Directory

1824 CE

First Anglo-Ashanti War: Battle of Nsamankow – forces of the Ashanti Empire crush British forces in the Gold Coast (modern-day Ghana), killing the British governor Sir Charles MacCarthy. The Chumash Revolt of 1824 begins against the Spanish presence in Alta California (now the U.S. state of California) as an uprising by the Chumash people at Mission Santa Inés. With his crew and 29 convicts aboard the Amity, John Oxley arrives at and founds the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement at what becomes Brisbane, Queensland, in Australia, after leaving Sydney.

Geopolitics & Diplomacy

  • March 7 – In the Florida Territory, the announcement is made from St. Augustine that the capital will be moved to Tallahassee.source
  • March 17 – The Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824 is signed to resolve territorial disputes between the British Empire and the Netherlands over control of the Malay Peninsula and the Dutch East Indies (now Malaysia and Indonesia)source
  • July 2 – The Confederation of the Equator begins in Pernambuco, Brazil: Wealthy landowners against the government of Emperor Pedro I initiate a secessionist movement for the independence of Pernambuco.source
  • September 16 – Charles X succeeds his brother Louis XVIII as King of France.source
  • October 4 – The First Constitution of Mexico is ratified, declaring the country to be a federal republic called the United Mexican States (Estados Unidos Mexicanos).source
  • The name Australia, recommended by Matthew Flinders in 1804, is adopted by the British Admiralty as the official name of the country once known as New Holland.source
  • The Dutch sign the Masang Agreement, temporarily ending hostilities in the Padri War.source

Conflict & Security

  • January 21 – First Anglo-Ashanti War: Battle of Nsamankow – forces of the Ashanti Empire crush British forces in the Gold Coast (modern-day Ghana), killing the British governor Sir Charles MacCarthy.source
  • February 21 – The Chumash Revolt of 1824 begins against the Spanish presence in Alta California (now the U.S. state of California) as an uprising by the Chumash people at Mission Santa Inéssource
  • March 5 – The First Anglo-Burmese War begins in much of what is now Bangladesh, and lasts for almost two years until the surrender of territories by the Kingdom of Burma on February 24, 1826.source
  • March 11 – The United States War Department creates the Bureau of Indian Affairs.source
  • April 30 – The April Revolt (La Abrilada) in Portugal begins when Prince Miguel acts against his Liberal opponents in defiance of his father John VI.source
  • May 24 – First Anglo-Burmese War: The British take Rangoon, capital of the Kingdom of Burma (now Yangon, Myanmar), in a surprise attack.source
  • July 10 – Visit of the Marquis de Lafayette to the United States: Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette and a beloved hero of the American Revolution, departs from the port of Le Havre in France on the ship Cadmus for a triumphant return to the United States; he arrives in New York on August 15.source
  • July 19 – Don Agustín de Iturbide, who had formerly been President of Mexico and then proclaimed himself Emperor Agustin the First, until being overthrown on March 19, 1823, is executed by a firing squad in the city of Padilla, five days after returning from exile in England.source
  • August 6 – Peruvian War of Independence: Battle of Junín – Pro-independence forces defeat the Spanish in the highlands of the Junín region.source
  • August 7 – The First Anglo-Ashanti War ends when forces of the Ashanti Empire flee the field.source
  • August 15 – The visit of the Marquis de Lafayette to the United States begins at Staten Island. He will remain for more than a year before departing on September 7, 1825.source
  • December 9 – Peruvian War of Independence: Battle of Ayacucho – Colombian and Peruvian forces led by Antonio José de Sucre defeat the Spanish. The commander, Viceroy de la Serna, surrenders, ending Spain's domination of South America.source
  • December 28 – In Australia, in what is now New South Wales, the Bathurst War comes to an end, with the defeat of the Wiradjuri indigenous nation and the peaceful surrender of their leader, Chief Windradyne, at a feast at Parramatta.source
  • Egyptian and Albanian troops of the Ottoman Empire overturn the Greek revolt on Crete.source

Exploration & Expansion

  • March 19 – American explorer Benjamin Morrell departs Antarctica after a voyage later plagued by claims of fraud.source
  • April 9 – The first permanent settlers arrive to construct the new city of Tallahassee, Florida, selected to be the capital of the Florida Territory newly acquired from the Kingdom of Spain; the area has been selected because it is roughly equidistant from the territory's main cities, Pensacola and St. Augustine.source
  • September 13 – With his crew and 29 convicts aboard the Amity, John Oxley arrives at and founds the Moreton Bay Penal Settlement at what becomes Brisbane, Queensland, in Australia, after leaving Sydney.source
  • September 26 – The earliest reference by the British government to an official renaming of its South Pacific Ocean territory as "Australia" comes in a dispatch titled "Taking Possession of Melville and Bathurst Islands", as the Admiral Sir Gordon Bremer refers to "the North Coast of New Holland or Australia".source

Religion & Belief

  • February 10 – Simón Bolívar is proclaimed dictator of Peru.source

Economy & Finance

  • March 9 – The Netherlands Trading Society (Netherlandsche Handel-Maatschappij), predecessor of the Dutch bank ABN AMRO, is founded.source

Technology & Infrastructure

  • July 25 – The Montparnasse Cemetery opens in Paris, France.source
  • October 10 – The Edinburgh Town Council founds the Edinburgh Municipal Fire Brigade, the first fire brigade in Britain, under the leadership of James Braidwood.source
  • October 21 – Joseph Aspdin patents Portland cement, receiving BP 5,022 for An Improvement in the Mode of Producing an Artificial Stone.source
  • November 30 – The first sod is turned in Ontario for the first of four Welland Canals. The canal opens for a trial run five years later to the day, on November 30, 1829.source

Science & Discovery

  • February 20 — William Buckland formally announces the name Megalosaurus, the first scientifically validly named non-avian dinosaur species.source
  • The Colorado potato beetle is first described, by Thomas Say.source
  • The Panoramagram is invented as the first stereoscopic viewer.source

Climate & Environment

  • – In the 1824 St. Petersburg flood, the worst up to that time in the Russian capital, Saint Petersburg, water rises 421 cm in above normal, and at least 200 people are killed.source

Culture & Society

  • January 8 – After much controversy, Michael Faraday is finally elected as a member of the Royal Society in London, with only one vote against him.source
  • March 4 – The Royal National Lifeboat Institution is founded in the British Isles.source
  • April 7 – The Mechanics' Institution is established in Manchester, England at the Bridgewater Arms hotel, as part of a national movement for the education of working men. The institute is the precursor to two Universities in the city: the University of Manchester and the Metropolitan University of Manchester (MMU).source
  • May 7 – Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony (the "Choral") premieres at the Theater am Kärntnertor in Vienna. The deaf composer has to be turned around on the stage to witness the enthusiastic audience reaction.source
  • June 16 – The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is established in Great Britain.source
  • November 5 – Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the first technological university in the English-speaking world, is founded in Troy, New York.source
  • December 24 – The first American social fraternity, Chi Phi (ΧΦ), is founded at Princeton University.source

Births

  • January 21 – Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson, American Confederate general (d. 1863)source
  • February 12 – Dayananda Saraswati, Hindu religious leader, Vedic scholar who founded the reform movement Arya Samaj (d. 1883)source
  • February 14 – Winfield Scott Hancock, American Civil War Union general, Democratic presidential candidate (d. 1886)source
  • March 2 – Bedřich Smetana, Czech composer (d. 1884)source
  • March 9 – Amasa Leland Stanford, American tycoon, industrialist and politician, 8th Governor of California (d. 1893)source
  • March 22 – Charles Pfizer, German-American chemist, co-founder of Pfizer (d. 1906)source
  • April 7 – Edward Jones, trespasser who continually broke into Buckingham Palace (d. 1895)source
  • June 26 – William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, Irish-born physicist, engineer (d. 1907)source
  • June 27 – Ednah Dow Littlehale Cheney, American writer, reformer, philanthropist (d. 1904)source
  • June 28 – Paul Broca, French physician, anthropologist (d. 1880)source
  • July 1 – Casto Méndez Núñez, Spanish admiral (d. 1869)source
  • July 21 – Stanley Matthews, American politician, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1889)source
  • August 3 – William Burnham Woods, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (d. 1887)source
  • September 4 – Anton Bruckner, Austrian composer (d. 1896)source

Deaths

  • January 29 – Princess Louise of Stolberg-Gedern, wife of Charles Edward Stuart (b. 1752)source
  • February 9 – Anne Catherine Emmerich, German Augustinian Canoness, mystic, Marian visionary, ecstatic and stigmatist (b. 1774)source
  • February 21 – Eugène de Beauharnais, son of Joséphine de Beauharnais (b. 1781)source
  • April 19 – Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron), the British poet, dies at the age of 36 in the Greek city of Missolonghi, where he had taken ill while making plans to liberate the Greeks from Ottoman rule, "not in combat, but of a fever caught in the unhealthy conditions at Missolonghi... exacerbated, it is generally agreed, by the over-zealous actions of his doctors, who bled him excessively."source
  • June 16 – Charles-François Lebrun, duc de Plaisance, Third Consul of France (b. 1739)source
  • July 8 – Queen Kamāmalu of Hawaii dies of measles, while accompanying her husband during a visit to the United Kingdom.source
  • July 13 – King Kamehameha II of Hawaii dies of measles, during a visit to the United Kingdom, before he can meet with King George IV. Because of the slow communications of the era, news of the King's death does not reach Hawaii until the following March; his funeral would then take place on May 11, 1825, and subsequently he is succeeded by his brother Kamehameha III.source
  • July 14 – Kamehameha II, King of Hawaii (b. 1797)source
  • July 19 – Alexander Pearce, Irish-born criminal transportee to Van Diemen's Land and cannibal, executed (b. 1790)source
  • July 21 – Buddha Loetla Nabhalai (Rama II), King of Siam (Thailand) (b. 1767)source
  • August 12 – Charles Nerinckx, Belgian-born founder of the Sisters of Loretto (b. 1761)source
  • December 5 – Anne Louise Boyvin d'Hardancourt Brillon de Jouy, French confidant of Benjamin Franklin (b. 1744)source
  • December 21 – James Parkinson, English surgeon, apothecary, geologist, palaeontologist and political activist (b. 1755)source
  • December 23 – Pushmataha, chief of the Choctaw Nation (b. c. 1764)source