1818
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Sweden's Karl XIII dies at his native Stockholm February 5 at age 69 after a 9-year reign and is succeeded by Prince Bernadotte, now 55, who will reign until 1844 as Karl XIV Johan, founding a new Swedish dynasty.
Russian army commander in chief Mikhail Bogdanovich, Knyaz (Prince) Barclay de Tolly, dies at Insterburg (later Chernyakhovsk), East Prussia, May 26 (May 14 Old Style) at age 56. Polish national hero Jan Dabrowski dies at Winnogóra June 6 at age 62, having helped Napoleon defeat the Austrians, Prussians, and Russians in numerous engagements, including those at Danzig, Friedland, and Leipzig, which paved the way for the reestablishment of the kingdom of Poland 3 years ago.
Bavaria adopts a constitution that is more liberal than those of other German duchies, kingdoms, and city-states; it will survive until 1918.
Britain's Queen (Sophia) Charlotte dies in September at age 74, having borne 15 children to George III, who has been deranged for the past decade.
Allied occupation troops leave France after 3 years of peace keeping in the wake of the Napoleonic wars.
The Portuguese princess Maria Leopoldina gives birth at Rio April 4 to a girl, Maria da Glória, who will grow up to rule Portugal as Maria II (see 1817). Maria Leopoldina suffers a miscarriage in December (see 1821).
Egyptian forces arrive in April at the Wahhabi capital ad-Diriyah together with allies from the Harb, Unayzah, Mutayr, and Banu Khalid tribes under the command of Ibrahim Pasha, a son of the viceroy (vizier) Muhammad Ali Pasha (see 1815). Fighting ensues off and on until September 9, when the Wahhabi leader Abdallah ibn Saud surrenders. A great-grandson of the Saudi state's founder, he is sent to Constantinople, where he is beheaded after the Ottoman Empire's highest sharia court has found him guilty of brigandage and heresy (his severed head is pounded to a pulp, his body displayed on a long pole); ad-Diriyah is leveled, Egyptian garrisons are posted to the chief central Arabian towns, and although some members of the Saud family managed to escape before Abdallah's surrender the others are taken to Egypt and imprisoned. The Saud family will nevertheless control much of central Arabia until 1880 (see 1891).
The third Anglo-Maratha War ends in India as British troops snuff out all resistance (see 1817). Having destroyed the Maratha confederacy, the British provide the peshwa Baji Rao II with a pension and annex his territories. Former governor general of India Warren Hastings dies at his ancestral seat of Daylesford, Worcestershire, August 22 at age 85 (defending himself in court from 1788 to 1795 consumed his fortune, but the East India Company has provided him with a generous pension). India's Rajput states (Jaipur, Jodhpur, and Udaipur), Poona, and the Holkar family of Indore come under British control, ending the independent kingdom of the Maharashtra that was established in 1674.
Hawaii's Kamehameha dies May 8 at age 82 after a 24-year reign that has consolidated the Sandwich Island kingdom. His favorite wife, Kaahumanu, an Amazonian warrior who will survive until 1832, succeeds as co-ruler with the new king, a youth of 22, and his mother, Keopuloani. The two widows persuade the new king to dine publicly with them at Kailua and to permit food for both sexes to be cooked in the same oven, defying traditional taboos. The new king will welcome Hawaii's first missionaries next year and reign until 1824 as Kamehameha II, overthrowing the ancient Hawaiian taboo system and religion (see religion, 1824).
Frontier leader George Rogers Clark dies at Louisville February 13 at age 65, having undergone a leg amputation; Henry "Light-Horse Harry" Lee dies at Cumberland Island, Georgia, March 25 at age 62; Paul Revere at Boston May 10 at age 83; former president's wife Abigail Adams of typhoid fever at Braintree, Massachusetts, October 28 at age 73; Commodore Joshua Barney, U.S. Navy, at Pittsburgh December 1 at age 59.
The U.S.-Canadian border is established by a convention signed October 20, making the 49th parallel the boundary from Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains as David Thompson continues his survey (see 1816). Washington and London agree to a joint occupation of the Pacific Northwest territories for a 10-year period (see 1828; Drake, 1579; Cook, 1778; Gray, 1791).
The Seminole War ends in Florida Territory, setting the stage for U.S. acquisition of Florida from Spain (see 1819).
Congress adopts a flag with 13 alternate red and white stripes and with a blue square containing a white star for each state of the union.
Illinois enters the Union December 3 as the 21st state.
Simón Bolívar secures control of the lower Orinoco basin from the Spanish (see 1815). Bolívar returned to the region in 1816 and has gained support from José Paez, 28 (see 1819).
Chile proclaims independence from Spain February 12, José de San Martín defeats a royal army from Peru April 5 at Maipu, and he gains support from rebels at Buenos Aires; he also obtains support from former Royal Navy commander Thomas Cochrane, now 43, who last year accepted an invitation to command the Chilean fleet and captures the Spanish flagship Esmeralda in Callao harbor (see Cochrane, 1814; 1823).
Southern Haiti's president-for-life Alexandre Sabès Pétion dies at his native Port-au-Prince March 29 at age 47 after an 11-year regime in which he has struggled against Henri Christophe and his own dissident generals. His name will survive in the hilltop community of Pétionville outside the capital. Pétion is succeeded as president by his colleague Jean-Pierre Boyer, 41, who will unify the country in 1821, serve until 1843, but fail in his efforts to stem the decline in Haiti's economy (see 1822). French commissioner Leger Félicité Sonthonax dies at his native Oyonnax estate July 28 at age 55, having been exiled from Saint Domingue in 1799 and again in 1803, the second time for criticizing the appointment of General Rochambeau as commander-in-chief of French forces there.
The Peul Diallo dynasty that has ruled on Africa's Niger River since the 15th century ends in a coup d'état by the Muslim usurper Marabout Cheikou Ahmadou. He will organize the movement of nomads in the region and establish patterns designed to conserve grass and water.
Scottish explorer John Ross, 41, searches for a Northwest Passage and discovers an eight-mile expanse of red-colored snow cliffs overlooking Baffin Bay. The cliffs will be called the Ross Ice Shelf (see 1576; Franklin, 1819).
Trader Jean-Baptist-Point Du Sable dies at St. Charles on the Missouri River August 28 at age 68 (approximate), having established a settlement in Illinois Territory that will later be the city of Chicago (see 1803; 1825).
John Jacob Astor's American Fur Co. agent Solomon Laurent Juneau, 25, opens a trading post on Lake Michigan at a point that will later be the site of Milwaukee (see 1834; 1846; Astoria, 1811).
Failure of the Baltimore branch of the Second Bank of the United States precipitates a U.S. financial crisis (see 1816; Supreme Court decision, 1819).
Opium trader John Perkins Cushing announces October 26 that the newly-formed firm James P. Sturgis & Co. will hereafter handle the commission business of Perkins & Co. (see 1816). The Chinese have cracked down on opium trading, which yields huge profits; their new policy delights Thomas Handasyd Perkins, who calculates correctly that it will discourage rivals such as John Jacob Astor and Stephen Girard. James P. Sturgis is a first cousin of Perkins's nephew (and former employee) William F. Sturgis, now 36 (see 1820; Russell & Co., 1824).
Brooks Brothers has its beginnings in a New York menswear shop opened April 7 at the corner of Catharine and Cherry Streets by merchant Henry Sands Brooks, 46, who invests $17,000 in a stock of imported British woolens and adopts as his symbol the golden fleece symbol of a dead lamb cradled by a ribbon, the symbol used in the 15th century for a knighthood established by the duke of Burgundy Philippe le Bon. Brooks Brothers will clothe bankers, lawyers, military officers, statesmen, and upwardly mobile Americans for generations (see 1909).
The first known two-wheeled, rider-propelled vehicle goes on display at Paris April 6 (see Niepce's celeripede, 1816). Baron Karl de Drais de Sauerbrun's wooden Draisienne has a seat and handlebars but no pedals. The seated rider can steer it as he propels himself along by pushing his feet against the ground, but the primitive "hobby horse" is clumsy at best (see Macmillan, 1839).
The Cumberland Road reaches west from Cumberland on the Potomac River to Wheeling, Virginia, on the Ohio (see 1811). The "National Pike" has a 30-foot wide gravel center on a stone base, has cost about $13,000 per mile, and facilitates transportation of trade goods from western Pennsylvania to eastern markets (see 1852).
The steamboat Walk-in-the-Water leaves Buffalo for Detroit October 10 with 100 passengers. The 388-ton 135-foot vessel is the first steamboat on Lake Erie and rivals the 2-year-old Canadian steamboat Frontenac that plies only Lake Ontario.
Engineer-inventor Marc Isambard Brunel patents a tunneling shield that makes it safe to tunnel through waterbearing strata (see 1814). While confined to debtors' prison, he has become fascinated by the shipworm, which tunnels into wood and then secretes a substance which forms a rigid, waterproof lining behind it; his tunneling shield mimics the action of the worm (see Thames tunnel, 1825).
Britain's Institution of Civil Engineers is founded, with Thomas Telford as its first president.
A lock invented at Portsmouth, England, by Jeremiah Chubb improves on the Barron lock of 1778 by incorporating a retaining spring that catches and holds any tumbler that has been raised too high. His detector not only prevents the bolt from being withdrawn but also provides evidence that someone has tried to tamper with the lock.
Jöns Berzelius adopts a new chemical language of symbols to represent elements (e.g. Au [gold], Hg [mercury], and Pb [lead]) that will gain universal acceptance and lead to the introduction of equations to describe chemical reactions.
A surgeon pressing his ear against a woman's corset first hears the fetal heartbeat, inaugurating medical surveillance of embryonic development (see stethoscope, 1819).
Guy's Hospital obstetrician James Blundell, 28, at London performs the first successful human blood transfusion, using a syringe for the purpose (see 1677). Taking blood from several assistants, he injects 12 to 14 ounces into a patient dying of internal hemorrhage December 22, the man rallies for 2½ days before dying, three other transfusion efforts fail, but a woman dying of a postpartum uterine hemorrhage recovers after being given four ounces of her husband's blood, and by 1830 Blundell will have transfused 10 patients to the benefit of half of them (see 1840).
Dalhousie University is founded at Halifax, Nova Scotia. George Ramsay, 48, 9th earl of Dalhousie, will serve as governor in chief of the Canadian colonies from 1819 to 1828.
Some 200 West Point cadets rebel at the severity of Superintendent Sylvanus Thayer's administration (see 1817). Thayer holds a court martial, the revolt's five ringleaders are dismissed, and the dismissals are upheld by Secretary of War John C. Calhoun and President Monroe (but see 1826).
The American Journal of Science and Arts begins publication at New Haven. Yale professor Benjamin Silliman, 29, has founded the first U.S. scientific journal (seeScientific American, 1845).
Italian patriots who include Sardinian-born playwright Silvio Pellico, 29, begin publication of the liberal newspaper Il Conciliatore with Pellico as editor. His 1815 play Francesca da Rimini is published, but Austrian police will suppress the paper next year (see 1820).
Manuale Tipografico by the late Italian printer Giambattista Bodoni is published at Parma. Bodoni died 5 years ago at age 73 after lengthy service as head of the duke of Parma's printing house; he designed the first Roman typeface that will be called "modern," and the book is a two-volume collection of his typefaces.
A steam-driven double printing press designed by Friedrich Koenig and Andreas Bauer can print a sheet of paper on one side under one of its two cylinders and then pass it to the other cylinder to be printed on its other side (see 1811; Times, 1814; Church, 1824).
Fiction: Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus by English novelist Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley, 21, gains instant success with its story about a scientist who takes parts of corpses to manufacture a living creature. Author Shelley is the wife of poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and daughter of the late women's rights champion Mary Wollstonecraft by the philosopher William Godwin, now 62, who is supported by his son-in-law. The book will go through at least two printings per year for 40 years, will be translated into 30 languages, millions of copies will be sold, and it will make the word frankenstein a common noun meaning any work that controls its originator; Persusasion and Northanger Abbey by the late Jane Austen; The Heart of Midlothian and The Bride of Lammermoor by Walter Scott; Nightmare Abbey by Thomas Love Peacock.
Novelist-playwright Monk Lewis dies of yellow fever at sea May 14 at age 42 while returning from Jamaica, where he has voyaged for a second time to check on the conditions of his 500 slaves.
Poetry: "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley, whose sonnet has been inspired by a huge statue erected in the desert by the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Ramses II, a work that to Shelley symbolizes the futility of all human striving to achieve immortality through earthly glory: "And on the pedestal these words appear:/ My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:/ Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'/ Nothing beside remains. Round the decay/ Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare/ The lone and level sands stretch far away"; "Childe Harold" by Lord Byron, who says in his fourth and final canto, "Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean-roll!/ Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain;/ Man marks the earth with ruin—his control/ Stops with the shore"; "Endymion" by John Keats contains the line, "A thing of beauty is a joy for ever;/ Its loveliness increases; it will never/ Pass into nothingness"; All'Italia and Sopra il Monumento di Dante by Italian poet Giacomo Leopardi, 20; "The Old Oaken Bucket" by New York printer-poet Samuel Woodworth, 34, begins, "How dear to this heart are the scenes of my childhood" (see song, 1822).
Painting: Archduke Charles by Sir Thomas Lawrence, who has been sent to the Continent to paint the victors of the Napoleonic wars; Lady with a Harp: Eliza Ridgely and Washington Crossing the Delaware (or The Passage of the Delaware) by Thomas Sully.
Theater: Sappho by Franz Grillparzer 4/21 at Vienna's Burgtheater. Grillparzer's Sappho is the ruler of Lesbos.
London's Old Vic Theatre has its beginnings in the Royal Coburg Theatre that opens in Lambeth to stage popular melodramas and other productions (see 1833).
Family Shakespeare in 10 volumes by English man of letters Thomas Bowdler, 64, will go through four editions in 6 years and many subsequent editions "in which nothing is added to the original text; but those words and expressions are omitted which cannot with propriety be read aloud in a family." Bowdler has retired from a London medical practice to live on the Isle of Wight; his work is full of substitutions or revisions to make the text less potentially objectionable, such as having Ophelia in Hamlet drown accidentally instead of committing suicide as Shakespeare implied.
Cantata: "Jubel" ("Jubilee") by Carl Maria von Weber 9/20 at Dresden for the 50th anniversary of the accession of Saxony's Friedrich August I.
Ludwig van Beethoven becomes totally deaf after 20 years of defective hearing but continues to compose.
Hymn: "Silent Night" ("Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht") by Austrian parish priest Joseph Mohr, 26, will be set to music by composer Franz Xavier Gruber, now 31.
Clove trees are introduced into Zanzibar by the French, who have been growing cloves with great success on their Pacific islands (see 1778; Penang, 1800). The trees will by some accounts not be introduced in Zanzibar until the 1830s, when the new sultan Sayyid Said plants them in the gardens of his palace, but that island and the neighboring island of Pemba, 25 miles to the northeast, will come to account for the major part of the world's production of cloves and clove oil, although Zanzibar cloves are less aromatic than those grown on Amboina (see hurricane, 1872).
U.S. ships make 15 voyages to Sumatra for pepper (see 1805; 1873).
Angostura bitters are created at Angostura, Venezuela, by German physician Johann Gottlieb Benjamin Siegert, who served as a surgeon under von Blücher 3 years ago at Waterloo and has emigrated to South America. Siegert brews his elixir from gentian root, rum, and other ingredients as a stomach tonic to overcome debility and loss of appetite in the tropics, but it will gain wider use as a cocktail ingredient used by British colonials to make "pink gin." Siegert's son will take the formula to Trinidad and produce angostura bitters in an abandoned monastery at Port of Spain long after Angostura has become Ciudad Bolívar.
London's Donkin, Hall & Gamble "Preservatory" in Blue Anchor Road, Bermondsey, turns out satisfactory canned soup, veal, mutton and vegetable stew, carrots, and beef (both boiled and corned, meaning salted), but tinned foods will not be available in food stores until 1830, and using a hammer and chisel will for years be the only way to open tins.
The tin can is introduced to America by Peter Durant (see 1810; 1847).
Cincinnati begins packing pork in brine-filled barrels. Salt pork is a U.S. food staple, and Cincinnati will come to be called "Porkopolis."
Smirnoff Vodka is introduced by a Russian distiller whose brand will remain popular into the 21st century (see 1939).
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