 – Emily Brontë, British novelist (d. 1848)source
  • October 8 – John Henninger Reagan, American Confederate politician (d. 1905)source
  • October 18 – Francis Dutton, Germany-born Premier of South Australia (d. 1877)source
  • November 5 – Benjamin Franklin Butler, American lawyer, politician, and general (d. 1893)source
  • November 9 (October 28 (O.S.)) – Ivan Turgenev, Russian writer (d. 1883)source
  • December 13 – Mary Todd Lincoln, First Lady of the United States (d. 1882)source

Deaths

  • January 2 – Martha Christina Tiahahu, Moluccan freedom fighter, national heroine of Indonesia (b. 1800)source
  • February 5 – Charles XIII/Charles II, King of Sweden and Norway (b. 1748)source
  • February 13 – George Rogers Clark, American Revolutionary leader (b. 1752)source
  • February 15 – Friedrich Ludwig, Fürst zu Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen, Prussian general (b. 1746)source
  • February 21 – David Humphreys, American diplomat (b. 1752)source
  • March 24 – Humphry Repton, English garden designer (b. 1752)source
  • May 2 – Herman Willem Daendels, Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies (b. 1762)source
  • May 26 – Michael Andreas Barclay de Tolly, Russian military commander (b. 1761)source
  • June 20 – Hedvig Elisabeth Charlotte of Holstein-Gottorp, queen consort of Sweden and Norway (b. 1759)source
  • July 28 – Gaspard Monge, French mathematician and geometer (b. 1746)source
  • October 28 – Henri Jacques Guillaume Clarke, duc de Feltre, French marshal, politician (b. 1765)source
  • October 28 – Abigail Adams, First Lady of the United States (b. 1744)source
  • November 17 – Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, queen of George III of the United Kingdom (b. 1744)source
  • December 25 – Catherine-Dominique de Pérignon, Marshal of France (b. 1754)source